UOUU: User-Object and User-User Distance-Combined Method for Augmented Reality Collaborative Task

Augmented reality superimposes digital information on objects in the physical world and stimulates multiuser collaboration by enabling a shared augmented space. Despite extensive studies that separately explored user-object and user-user distances, few are concerned about how combining these distances affects multiuser collaboration in augmented reality. To fill the gap, we present the UOUU, the user-object and user-user distance-combined collaboration method. The method integrates two types of distances to assign tasks dynamically. Furthermore, we conducted empirical studies with 16 publicly recruited participants to evaluate the method's influence on overall task performance and collaboration. The results showed a significant increase in collaboration occurrences and task performance, indicating that the simultaneous comparison of UOD and UUD in UOUU helped users collaborate efficiently. Besides, we also found that UOUU reduced user's perceived workload and facilitated the development of user's relations with their collaborators in terms of increased social presence on collaborators and reduced psychological distance between users and collaborators.