arXiv subjects

Jan-Niklas Voigt-Antons

Publications and source records attributed to Jan-Niklas Voigt-Antons.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

3D Gaussian Splatting and Mesh-Based Digital Twins: An Exploratory Study for Virtual Reality Tourism

Digital Twins (DTs) are increasingly used for immersive experiences in virtual tourism. Virtual Reality (VR) enables remote visits to replicated locations for promotional purposes or access to fragile and rural cultural heritage sites. However, developing high-fidelity DTs of tourist destinations is costly, due to the manual creation of 3D environments. Novel 3D rendering techniques, such as 3D Gaussian splatting (3DGS), pose a promising approach to creating immersive experiences. This study investigates the user experience (UX) of a 3D-mesh-based scene and a 3DGS-based scene within a VR tourism application. In a laboratory study, 20 participants engaged with both versions and rated UX, cybersickness, presence and affect through standardized questionnaires. A custom questionnaire was created to measure the perception of the DTs. The collected data suggests that both versions were enjoyed and induced positive affect, with the Mesh version receiving good UX ratings. While the 3DGS version scored higher in terms of experienced realism, it showed clear weaknesses in pragmatic quality. Further, the results suggest that the feeling of presence could be enhanced and cybersickness reduced in both versions. Overall, the study contributes to the understanding of UX in VR tourism applications by implementing mesh-based and 3DGS-based DTs and raising important questions about the perception of realism.

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arXiv2026

Dishonesty Tendencies in Testing Scenarios Among Students with Virtual Reality and Computer-Mediated Technology

Virtual reality (VR) systems have the potential to be an innovation in the field of e-learning. Starting with fully functional e-classes, VR technologies can be used to build entire e-campuses. The power of VR is that it allows for stronger contact with students than computer-mediated technology. Deceptive behaviour, both verbal and nonverbal, refers to intentional activities designed to deceive others. Students often engage in dishonest practices to make progress. Whether it is cheating on an exam, copying another student's essay, or inflating their GPA, the motivation for cheating is rarely simply a lack of preparation. Even though some may see academic dishonesty as an asset, the reality is that it can have major consequences. This poster demonstrates the findings from a study of students' deceitful behaviour during a test in VR and in real-life situations. For this user study, 22 volunteers were invited to participate, with each experiment involving exactly two participants and the examiner present in the room. Students were invited to take two tests: one in VR and one on a laptop. Their goal was to score as many points as possible by simulating a real-world online exam. Participants were requested to complete questionnaires during and after each experiment, which assisted in collecting additional data for this study. The results indicate that the amount of cheating that happened in VR and on a laptop was exactly the same.

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arXiv2026

Integrating Virtual and Augmented Reality into Public Education: Opportunities and Challenges in Language Learning

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are emerging as transformative tools in education, offering new possibilities for engagement and immersion. This paper explores their potential in language learning within public education, focusing on their ability to enhance traditional schooling methods and address existing educational gaps. The integration of VR and AR in schools, however, is not without challenges, including usability, technical barriers, and the alignment of these technologies with existing curricula. Drawing on two empirical studies, this work investigates the opportunities and challenges of VR- and AR-assisted language learning and proposes strategies for their effective implementation in the public sector. The findings show that VR increases motivation and immersion but has an unclear impact on vocabulary retention, with technical limitations and cognitive overload identified as key challenges. AR enhances contextual learning and accessibility but faces usability constraints and limited personalization. To facilitate effective adoption, this paper recommends improving interface design, reducing cognitive load, increasing adaptability, and ensuring adequate infrastructure and teacher training. Overcoming these barriers will enable a more effective integration of immersive technologies in language education.

