MIME: A Mixed-Space Collaborative System with Three Immersion Levels and Multiple Users

Shared spaces for remote collaboration are nowadays possible by considering a variety of users; devices; immersion systems; interaction capabilities; navigation paradigms; etc. There is a substantial amount of research done in this line; proposing different solutions. However; still a more general solution that considers the heterogeneity of the involved actors/items is lacking. In this paper we present MIME; a mixed-space tri-collaborative system. Differently from other mixed-space systems; MIME considers three different types of users (in different locations) according to the level of immersion in the system; who can interact simultaneously -- what we call a tri-collaboration. For the three types; we provide a solution to navigate; point at objects/locations and make annotations; while users are able to see a virtual representation of the rest of users. Additionally; the total number of users that can simultaneously interact with the system is only restricted by the available hardware; i.e.; various users of the same type can be simultaneously connected to the system. We have conducted a preliminary study at the laboratory level; showing that MIME is a promising tool that can be used in many real cases for different purposes.