eXtended Reality and Passengers of the Future

Abstract

I will present our work into improving passenger journeys using immersive Virtual and Augmented Reality (together XR) to support entertainment, work and collaboration on the move. In Europe, people travel an average of 12,000km per year on private and public transport, in cars, buses, planes and trains. These journeys are often repetitive and wasted time. This total will rise with the arrival of fully autonomous cars, which free drivers to become passengers. The potential to recover this lost time is impeded by 3 significant challenges: XR headsets could allow passengers to use their travel time in new, productive ways, but only if these fundamental challenges can be overcome. Passengers would be able to use large virtual displays for productivity; escape the physical confines of the vehicle and become immersed in virtual experiences; and communicate with distant others through new embodied forms of communication. I will discuss our solutions to these challenges, focusing on the visual aspects. We are: developing new interaction techniques for VR and AR that can work in confined, seated spaces; supporting safe, socially acceptable use of XR providing awareness of others and the travel environment; and overcoming motion sickness using multimodal countermeasures to support these novel immersive experiences.