Torin Hopkins, PhD

Extended Reality

Limited Field of View in AR

Exploring how the limitations of AR displays affect musical collaboration with holographic musicians.

Read the paper (PDF)DOI
(A) The hologram setup using the Pepper’s ghost illusion; (B–D) AR glasses conditions with and without notifications.
(A) The hologram setup using the Pepper’s ghost illusion; (B–D) AR glasses conditions with and without notifications.

AR glasses narrow what musicians can see, and musicians rely on glances, gestures, and eye contact to coordinate. We studied how a limited field of view (FOV) affects jamming with avatars, and designed "Mini Musicians", small avatars that appear in view when bandmates are out of sight.

Three studies

  • Observing live jam sessions with five experienced musicians, first normally and then wearing goggles that restrict vision to 52°. Musicians looked at each other 62 times in the control session but only 27 times with restricted vision.
  • A pilot comparing holograms (no FOV limit) with AR glasses, with and without blue-sphere notifications.
  • A within-subjects study with 19 participants comparing HoloJam holograms, standard AR glasses (52° FOV), and AR with Mini Musicians notifications.

Why Mini Musicians

In interviews, musicians said that with a limited FOV they sometimes forgot certain players were present. Three of them asked for mini versions of the avatars, "like in Mario Kart". We built exactly that: a second, wider virtual camera rendered small, semi-transparent avatars of out-of-view bandmates.

Key findings

  • A limited FOV significantly reduces musicians’ ability to communicate, affecting both the music and the experience.
  • The unrestricted HoloJam setup gave the highest co-presence, the quickest gesture recognition, and the greatest enjoyment.
  • Mini Musicians reduced reaction time with AR glasses and maintained enjoyment.
  • Notifications did not significantly increase co-presence, likely because they were distracting.

Gallery

Observing jam sessions with goggles that limit the field of view to 52°.
Observing jam sessions with goggles that limit the field of view to 52°.

Publications

  1. Effects of Limited Field of View on Musical Collaboration Experience with Avatars in Extended Reality

    Suibi Che-Chuan Weng, Torin Hopkins, Shih-Yu Ma, Amy Banić, and Ellen Yi-Luen Do

    IEEE International Symposium on the Internet of Sounds (IS2), L'Aquila, Italy, pp. 1–11, 2025.

    AbstractPDFDOI

  2. How Field of View Affects Awareness of an Avatar During a Musical Task in Augmented Reality

    Suibi Che-Chuan Weng, Torin Hopkins, Rishi Vanukuru, Chad Tobin, Amy Banić, Daniel Leithinger, and Ellen Yi-Luen Do

    IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR), Poster Session, pp. 633–634, 2023.

    AbstractPDFDOI

  3. Investigating the Effects of Limited Field of View on Jamming Experience in Extended Reality

    Suibi Che-Chuan Weng, Torin Hopkins, Shih-Yu Ma, Chad Tobin, Amy Banić, and Ellen Yi-Luen Do

    IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality Adjunct (ISMAR-Adjunct), pp. 493–495, 2023.

    DOI

Frontiers in Virtual Reality · 2022

AR Drum Circle

Networked musical interaction and real-time collaboration between remote drummers in augmented reality.

ProjectPDFDOI