Older adults eating together in a virtual living room: opportunities and limitations of eating in augmented virtuality

This study used augmented virtuality with an overall aim to prevent undernourishment among older adults. The purpose was to facilitate remote social eating for solitary older adults, as people tend to eat more when socializing. In this study, an augmented virtuality application was developed in which a physical cake buffet and a virtual living room coexisted and interacted in real time. This was possible using an Oculus Rift CV1 HMD with an Intel Realsense SR300 depth sensor mounted on top of the HMD. The study included initial workshops with 30 experts and 16 older adults, prototyping with 7 mobility-restricted older adults, and a final user study with 27 older adults. In the user study, we evaluated the user experience of a system designed to establish a meal conversation between three older friends while eating a solitary meal in augmented virtuality. Within three overall factors (user, context, and system), we outlined sub- elements that constituted both opportunities and limitations, which included interactions, perceptions, and behavior in the augmented virtuality. The virtual living room was described very positively by all participants. However, there were also some technological limitations in terms of fidelity, HMD comfort, and quality. When developing virtual environments, we found it very important to include very specific elements within the user, contextual and system categories, as well including qualitative methods throughout the entire design process.