Exploring Enhancements towards Gaze Oriented Parallel Views in Immersive Tasks

Parallel view is a technique that allows a VR user to see multiple locations at a time. It enables the user to control several remote or virtual body parts while seeing parallel views to solve synchronous tasks. However, these techniques only explored the benefits and drawbacks of a user performing different tasks. In this paper, we explored enhancements on a singular or asynchronous task by utilizing information obtained in parallel views. We developed three prototypes where parallel views are fixed, moving in symmetric order, or following the user's eye gaze. We conducted a user study to compare each prototype against traditional VR (without parallel views) in three types of tasks: object search and interaction tasks in a 1) simple environment and 2) complex environment, and 3) object distances estimation task. We found parallel views improved multi-embodiment while each technique helped different tasks. No parallel view provided a clean interface, thus improving spatial presence, mental effort, and user performance. However, participants' feedback highlighted potential usefulness and a lower physical effort by using parallel views to solve complicated tasks.