Employing Mixed Reality Applications : Customer Experience Perspective

The study analyses twelve empirical cases employing different Mixed Reality (MR) applications: 1) 360-videos, 2) augmented reality (AR) mobile applications, 3) augmented virtuality (AV), and 4) AV+AR. The empirical data in all cases consist of observations of users’ and potential customers’ experiences with different MR applications followed by qualitative interviews. The study assesses how various MR applications can create experience-centric services. The research focus is in service and sensory design as well as in customer experience management. The study results suggest that MR can provide new opportunities for prolonged customer experiences in terms of new encounters and cues, different sensory effects and improved social interactions among business representatives and fellow customers. Furthermore, MR experiences can generate positive word-of-mouth especially in cases with dramatic structures. Finally, the results suggest that the customers' willingness-to-interact with service personnel increase after a MR experience.The study analyses twelve empirical cases employing different Mixed Reality (MR) applications: 1) 360-videos, 2) augmented reality (AR) mobile applications, 3) augmented virtuality (AV), and 4) AV+AR. The empirical data in all cases consist of observations of users’ and potential customers’ experiences with different MR applications followed by qualitative interviews. The study assesses how various MR applications can create experience-centric services. The research focus is in service and sensory design as well as in customer experience management. The study results suggest that MR can provide new opportunities for prolonged customer experiences in terms of new encounters and cues, different sensory effects and improved social interactions among business representatives and fellow customers. Furthermore, MR experiences can generate positive word-of-mouth especially in cases with dramatic structures. Finally, the results suggest that the customers' willingness-to-interact with service personnel increase after a MR experience.Peer reviewe

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Understanding VR/AR in marketing & sales for B2B: an explorative study

Abstract. The research explored the impact of immersive reality technologies, particularly VR and AR, in marketing and sales for the B2B sector. Study interests were fuelled by both an industrial hype and vehement investments on these technologies, especially in the last five years. However, the potential of these technologies is still unexplored and widely misunderstood by businesses as the innovations are slowly taking off. Additionally, existing literature showed a need to clearly define various simulated realities in the continuum, including VR and AR, as well as a general misunderstanding of the potential of immersive reality technologies, and a shortage of studies covering holistically different VR/AR applications in marketing, especially for the B2B sector. Therefore, this research aims to bridge the gap between managerial and academic’ understanding by providing a holistic framework explaining the impact of immersive reality technologies in B2B marketing and sales and provide a clear distinction between VR and AR in the Virtuality-reality continuum. This research also aims to assist marketers and managers in embracing these technologies to better meet the needs of future generations. The study adopted a qualitative exploratory approach allowing researchers to gain an in-depth understanding of the topic from an industrial perspective. The study used an abductive thematic analysis approach to analyse empirical results and ten semi-structured interviews with eleven VR/AR providers for primary data collection. Results were structured based on four main themes, namely: VR and AR definitions, customer technology adoption factors, VR/AR impact and applications on B2B marketing, and last, VR/AR impact on sales performance outcomes. This study contributes to the existing literature by proposing a tentative definition for each terminology “VR” and “AR” separately that merges academic perspectives and industry insights. Overall, empirical study suggests that immersive reality technologies can affect both marketing activities and sales performance outcomes for the B2B sector. However, successfully embracing these technologies calls for collaboration to overcome financial, technical and social barriers while also enhancing aspects like the user experience to step out of the still immature VR/AR market. VR and AR together have an impact on marketing for B2B by enhancing customization, non-verbal communication, learning and experiential marketing while also creating memorable experiences that stick in the minds of the consumer. Concerning the customer’s purchasing journey, this study extends existing literature to cover all customer purchasing stages, including the pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase. Results emphasize the pre-purchase phase as the most impacted by immersive reality technologies, followed by post-purchase and purchase stages, respectively. Finally, this study suggests that the use of VR/AR as sales support tools can yield positive efficiency returns through higher task performance and a reduction in sales-related costs, and positive effectiveness returns through greater customer and social engagement, stronger collaborative business relationships and the enhancement of proactive (sales planning) and reactive (adaptive selling) behaviours in the sales process

A novel visualisation paradigm for three-dimensional map-based mobile services

Estágio realizado na NDrive Navigation Systems, S. A.Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Informátca e Computação. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 200

