Annotation vs. Virtual Tutor: Comparative Analysis on the Effectiveness of Visual Instructions in Immersive Virtual Reality

In this paper we present a comparative study of visual instructions in Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR), i.e., annotation (ANN) that employs 3D texts and objects for instructions and virtual tutor (TUT) that demonstrates a task with a 3D character. The comparison is based on three tasks, maze escape (ME), stretching exercise (SE), and crane manipulation (CM), defined by the types of a unit instruction. We conducted an automated evaluation of user's memory recall performances (recall time, accuracy, and error) by mapping a sequence of user's behaviors and events as a string. Results revealed that ANN group showed significantly more accurate performance (1.3 times) in ME and time performance (1.64 times) in SE than TUT group, while no statistical main difference was found in CM. Interestingly, although ANN showed statistically shorter execution time, the recalling time pattern of TUT group showed a steep convergence after initial trial. The results can be used in the field in terms of informing designers of IVR on what types of visual instruction are best for different task purpose.