Life Down In The Well

Created for quest 3 Life Down In The Well is an experiment to see if we could tests whether Mixed Reality or Virtual Reality would work better to trigger Self-Embodiment. The experiment has been run on 30 guests in a controlled environment and a paper has been written about this.

The objective As an interaction designer, I want to explore whether using Mixed Reality (MR) instead of Virtual Reality (VR) in games can provide participants aged 20 to 30 with an interest in technology a greater sense of Self-Presence.

Method In this experiment, participants experienced a scenario designed to test their awareness during a mixed reality experience. The interaction took place between the participants (n = 20) and a virtual world integrated into their real environment. The participants were divided into two groups: Mixed Reality (MR) and Virtual Reality (VR). Emotions and reactions were recorded through video footage during the experiments. Expected actions were also tallied as part of the success criteria, and participants completed questionnaires.

Results The video footage showed that the expected reactions were observable, but there was no significant difference between the two groups. However, a small difference was noted in the questionnaire responses, with a slight advantage for the MR group.

Conclusion The MR group exhibited noticeably different reactions and emotions compared to the VR group. However, the same success criteria were observed in both groups, suggesting that Mixed Reality did not significantly outperform Virtual Reality in eliciting Self-Presence. Despite this, the questionnaire results indicate that with a better study design, a significant difference might be achievable.