Touch and Beyond: Comparing Physical and Virtual Reality Visualizations

Abstract

We compare physical and virtual reality (VR) versions of simple data visualizations and explore how the addition of virtual annotation and filtering tools affects how viewers solve basic data analysis tasks. We report on two studies, inspired by previous examinations of data physicalizations. The first study examines differences in how viewers interact with physical hand-scale, virtual hand-scale, and virtual table-scale visualizations and the impact that the different forms had on viewer's problem solving behavior. A second study examines how interactive annotation and filtering tools might support new modes of use that transcend the limitations of physical representations. Our results highlight challenges associated with virtual reality representations and hint at the potential of interactive annotation and filtering tools in VR visualizations.

HoloTouch: Interacting with Mixed Reality Visualizations Through Smartphone Proxies

“…However, immersive visualizations, especially ones using mixed reality HMDs, still suffer from many limitations and challenges. One of the limitations is the lack of tactile feedback and physical manipulation capability, which makes it difficult for viewers to interact with data [20].…”

“…Data physicalizations can outperform their on-screen counterparts in three ways: touch, manipulation, and realism [29]. However, the benefits of being able to physically touch and manipulate data representations are still usually outweighed by the dynamic nature of virtual representations, which can be easily updated in response to user inputs through programmable interactions [20]. Some recent works have explored the combination of tangible interactions and AR to support embodied interactions [41,50,51], while allowing rich visual feedback with AR displays.…”

“…More recently, hand tracking have also been built into headsets such as the Meta Quest [1]. Although it still remains relatively imprecise, and it can be difficult for viewers to interact with detailed virtual objects and spaces [7,20].…”

A Qualitative Evaluation and Taxonomy of Student Annotations on Bar Charts

“…The browser extension read line chart images and generated text and visual annotations to help readers assess the distortions in line charts and come to an accurate understanding of the data. Finally, a comparison of simple visualizations in physical and virtual reality using annotations was conducted to see whether virtual annotation and filtering effect viewers' ability to solve fundamental data analysis tasks [8]. The study investigated whether participants preferred the physical or VR visualizations and how the VR experience might be shaped by using virtual annotations.…”

ViCT—Virtual Campus Tour Environment with Spherical Panorama: A Preliminary Exploration

“…VR can be found in various ways, for example in a training simulation such as doctor practice training [12], airplane flight, mining or shooting simulations, video games, virtual event, and virtual tour services [13]. VR technology also provides an immersive and interactive experience for users [14]. This technology has been employed in a variety of disciplines, including medicine, culture, travel, education, and architecture [15].…”