Like Elephants Do: Sensing Bystanders During HMD Usage

Proceedings of the CHI 2017 Workshop on Amplification and Augmentation of Human Perception, May 07, 2017, Denver, CO, USA. Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). Abstract The introduction of consumer head mounted display (HMD) systems and mobile VR devices lead to a growing number of mixed presence situations. One problem that arises is the awareness of bystanders while using a fully immersive HMD. We aim to address a subtle, non-visual communication of (1) the recognition of people approaching the VR user, (2) the communication of intentions of the approaching people and (3) higher level non-verbal communication of surrounding people to the HMD user. We investigate ways to foster the sense of presence beyond visual representations. Based on examples from the animal kingdom, we present three concepts that use either seismic vibrations on the foot, or eclectricity or vibrations on the upperbody to increase awareness of others in mixed presence scenarios.