Allow Me Into Your Dream: A Handshake-and-Pull Protocol for Sharing Mixed Realities in Spontaneous Encounters
Botao Amber Hu, Yilan Elan Tao, Bernhard Riecke, Yue Li
TLDR
TouchPort introduces a handshake-and-pull gesture protocol for effortless, consent-driven sharing of mixed realities in spontaneous public encounters.
Key contributions
- Identifies the lack of a socially legible protocol for sharing mixed realities in public.
- Proposes TouchPort, an embodied protocol using a handshake-and-pull gesture.
- Collapses complex multi-stage MR sharing into a single, intuitive action.
- Enables spontaneous, consent-negotiated sharing of temporary mixed reality layers.
Why it matters
This paper addresses a critical social interaction gap in ubiquitous mixed reality, making shared experiences more intuitive and consent-driven. By simplifying complex protocols into an embodied gesture, it paves the way for seamless, spontaneous MR encounters. This work is crucial for the ethical and user-friendly development of future MR systems.
Original Abstract
Mixed reality systems support shared anchors and co-located interaction, yet they lack a socially legible protocol for entering another person's mixed reality in public settings. We frame this as a protocol problem: co-located MR sharing requires a staged sequence -- Discover, Consent, Confirm, Allow, Spatial Colocation, Sync Objects, Permission Management -- each demanding user understanding and agreement. Using AirDrop and Apple Vision Pro SharePlay as a baseline, we show that MR encounter complexity far exceeds file transfer, yet must feel equally effortless. We present TouchPort, an embodied sharing protocol that collapses this multi-stage sequence into a single gesture: a handshake and pull that simultaneously signals intent, negotiates consent, and initiates a temporary shared encounter layer between otherwise separate mixed realities. Through three implied scenarios, we demonstrate the protocol's expressive range in the transition from isolated to spontaneously shared realities. We discuss how embodied gestures can address the consent problem in ubiquitous MR and examine the ethical tensions of encounter protocols for MR futures.
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