Touch and Beyond:Comparing Physical and Virtual Reality Visualizations

PubDate: Sep 2020

Teams: University of Calgary ；Southwest Jiaotong University

Writers: Kurtis Danyluk, Teoman Tomo Ulusoy, Wei Wei, Wesley Willett

PDF: Touch and Beyond:Comparing Physical and Virtual Reality Visualizations

Abstract

We compare physical and virtual reality (VR) versions of simple data visualizations. We also 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 examined 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 examined how interactive annotation and filtering tools might sup-port 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.