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arXiv2026

Influence of Interactivity in Shaping User Experience and Social Acceptance of Mobile XR

This study investigates the impact of the Degree of Interactivity on User Experience (UX) and social acceptability (SA) in Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) applications. As AR technologies become more prevalent, understanding how varying levels of interactivity influence both user perception and social dynamics is crucial for their design and adoption. Two commercially available MAR applications, IKEA and Virtlo, which differ significantly in their interactivity levels, were used to conduct a user study. The study examines how body movements required for interaction with AR content affect both UX and SA, shedding light on users' comfort levels and potential social barriers in public settings. The findings suggest a complex relationship between interactivity, perceived usability, and social considerations, emphasizing the need for a balanced design approach. This research provides valuable insights into the development of future AR applications by addressing not only usability but also the broader social implications of AR interactions. By integrating social acceptability into traditional UX evaluations, this study highlights its significance in ensuring the seamless integration of AR technologies into everyday environments.

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arXiv2026

Exploring the Effect of Heights and User Stance on User Experience in Extended Reality Climbing

Virtual environments (VEs) are increasingly used for immersive experiences, training simulations, and entertainment, yet factors such as height perception and user stance can significantly influence user experience (UX). Height perception in VEs plays a crucial role in shaping UX, particularly in immersive applications such as climbing simulations. This study investigates the effects of height in various VEs and examines how user stance, sitting or standing, impacts immersion, perceived height, and motion sickness. A user study was conducted with 25 participants who played through five randomized climbing scenarios, ranging from indoor climbing gyms to outdoor cityscapes and mountainous terrains. Participants' UX was assessed using standardized questionnaires, including the IPQ for general presence, spatial presence, involvement, and experienced realism, as well as the SSQ to evaluate motion sickness symptoms such as nausea, oculomotor strain, and disorientation. Results indicate that seated participants experienced slightly higher immersion but were also more susceptible to motion sickness compared to those standing. While standing participants maintained consistent scores across different environments, seated participants reported increased immersion and discomfort as the VEs became larger, more physically demanding, and visually complex.

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arXiv2026

Too Immersive for the Field? Addressing Safety Risks in Extended Reality User Studies

Extended Reality (XR) technologies are increasingly tested outside the lab, in homes, schools, and public spaces. While this shift enables more realistic user insights, it also introduces safety challenges that are often overlooked. Physical risks, psychological distress, and accessibility issues can be increased in field studies and unsupervised testing, such as at home or crowdsourced trials. Without clear instructions, safety decisions are left to individual researchers, raising questions of responsibility and consistency. This position paper outlines key safety risks in XR user testing beyond the lab and calls for practical strategies that are needed to help researchers run XR studies in a safe and inclusive way across different environments.

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arXiv2025

Size Matters: The Impact of Avatar Size on User Experience in Healthcare Applications

The usage of virtual avatars in healthcare applications has become widely popular; however, certain critical aspects, such as social distancing and avatar size, remain insufficiently explored. This research investigates user experience and preferences when interacting with a healthcare application utilizing virtual avatars displayed in different sizes. For our study, we had 23 participants interacting with five different avatars (a human-size avatar followed by four smaller avatars in a randomized order) varying in size, projected on a wall in front of them. The avatars were fully integrated with an artificial intelligence chatbot to make them conversational. Users were asked to rate the usability of the system after interacting with each avatar and complete a survey regarding trust and an additional questionnaire on social presence. The results of this study show that avatar size significantly influences the perceived attractiveness and perspicuity, with the medium-sized avatars receiving the highest ratings. Social presence correlated strongly with stimulation and attractiveness, suggesting that an avatar's visual appeal and interactivity influenced user engagement more than its physical size. Additionally, we observed a tendency for gender-specific differences on some of the UEQ+ scales, with male participants tending to prefer human-sized representations, while female participants slightly favored smaller avatars. These findings highlight the importance of avatar design and representation in optimizing user experience and trust in virtual healthcare environments.

