On-site or Remote Working?: An Initial Solution on How COVID-19 Pandemic May Impact Augmented Reality Users

As a cutting edge technique requiring high-precision equipment, augmented reality (AR) and its users are influenced by the ambient environment. With the tremendous effect brought by COVID-19 pandemic, most people have shifted from on-site working to remote working. In this study, we propose an initial solution to explore the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on AR users working in these two situations. We develop a prototype application facilitated with gamification process in which users are requested to play an AR game in headset both in on-site and remote working environments. This game, which is highly dependent on the ambient environment, enables people to memorize, distinguish, and place virtual objects when immersing themselves into different surroundings with distinct distractors. We envision to conduct more user studies investigating how COVID-19 affects AR users, which could lead to more in-depth studies in the future.