Exploring communication and collaboration via the use Extended Reality for social interaction

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As technology develops and working becomes more hybrid, the requirement for novel communication systems has increased to ensure teams and individuals remain in contact and communicate effectively. Therefore, there is a need to use technology to help support distributed communication, encompassing areas of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) systems and Extended Reality (XR), with Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) being key technologies within this research area. Research is required to understand social behaviours and how individuals communicate and collaborate across XR boundaries with one specific use case involving a novel MR system called "Metaversal Nodes" as a technology and method for connecting individuals through virtual and physical spaces. This will investigate areas such as emerging social norms, types of collaboration, the concept of shared spaces as well as communication via verbal and non-verbal modalities. Potential areas of implementation include open offices, teaching and learning for engineering students, private offices, and communal areas. The potential to explore the concept of a "localised Metaverse" is also prominent as these Nodes can be setup in a variety of locations with the potential to connect to an infinite number of virtual environments.The use of other XR technologies such as AR and VR head-mounted displays (HMDs) will also be explored as individual technologies for CSCW and extensions of the "Nodes" to determine how they could influence user experience (UX) and factors such as presence and immersion.