XRPublicSpectator: Towards Public Mixed Reality Viewing in Collocated Asymmetric Groups

Paper in proceeding, 2024

Mixed Reality (MR) is often viewed and experienced by users wearing specialized head-mounted displays (HMDs) to perceive virtual objects spatially positioned in the users' physical environment. In a classroom or during on-stage presentation, it is often presenters only who are equipped with MR HMDs. However, since spectators most often outnumber presenters, equipping collocated spectators with HMDs to create a shared immersive experience can be costly. This imbalance can result in inefficient presenter-spectator communication and can reduce spectator engagement. To address the need of viewing MR content in such collocated asymmetric groups, we present a concept called XRPublicSpectator. This system utilizes a large display to present a third-person-view of the MR environment constructed by combining RGB-D data of the physical space obtained from a depth-sensing camera with objects from the same virtual environment as tracked by the MR HMDs. Leveraging the XRPublicSpectator concept, we developed an exemplary application which captivated an MR game arena where non-HMD users can watch players performing a duel card game. Results from a preliminary study with the exemplary application show that compared to the first-person MR view, XRPublicSpectator enabled non-HMD users to more comprehensively perceive information within the MR environment and potentially improved their engagement with HMD users and MR contents.