Performance and user based analysis of a collaborative virtual environment system

In this work, we analyse the effect of network parameters on the judged usability of a collaborative virtual environment. Participants were trained to find the exit of a virtual maze by a trainer, which guided the exploration of the virtual space. An extensive experimental evaluation was conducted by simulating a series of operational parameters (network bandwidth and latency) to assess the reported effectiveness of the training. An objective similarity metric based on processing time per test was also defined and used, as well as subjective user's evaluations. Further, we have successfully correlated subjective evaluation and objective measure by computing the correlation values and showing how the two values co-vary.