Study shows VR meetings are inferior to video meetings - MIXED Reality News

Jan 15 2023 MIXED / Dennis Berger

Image: Universität Münster

It’s Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s large bet: virtual world meetings volition 1 time surpass accepted video meetings – and perchance adjacent existent meetings. What’s the authorities of play?

Since Corona, determination has been a worldwide roar successful online meetings and web conferences successful mundane schoolhouse and enactment life. As astir of these meetings instrumentality spot successful 2 dimensions, e.g. via Teams, Webex oregon Zoom, scientists astatine the University of Muenster inquire themselves the pursuing probe question: Does virtual world marque meetings much productive and are squad outcomes amended with VR headsets than with Teams, Zoom and different 2D gathering platforms?

Multisensory enactment successful existent time

Virtual world enables, arsenic the researchers enactment it, multisensory societal enactment successful existent time. VR users enactment and pass with different radical successful real-time acknowledgment to avatars that see, perceive and feel, for illustration done vibrations of the VR controllers oregon by visually conveying a consciousness of space. The virtual brushwood you cognize from Zoom and Co. is frankincense extended by further sensory perceptions successful virtual reality.

Marketing prof and VR researcher Thorsten Hennig-Thurau and his colleagues astatine the University of Muenster wanted to cognize whether virtual meetings successful a 3D situation determination participants much emotionally, whether teams are much originative and however good they enactment together. The trial subjects were asked to enactment unneurotic productively and creatively, and to ticker films together.

300 students trial (VR) meetings

The researchers randomly selected much than 300 concern students from the University of Muenster and divided them into 3 groups of astir 100 participants each. The archetypal radical meets with VR headsets successful the societal VR apps Glue, Altspace VR and Bigscreen VR.

In an interrogation with MIXED, Professor Hennig-Thurau speaks somewhat tongue-in-cheek of a “logistical masterpiece.” Since the assemblage lone has 30 Meta Quest 2s astatine its disposal, the squad archetypal sends the VR headsets to portion of the archetypal group. After cleaning, the devices are past distributed to the adjacent radical of trial subjects, and truthful on.

The 2nd radical meets successful 2D via Zoom and Watch2gether. The 3rd radical uses societal VR apps similar Altspace VR successful 2D connected the mean monitor.

The authors of the survey stress that each participants conscionable from home. The conditions should beryllium arsenic realistic arsenic imaginable and see each imaginable difficulties, specified arsenic a mediocre Internet connection.

VR has amended consciousness of presence, but is little productive

The archetypal uncovering is hardly surprising: successful VR, the perceived social beingness of participants is much pronounced than successful 2D meetings, which has a affirmative interaction connected meetings. Participants reported that successful VR they had the feeling of being unneurotic successful 1 spot and a consciousness of closeness.

Another affirmative origin is the mobility successful VR, which does not beryllium successful this signifier successful 2D meetings. This provides much amusive and engagement during meetings and makes them much creative, participants said.

However, looking and walking astir successful the 3D situation besides distracts participants, the researchers note. The static situation of classical 2D meetings increases concentration.

The researchers besides examined the exhaustion caused by the league variants. Here, virtual world performed the worst, and exhaustion was peculiarly precocious among participants wearing VR headsets. Among the reasons fixed by the students were the value organisation of the VR headsets and the mediocre graphics successful immoderate cases.

At the opening of the study, Hennig-Thurau’s squad inactive expected VR to outperform Zoom and Co. successful each areas. But successful the sum of the empirically examined effects, VR meetings did not bushed 2D meetings. Zoom and Co. are much productive. 3D rooms visited connected the show make the lowest societal presence.

Why bash VR meetings not yet work?

Why VR meetings bash not yet enactment is the taxable of aboriginal research. The Muenster scientists suspect, among different things, that determination could beryllium antagonistic effects owed to the less realistic practice of the participants arsenic avatars. Some radical besides felt excessively isolated from the carnal satellite successful VR meetings.

The researchers cannot yet supply empirical grounds for this. The researchers besides inactive disagree connected whether amended technologies tin amended the productivity and prime of VR meetings. It is overmuch much important to amended the functionality and plan of VR meetings, says Hennig-Thurau.

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