Touch the Wall: Comparison of Virtual and Augmented Reality with Conventional 2D Screen Eye-Hand Coordination Training Systems

Previous research on eye-hand coordination training systems has investigated user performance on a wall, 2D touchscreens, and in Virtual Reality (VR). In this paper, we designed an eye-hand coordination reaction test to investigate and compare user performance in three different virtual environments (VEs) – VR, Augmented Reality (AR), and a 2D touchscreen. VR and AR conditions also included two feedback conditions – mid-air and passive haptics. Results showed that compared to AR, participants were significantly faster and made fewer errors both in 2D and VR. However, compared to VR and AR, throughput performance of the participants was significantly higher in the 2D touchscreen condition. No significant differences were found between the two feedback conditions. The results show the importance of assessing precision and accuracy in eye-hand coordination training and suggest that it is currently not advisable to use AR headsets in such systems.