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arXiv2025

The Impact of Spatial Misalignment and Time Delay on Collaborative Presence in Augmented Reality

Precise temporal and spatial alignment is critical in collaborative Augmented Reality (AR) where users rely on shared visual information to coordinate actions. System latency and object misalignment can disrupt communication, reduce task efficiency, and negatively impact the overall user experience. While previous research has primarily focused on individual AR interactions, the impact of these inconsistencies on collaboration remains underexplored. This article investigates how user experience and task load are affected by object misalignment and time delay in a shared AR space. To examine these factors, we conducted an experiment with 32 participants, organized into 16 pairs, who collaboratively completed a spatial placement task. Within each condition, both participants alternated roles, taking turns as the leader-providing verbal placement instructions-and the builder-executing the placement. Six conditions were tested, manipulating object alignment (perfectly aligned vs. randomly misaligned) and time delay (0s, 0.1s, 0.4s). The misalignment was applied randomly to each virtual object with a shift of +-20 cm on every axis to create a clear distinction in spatial perception. User experience and task load were assessed to evaluate how these factors influence collaboration and interaction in AR environments. Results showed that spatial misalignment significantly increased perceived workload (NASA-TLX) and lowered user ratings in Pragmatic quality and Attractiveness (UEQ), while time delay had a more limited effect. These findings highlight the critical role of spatial accuracy in maintaining collaboration quality in AR.

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arXiv2025

Optimized User Experience for Labeling Systems for Predictive Maintenance Applications

This paper presents the design and implementation of a graphical labeling user interface for a monitoring and predictive maintenance system for trains and rail infrastructure in a rural area of Germany. Aiming to enhance rail transportation's economic viability and operational efficiency, our project utilizes cost-effective wireless monitoring systems that combine affordable sensors and machine learning algorithms. Given that a successful labeling phase is indispensable for training a supervised machine learning system, we emphasize the importance of a user-friendly labeling user interface, which can be optimally integrated into the daily work routines of annotators. The labeling system has been designed based on best practices in usability heuristics and will be validated for usability and user experience through a study, the protocol for which is presented here. The value of this work lies in its potential to reduce maintenance costs and improve service reliability in rail transportation, contributing to the academic literature and offering practical insights for research on effective labeling user interfaces, as well as for the development of labeling systems in the industry. Upon completion of the study, we will share the results, refine the system as necessary, and explore its scalability in other areas of infrastructure maintenance.

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arXiv2025

Optimizing Predictive Maintenance: Enhanced AI and Backend Integration

Rail transportation success depends on efficient maintenance to avoid delays and malfunctions, particularly in rural areas with limited resources. We propose a cost-effective wireless monitoring system that integrates sensors and machine learning to address these challenges. We developed a secure data management system, equipping train cars and rail sections with sensors to collect structural and environmental data. This data supports Predictive Maintenance by identifying potential issues before they lead to failures. Implementing this system requires a robust backend infrastructure for secure data transfer, storage, and analysis. Designed collaboratively with stakeholders, including the railroad company and project partners, our system is tailored to meet specific requirements while ensuring data integrity and security. This article discusses the reasoning behind our design choices, including the selection of sensors, data handling protocols, and Machine Learning models. We propose a system architecture for implementing the solution, covering aspects such as network topology and data processing workflows. Our approach aims to enhance the reliability and efficiency of rail transportation through advanced technological integration.

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arXiv2025

Optimized User Experience for Labeling Systems for Predictive Maintenance Applications (Extended)

The maintenance of rail vehicles and infrastructure plays a critical role in reducing delays, preventing malfunctions, and ensuring the economic efficiency of rail transportation companies. Predictive maintenance systems powered by supervised machine learning offer a promising approach by detecting failures before they occur, reducing unscheduled downtime, and improving operational efficiency. However, the success of such systems depends on high quality labeled data, necessitating user centered labeling interfaces tailored to annotators needs for Usability and User Experience. This study introduces a cost effective predictive maintenance system developed in the federally funded project DigiOnTrack, which combines structure borne noise measurement with supervised learning to provide monitoring and maintenance recommendations for rail vehicles and infrastructure in rural Germany. The system integrates wireless sensor networks, distributed ledger technology for secure data transfer, and a dockerized container infrastructure hosting the labeling interface and dashboard. Train drivers and workshop foremen labeled faults on infrastructure and vehicles to ensure accurate recommendations. The Usability and User Experience evaluation showed that the locomotive drivers interface achieved Excellent Usability, while the workshop foremans interface was rated as Good. These results highlight the systems potential for integration into daily workflows, particularly in labeling efficiency. However, areas such as Perspicuity require further optimization for more data intensive scenarios. The findings offer insights into the design of predictive maintenance systems and labeling interfaces, providing a foundation for future guidelines in Industry 4.0 applications, particularly in rail transportation.

