Research Roundup (#12)
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Welcome...
Welcome to the twelfth-ever Research Roundup! A weekly catch-up on the latest developments in the field of XR research.
It’s been a busy week, so let's not hang around.
The Week in 3 (Sentences)
- New research in healthcare has shown how VR rehabilitation could adapt to individual spinal cord injury capabilities, while VR-assisted therapy may improve outcomes for kidney transplant recipients, and researchers have developed frameworks for navigating legal challenges in medical metaverse applications.
- Studies at the intersection of AI and XR demonstrated how AI can generate customisable VR environments through speech, while AR systems explored new approaches to guide procedural learning.
- And finally, research on user adoption revealed how sports coaches are embracing VR for performance training, while users express key ethical concerns and multinational beauty brands face challenges building brand engagement with XR experiences.
The Week in 300 (words)
This week researchers in China reported on their use of VR to inform and support patients after kidney transplants. Not only did they find positive effects on depression levels and compliance, but there was also lots about the research design to give us confidence in their conclusions. The sample size was large and appropriately powered (n=324), there was a control group designed to be fundamentally the same except for the manipulation, and perhaps most importantly the study tracked participants across a whole year. In a literature full of pilots, feasibility studies, and short-term interventions, it's only right we recognise rigour when we see it. It's not easy.
As AI creeps into everyday life, it is only fitting that it makes it's way into the VR pipeline. And it's a welcome addition. For many sectors that want to embrace VR one of the biggest barriers is the expense of creating environments and experiences. Whilst we're not quite at the point we can generate them using AI easily, it was reassuring to read the work of Yunge Wen who shared details of Imagine360, a proof of concept prototype designed to generate 360 videos from text alone.
And finally, we dipped our toe into business waters this week with new research looking at the challenges of building brand engagement through XR experiences. Using the example of beauty products, the authors argue that XR marketing from multinationals face more challenges because the design doesn't always fit comfortably with the mental processes of the local consumer. They note that designs with decreased realism, higher interaction and higher vividness tend to suffer most from this ‘liability of foreignness’.
Paper of the Week
The paper of the week this week goes to the research team from Poland looking at AR and AI supported origami.
Despite our tech loving ways we also love a bit of Japanese paper art so the two intersecting was a joy to see. However, more than this, the paper was a lesson for us in knowing what outcomes you want and appreciating the nuance.
The researchers developed a system that was able to detect the intricacies of the folds in real time as the user wore the Hololens 2 (RIP). They were then able to overlay personalised guidance, adapting to what the user was doing.
The result? Longer completion times and greater cognitive load. On the surface this looked like yet another challenge for advocates of adaptive XR. And indeed, if this was about factory production then it would have been.
But for the simple hobbyist it is unlikely that speed and ease are the top priorities. If you've sat down to do some origami you may well be looking to take your time and be mentally engaged, rather than creating them as fast as possible.
That it increased confidence, in this context, becomes a winner. Because we all want to be more confident in our rabbit ear folds and crimps. And that is why it made it to our paper of the week.
For us it turned very quickly from another failure to find a benefit of adaptive learning to a deeper consideration of what we want from the specific use case. Whilst enjoyment and motivation are now common measures when considering XR, perhaps confidence needs to be up there when it comes to adaptive learning?