A Comparative Study of HMD-based Virtual and Augmented Realities for Immersive Museums: User Acceptance, Medium and Learning

Technologies like Head Mounted Display (HMD)-based Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) have made HMD-based immersive museums possible. To investigate the user acceptance, medium and interaction experience for HMD-based immersive museums, an app entitled The Extended Journey has been designed, developed, and deployed on both VR headsets and AR headsets. Subsequently, a between-subjects design experiment with sixty-two participants was conducted to measure the user experience and learning outcome in HMD VR and HMD AR conditions. Quantitative results revealed that HMD VR museums had statistically significantly better immersion and empathy compared to HMD AR museums. Qualitative data indicated HMD-based immersive museums were embraced by most young participants while HMD VR had better user acceptance than HMD AR for immersive museums. The interview also demonstrated that the advantage of the HMD-based immersive museum over the traditional online museum is only the sensory immersion from the medium itself, but also the interactive narrative experience that the HMD medium facilitates, especially the natural interaction with the CG characters and the environment in the story.