CoVR+: Design of Visual Effects for Promoting Joint Attention During Shared VR Experiences via a Projection of HMD User's View

Abstract

A user wearing a Head-Mounted Display (HMD) is likely to feel isolated when sharing virtual reality (VR) experiences with Non-HMD users in the same physical space due to not being able to see the real space outside the virtual world. This research proposes a method for an HMD user to recognize the Non-HMD users' gaze and attention via a projector attached to the HMD. In the proposed approach, the projected HMD user's view is filtered darker than default, and when Non-HMD users point controllers towards the projected view, the filter is removed from a circular area for both HMD and Non-HMD users indicating which region the Non-HMD users are viewing. We conducted two user studies showing that the Non-HMD users' gaze can be recognized with the proposed method, and investigated the preferred range for the alpha value and the size of the area for removing the filter for the HMD user.