Balancing Realities by Improving Cross-Reality Interactions

Virtual reality (VR) devices have a demonstrated capability to make users feel present in a virtual world. Research has shown that, at times, users desire a less immersive system that provides them aware-ness of and the ability to interact with elements from the real world and with a variety of devices. Understanding such cross-reality interactions is an under-explored research area that will become in-creasingly important as immersive devices become more ubiquitous. In this extended abstract, I provide an overview of my previous PhD research on facilitating cross-reality interactions between VR users and nearby non-VR interrupters. I discuss planned future research to investigate the social norms that are complicated by these interactions and design solutions that lead to meaningful interactions. These topics and questions will be discussed at the IEEE VR 2022 Doctoral Consortium.