Dynamic strategies of conflict resolution on human perception of equality within multi-user collaborative virtual environments

Multi-user collaborative virtual environments (VEs) need strategies of conflict resolution to handle simultaneous interaction with shared objects. Current strategies are first-come-first-serve (FCFS) and predefined static priority of each user. These strategies cannot provide each user with a perceived equal opportunity of interaction and often lead to perceived unfairness to abandon collaboration. To offer an equal opportunity, we created a dynamic priority (DP) strategy and compared the strategy with the FCFS strategy based upon subjective perception of multiple users. Visual or haptic (pertinent to the sense of touch) cues assisted each user to perceive his/her gaining of interaction. We observed that the DP strategy yielded significantly an equal opportunity of interaction. The haptic cue offered lower variations in perceiving the equality than the visual cue under the DP strategy. These observations imply a potential application of the DP strategy in a VE, where various experts require equal opportunities in collaboration.