Virtual reality interfaces for seamless interaction with the physical reality

In recent years head-mounted displays (HMDs) for virtual reality (VR) have made the transition from research to consumer product, and are increasingly used for productive purposes such as 3D modeling in the automotive industry and teleconferencing. VR allows users to create and experience real-world like models of products; and enables users to have an immersive social interaction with distant colleagues. These solutions are a promising alternative to physical prototypes and meetings, as they require less investment in time and material. VR uses our visual dominance to deliver these experiences, making users believe that they are in another reality. However, while their mind is present in VR their body is in the physical reality. From the user’s perspective, this brings considerable uncertainty to the interaction. Currently, they are forced to take off their HMD in order to, for example, see who is observing them and to understand whether their physical integrity is at risk. This disrupts their interaction in VR, leading to a loss of presence – a main quality measure for the success of VR experiences. In this thesis, I address this uncertainty by developing interfaces that enable users to stay in VR while supporting their awareness of the physical reality. They maintain this awareness without having to take off the headset – which I refer to as seamless interaction with the physical reality. The overarching research vision that guides this thesis is, therefore, to reduce this disconnect between the virtual and physical reality. My research is motivated by a preliminary exploration of user uncertainty towards using VR in co-located, public places. This exploration revealed three main foci: (a) security and privacy, (b) communication with physical collaborators, and (c) managing presence in both the physical and virtual reality. Each theme represents a section in my dissertation, in which I identify central challenges and give directions towards overcoming them as have emerged from the work presented here. First, I investigate security and privacy in co-located situations by revealing to what extent bystanders are able to observe general tasks. In this context, I explicitly investigate the security considerations of authentication mechanisms. I review how existing authentication mechanisms can be transferred to VR and present novel approaches that are more usable and secure than existing solutions from prior work. Second, to support communication between VR users and physical collaborators, I add to the field design implications for VR interactions that enable observers to choose opportune moments to interrupt HMD users. Moreover, I contribute methods for displaying interruptions in VR and discuss their effect on presence and performance. I also found that different virtual presentations of co-located collaborators have an effect on social presence, performance and trust. Third, I close my thesis by investigating methods to manage presence in both the physical and virtual realities. I propose systems and interfaces for transitioning between them that empower users to decide how much they want to be aware of the other reality. Finally, I discuss the opportunity to systematically allocate senses to these two realities: the visual one for VR and the auditory and haptic one for the physical reality. Moreover, I provide specific design guidelines on how to use these findings to alert VR users about physical borders and obstacles.In den letzten Jahren haben Head-Mounted-Displays (HMDs) für virtuelle Realität (VR) den Übergang von der Forschung zum Konsumprodukt vollzogen und werden zunehmend für produktive Zwecke, wie 3D-Modellierung in der Automobilindustrie oder Telekonferenzen, eingesetzt. VR ermöglicht es den Benutzern, schnell und kostengünstig, Prototypen zu erstellen und erlaubt eine immersive soziale Interaktion mit entfernten Kollegen. VR nutzt unsere visuelle Dominanz, um diese Erfahrungen zu vermitteln und gibt Benutzern das Gefühl sich in einer anderen Realität zu befinden. Während der Nutzer jedoch in der virtuellen Realität mental präsent ist, befindet sich der Körper weiterhin in der physischen Realität. Aus der Perspektive des Benutzers bringt dies erhebliche Unsicherheit in die Nutzung von HMDs. Aktuell sind Nutzer gezwungen, ihr HMD abzunehmen, um zu sehen, wer sie beobachtet und zu verstehen, ob ihr körperliches Wohlbefinden gefährdet ist. Dadurch wird ihre Interaktion in der VR gestört, was zu einem Verlust der Präsenz führt - ein Hauptqualitätsmaß für den Erfolg von VR-Erfahrungen. In dieser Arbeit befasse ich mich mit dieser Unsicherheit, indem ich Schnittstellen entwickle, die es den Nutzern ermöglichen, in VR zu bleiben und gleichzeitig unterstützen sie die Wahrnehmung für die physische Realität. Sie behalten diese Wahrnehmung für die physische Realität bei, ohne das Headset abnehmen zu müssen - was ich als nahtlose Interaktion mit der physischen Realität bezeichne. Daher ist eine übergeordenete Vision von meiner Forschung diese Trennung von virtueller und physicher Realität zu reduzieren. Meine Forschung basiert auf einer einleitenden Untersuchung, die sich mit der Unsicherheit der Nutzer gegenüber der Verwendung von VR an öffentlichen, geteilten Orten befasst. Im Kontext meiner Arbeit werden Räume oder Flächen, die mit anderen ortsgleichen Menschen geteilt werden, als geteilte Orte bezeichnet. Diese Untersuchung ergab drei Hauptschwerpunkte: (1) Sicherheit und Privatsphäre, (2) Kommunikation mit physischen Kollaborateuren, und (3) Umgang mit der Präsenz, sowohl in der physischen als auch in der virtuellen Realität. Jedes Thema stellt einen Fokus in meiner Dissertation dar, in dem ich zentrale Herausforderungen identifiziere und Lösungsansätze vorstelle. Erstens, untersuche ich Sicherheit und Privatsphäre an öffentlichen, geteilten Orten, indem ich aufdecke, inwieweit Umstehende in der Lage sind, allgemeine Aufgaben zu beobachten. In diesem Zusammenhang untersuche ich explizit die Gestaltung von Authentifizierungsmechanismen. Ich untersuche, wie bestehende Authentifizierungsmechanismen auf VR übertragen werden können, und stelle neue Ansätze vor, die nutzbar und sicher sind. Zweitens, um die Kommunikation zwischen HMD-Nutzern und Umstehenden zu unterstützen, erweitere ich das Forschungsfeld um VR-Interaktionen, die es Beobachtern ermöglichen, günstige Momente für die Unterbrechung von HMD-Nutzern zu wählen. Darüber hinaus steuere ich Methoden zur Darstellung von Unterbrechungen in VR bei und diskutiere ihre Auswirkungen auf Präsenz und Leistung von Nutzern. Meine Arbeit brachte auch hervor, dass verschiedene virtuelle Präsentationen von ortsgleichen Kollaborateuren einen Effekt auf die soziale Präsenz, Leistung und Vertrauen haben. Drittens, schließe ich meine Dissertation mit der Untersuchung von Methoden zur Verwaltung der Präsenz, sowohl in der physischen als auch in der virtuellen Realität ab. Ich schlage Systeme und Schnittstellen für den Übergang zwischen den Realitäten vor, die die Benutzer in die Lage versetzen zu entscheiden, inwieweit sie sich der anderen Realität bewusst sein wollen. Schließlich diskutiere ich die Möglichkeit, diesen beiden Realitäten systematisch Sinne zuzuordnen: die visuelle für VR und die auditive und haptische für die physische Realität. Darüber hinaus stelle ich spezifische Design-Richtlinien zur Verfügung, wie diese Erkenntnisse genutzt werden können, um VR-Anwender auf physische Grenzen und Hindernisse aufmerksam zu machen