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arXiv2025

Avatar Appearance Beyond Pixels -- User Ratings and Avatar Preferences within Health Applications

The appearance of a virtual avatar significantly influences its perceived appropriateness and the user's experience, particularly in healthcare applications. This study analyzed interactions with six avatars of varying characteristics in a patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) application to investigate correlations between avatar ratings and user preferences. Forty-seven participants completed a healthcare survey involving 30 PROMIS items (Global Health and Physical Function) and then rated the avatars on warmth, competence, attractiveness, and human-likeness, as well as their willingness to share personal data. The results showed that competence was the most critical factor in avatar selection, while human-likeness had minimal impact on health data disclosure. Gender did not significantly affect the ratings, but clothing style played a key role, with male avatars in professional attire rated higher in competence due to gender-stereotypical expectations. In contrast, professional female avatars were rated lower in warmth and attractiveness. These findings underline the importance of thoughtful avatar design in healthcare applications to enhance user experience and engagement.

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arXiv2025

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Control in a Digital Twin: Exploring the Effect of Different Points of View on User Experience in Virtual Reality

Controlling Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is a cognitively demanding task, with accidents often arising from insufficient situational awareness, inadequate training, and poor user experiences. Providing more intuitive and immersive visual feedback, particularly through Digital Twin technologies, offers new opportunities to enhance pilot awareness and overall experience quality. In this study, we investigate how different virtual points of view (POVs) influence user experience and performance during UAV piloting in Virtual Reality (VR), utilizing a digital twin that faithfully replicates the real-world flight environment. We developed a VR application that enables participants to control a physical DJI Mini 4 Pro drone while immersed in a digital twin with four distinct camera perspectives: Baseline View (static external), First-Person View, Chase View, and Third-Person View. Nineteen participants completed a series of ring-based obstacle courses from each perspective. In addition to objective flight data, we collected standardized subjective assessments of user experience, presence, workload, cybersickness, and situational awareness. Quantitative analyses revealed that the First-Person View was associated with significantly higher mental demand and effort, greater trajectory deviation, but smoother control inputs compared to the Third-Person and Chase perspectives. Complementing these findings, preference data indicated that the Third-Person View was most consistently favored, whereas the First-Person View elicited polarized reactions.

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arXiv2025

Comparing User Behavior in Real vs. Virtual Supermarket Shelves: An Eye-Tracking Study Using Tobii 3 Pro and Meta Quest Pro

This study compares user behavior between real and virtual supermarket shelves using eye tracking technology to assess behavior in both environments. A sample of 29 participants was randomly assigned to two conditions: a real world supermarket shelf with Tobii eye tracking and a virtual shelf using the Meta Quest Pro eye tracker. In both scenarios, participants were asked to select three packs of cereals belonging to specific categories, healthy or tasty. The aim was to explore whether virtual environments could realistically replicate real world experiences, particularly regarding consumer behavior. By analyzing eye tracking data, the study examined how attention and product selection strategies varied between real and virtual conditions. Results showed that participants' attention differed across product types and shopping environments. Consumers focused more on lower shelves in real settings, especially when looking for healthy products. In VR, attention shifted to eye level shelves, particularly for tasty items, aligning with optimal product placement strategies in supermarkets. Overall, sweet products received less visual attention across both settings.

