Supporting remote asymmetric collaboration in Mixed Reality: A comparison of spatially placed images and textured spatial maps

Abstract

Mixed Reality (MR) devices capture spatial data that enables the creation of textured 3D maps of environments in real time. In remote collaborations, these maps allow experts to reference and describe a local worker’s environment from an independent perspective. They support guiding non-experts through unfamiliar spaces, particularly when experts need to revisit areas that the local worker has seen but may have overlooked. Despite their potential, the real-time generation of textured spatial maps (TSM) is computationally demanding and prone to visual artifacts. To address these limitations, we propose using spatially placed images (SPI) embedded within a simpler, texture-less spatial map. We conducted a comparative study of TSM and SPI in an asymmetric remote collaboration task. Participant pairs operated in indoor environments across two phases: (1) Exploration, where the local user created the spatial map while collecting virtual objects, and (2) Understanding, where the remote expert answered questions about the environment using one of the representations. Results show that SPI outperformed TSM for tasks requiring recognition of fine-grained details (e.g., reading text labels), while TSM was more effective for understanding spatial relationships and the overall scene context. These findings highlight trade-offs and provide guidance for designing MR systems to support remote collaboration.