Investigating the Influence of Peripheral Viewing Conditions on Physical Lighting-Console Interaction in Video-See-Through Mixed Reality

Assigned Human-Computer Interaction. Bachelor Thesis No Affiliation

Thesis Title

• “Investigating the Influence of Peripheral Viewing Conditions on Physical Lighting-Console Interaction in Video-See-Through Mixed Reality”

Motivation / Goals

Current Extended Reality (XR) technologies increasingly utilize passthrough functionalities to enable interaction with physical objects while immersed in Virtual Reality (VR) (Zhang et al., 2025). This is particularly relevant in professional environments such as light show design, where operators frequently interact with physical lighting consoles.

However, passthrough visualization can suffer from limitations such as visual distortions, latency, and reduced depth perception, which may negatively affect precise physical interaction (Kim & Lee, 2026; Kuo et al., 2023). These limitations may become especially problematic when users interact with physical controls under peripheral viewing conditions or divided visual attention.

Professional lighting operators must continuously switch their attention between the lighting console and the visual output they are controlling. Consequently, interaction often occurs without directly focusing on the console, relying instead on peripheral vision and brief glances. In passthrough-based XR environments, visual limitations may further impair this interaction process, potentially reducing performance and usability.

While previous research has investigated perceptual limitations and interaction techniques in XR, the influence of viewing direction on interaction with physical control surfaces in passthrough-based XR remains insufficiently explored. Therefore, this thesis aims to investigate how direct and peripheral viewing conditions affect interaction performance and usability during passthrough-based interaction with a physical lighting console.

Research Question and Hypotheses

The goal of this thesis is to answer following research question: How do peripheral viewing conditions influence the performance and usability of physical lighting-console interaction in VST mixed reality?

Based on this research question, the following hypothesis was formulated:
H1 (Performance Decay): Participants will demonstrate lower interaction performance and usability under peripheral viewing conditions than under direct viewing conditions.

Method

Setup

The study will be conducted in a controlled laboratory environment using a VR headset and a physical lighting console. The virtual environment will be implemented in Unreal Engine and combined with passthrough capabilities to enable interaction with the real-world console. The setup is intended to simulate a realistic lighting-control scenario in which users operate physical hardware while immersed in VR.

Conditions

The study compares two viewing conditions:

Direct Viewing Condition
Participants directly observe the lighting console while performing interaction tasks.

Peripheral Viewing Condition
Participants are instructed to maintain visual focus on a virtual target while interacting with the physical lighting console using peripheral vision. To investigate the limits of peripheral interaction, multiple viewing-angle zones (e.g., Zones A, B, and C) are introduced. The exact viewing angles will be determined during pilot testing.

Task

Participants will interact with a physical lighting console while wearing a VR headset using passthrough visualization. The task consists of selecting specific physical controls, such as buttons, faders, or knobs, based on visual instructions presented in the virtual environment.

Participants must complete the tasks under the previously described viewing conditions. The task is designed to simulate professional XR workflows in which users divide visual attention between virtual content and physical control hardware.

The selected controls will be distributed across different areas of the console to evaluate potential interaction differences between easily accessible and more challenging console regions during passthrough-based interaction.

Measures

Independent Variables

The primary independent variable is the viewing condition, operationalized through different viewing angles relative to the physical lighting console. To investigate the influence of peripheral viewing on console interaction, different viewing-angle zones will be established. These zones represent the angular offset between the participant's forward viewing direction and the position of the console. The exact angular boundaries of Zones A, B, and C will be determined during pilot testing.

Optionally, control type may be included as an exploratory factor. Different physical controls, such as buttons, faders, and knobs, may be analyzed separately to investigate whether certain control types are more affected by peripheral viewing conditions than others.

Dependent Variables

For the dependent variables a set of four variables will be measured.

Task Completion Time

Task completion time will be measured as the time required to successfully complete an interaction task. The measurement starts when a task instruction is presented to the participant and ends when the correct interaction has been executed successfully.

For example, if participants are instructed to activate a specific light by pressing a designated button on the lighting console, task completion time will be measured from the moment the instruction is displayed until the correct button press is registered by the system.

Error Rate / Interaction Accuracy

Interaction accuracy will be measured as the number of incorrect interactions with console controls. To enable data collection, designated interaction targets, such as buttons, faders, and knobs, will be represented within the virtual environment and will register user interactions.

An interaction error occurs whenever a participant activates a control other than the requested target. For example, if a task requires the participant to press Button 3 and the participant instead presses Button 6, the interaction will be recorded as an error.

Head Movement / Realignment

Head movement will be measured using the headset tracking data provided by the VR system. The system continuously records the position and orientation of the participant's head throughout each task. To assess the influence of peripheral viewing conditions, the cumulative amount of head rotation towards the lighting console will be analyzed. Increased head movement or frequent reorientation towards the console may indicate that participants are unable to comfortably perform the task using peripheral vision alone.

For example, if a participant repeatedly turns their head towards the console while interacting under peripheral viewing conditions, this behavior will be interpreted as excessive head movement.

Usability

Perceived usability will be assessed after each condition using a questionnaire. The questionnaire will be used to determine how usable, comfortable and easy participants perceive interaction with the physical lighting console under the respective viewing condition.

The final questionnaire has not yet been determined. Possible options include the System Usability Scale (SUS) or selected Likert-scale items focusing on perceived difficulty, comfort, and confidence during interaction.

Procedure

A within-subject design is planned, with condition order counterbalanced to mitigate learning and fatigue effects. Participants will first complete a briefing and training phase to familiarize themselves with the VR environment and the physical console. Subsequently, they will perform the experimental tasks under all viewing conditions.

After each condition, participants will complete a short usability questionnaire. Upon completion of all conditions, participants will be debriefed and the experiment will conclude.

Work Plan

   Week                             Milestone   -------------- --------------------------------------------------------
   1-2             Literature Review, Finalize research design

   3-5                    Implementation, Pilot Testing

   6-8                           Data Collection

   9-10                        Analysis and writing

  11-12                      Revision and Submission   -----------------------------------------------------------------------

Sources

Kim, H., & Lee, I.-K. (2026). How Much Is Too Much? Comfort Envelopes for Distortions in Virtual Reality Interaction. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2026.3679920

Kuo, G., Penner, E., Moczydlowski, S., Ching, A., Lanman, D., & Matsuda, N. (2023). Perspective-Correct VR Passthrough Without Reprojection. ACM SIGGRAPH 2023 Conference Proceedings, SIGGRAPH ‘23, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1145/3588432.3591534

Zhang, J., Ma, F., Pi, Y., Du, H., & Pan, X. (2025). Digital twin embodied interactions design: Synchronized and aligned physical sensation in location-based social VR. Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 6. https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2025.1499845

Contact Persons at the University Würzburg