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arXiv2025

Sales Skills Training in Virtual Reality: An evaluation utilizing CAVE and Virtual Avatars

This study investigates the potential of virtual reality (VR) for enhancing sales skills training using a Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE). VR technology enables users to practice interpersonal and negotiation skills in controlled, immersive environments that mimic real-world scenarios. In this study, participants engaged in sales simulations set in a virtual dealership, interacting with avatars in different work settings and with various communication styles. The research employed a within-subjects experimental design involving 20 university students. Each participant experienced four distinct sales scenarios randomized for environmental and customer conditions. Training effectiveness was assessed using validated metrics alongside custom experience questions. Findings revealed consistent user experience and presence across all scenarios, with no significant differences detected based on communication styles or environmental conditions. The study highlights the advantages of semi-immersive VR systems for collaborative learning, peer feedback, and realistic training environments. However, further research is recommended to refine VR designs, improve engagement, and maximize skills transfer to real-world applications.

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arXiv2025

Exploring the Effects of Different Asymmetric Game Designs on User Experience in Collaborative Virtual Reality

The risk of isolation in virtual reality (VR) stems from the immersive nature of the technology. VR can transport users to entirely virtual environments, often disconnecting them from the physical world and real-life interactions. Asymmetric multiplayer options have been explored to address this issue and encourage social interaction by requiring players to communicate and collaborate to achieve common objectives. Nevertheless, research on implementing these designs and their effects is limited, mainly due to the novelty of multiplayer VR gaming. This article investigates how different game design approaches affect the player experience during an asymmetric multiplayer VR game. Four versions of a VR experience were created and tested in a study involving 74 participants. Each version differs in terms of the sharing of virtual environments (shared vs separated) and the players' dependency on the experience (mutual vs unidirectional). The results showed that variations in game design influenced aspects of the player experience, such as system usability, pragmatic UX quality, immersion control, and intrinsic motivation. Notably, the player roles and the co-presence in the virtual environment did not simultaneously impact these aspects, suggesting that the degree to which players depend on each other changes the player experience.

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arXiv2025

Digital Twins for Extended Reality Tourism: User Experience Evaluation Across User Groups

This study evaluates the user experience (UX) in extended reality (XR) tourism of two digital twin-based applications: an Augmented Reality Virtual Tour (AR-VT) for enhanced on-site visits and a Virtual Reality Virtual Tour (VR-VT) for remote exploration. Using a quantitative exploratory approach, 84 participants from Spain and Germany, divided into three sample groups, assessed UX, task load, presence, cybersickness, and emotional response through standardized questionnaires. Findings indicate that both applications provided a low task load and high enjoyment. The VR-based tour enhanced presence but posed usability and cybersickness challenges, while the AR-based tour achieved high UX ratings, with qualitative feedback suggesting areas for refinement. Correlation analysis revealed significant relationships between age, prior XR experience, and technological affinity with the measured metrics for both applications. These results highlight the importance of well-designed experiences tailored to XR novices, reinforcing the critical role of UX in digital twin-based XR tourism.

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arXiv2025

Finding My Way: Influence of Different Audio Augmented Reality Navigation Cues on User Experience and Subjective Usefulness

As augmented reality (AR) becomes increasingly prevalent in mobile and context-aware applications, the role of auditory cues in guiding users through physical environments is becoming critical. This study investigates the effectiveness and user experience of various categories of audio cues, including fully non-verbal sounds and speech-derived Spearcons, during outdoor navigation tasks using the Meta Quest 3 headset. Twenty participants navigated five outdoor routes using audio-only cue types: Artificial Sounds, Nature Sounds, Spearcons, Musical Instruments, and Auditory Icons. Subjective evaluations were collected to assess the perceived effectiveness and user experience of each sound type. Results revealed significant differences in perceived novelty and stimulation across sound types. Artificial Sounds and Musical Instruments were rated higher than Spearcons in novelty, while Artificial Sounds were also rated higher than Spearcons in stimulation. Overall preference was evenly split between Nature Sounds and Artificial Sounds. These findings suggest that incorporating aspects of novelty and user engagement in auditory feedback design may enhance the effectiveness of AR navigation systems.

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