Data for Mutual Natural Tangible Interactions with Virtual Characters in Virtual Reality

In this project, we explored real-virtual objects that spanned the virtual and physical boundary in world-fixed VR. The objects were manipulated by a human user and a virtual human. We designed and developed world-fixed VR systems that afforded the mentioned novel interaction in two primitive forms: rotation and translation. The shared real-virtual objects had two complementary parts: real and virtual. These two parts were electromechanically linked, so that they were always in synchrony. When the human user manipulated a shared object, the effect was observed in the virtual world. Similarly, when the virtual human manipulated a shared object, the effect was observed in the real world in real time. To compare the effects of the developed novel interaction on user experience, we also developed a control version where the objects were separated as completely real and virtual. In this version, the two sides did not affect each other’s world (i.e., real or virtual). We designed and implemented tasks that centered around the developed interaction. The human user and the virtual human worked on sorting boxes using the shared objects as controllers. We carried out controlled user studies to investigate the effects of the developed novel interaction on user experience. Overall, user studies showed improved user experience with the developed interaction as compared to the control version, specifically increased sense of presence and co-presence, affective attraction to the virtual human, and enjoyment of interaction.