Our ongoing work with StoryFutures and Royal Holloway University of London on the Story Starter (aka Statr) project has been written up in the Virtual Worlds journal. This is our first scholarly authorship but definitely not our last. Thanks goes out to the whole team at RHUL and particularly Dr. Andy Woods.

Abstract

Immersive events are becoming increasingly popular, allowing multiple people to experience a range of VR content simultaneously. Onboarders help people do VR experiences in these situations. Controlling VR headsets for others without physically having to put them on first is an important requirement here, as it streamlines the onboarding process and maximizes the number of viewers. Current off-the-shelf solutions require headsets to be connected to a cloud-based app via an active internet connection, which can be problematic in some locations. To address this challenge, we present Story Starter, a solution that enables the control of VR headsets without an active internet connection. Story Starter can start, stop, and install VR experiences, adjust device volume, and display information such as remaining battery life. We developed Story Starter in response to the UK-wide StoryTrails tour in the summer of 2022, which was held across 15 locations and attracted thousands of attendees who experienced a range of immersive content, including six VR experiences. Story Starter helped streamline the onboarding process by allowing onboarders to avoid putting the headset on themselves to complete routine tasks such as selecting and starting experiences, thereby minimizing COVID risks. Another benefit of not needing an active internet connection was that our headsets did not automatically update at inconvenient times, which we have found sometimes to break experiences. Converging evidence suggests that Story Starter was well-received and reliable. However, we also acknowledge some limitations of the solution and discuss several next steps we are considering.