"Everyone Knows You’re Watching P*rn": Reflecting on First-hand User

Accounts on the Use and Public Perception of In-Transit Passenger XR (original) (raw)

Pohlmann, Katharina M.T., Wilson, Graham, Bajorunaite, Laura ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8572-2955, McGill, Mark and O'Hagan, Joseph(2025) "Everyone Knows You’re Watching P*rn": Reflecting on First-hand User Accounts on the Use and Public Perception of In-Transit Passenger XR. In: 24th IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR 2025), Daejeon, South Korea, 8-12 Oct 2025, pp. 560-570. ISBN 9798331587611(doi: 10.1109/ISMAR67309.2025.00066)

Abstract

AR/VR use in-transit is increasing due to the advantages it provides over more limited mobile and seatback displays for work and play. However, despite the now common support for ”travel mode” in consumer XR headsets such as the Meta Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro, little is known about how this emergent technology has been used in-practice by passengers- from why and how they use it, to what real-world challenges they face during usage in these very public, shared contexts. To address this gap, we contribute a novel large scale analysis of Reddit posts discussing first-hand use of VR/AR in-transit. We captured 11,150 posts, producing 437 user accounts which were synthesized into themes in relation to: in-the-wild use of immersive devices, users’ positive/negative sentiment about usage, challenges they faced, and social interactions and impediments that occurred. Our snapshot of the current reality of passenger XR provides real-world insight evidencing the need for more passenger-centric designs of spatial interfaces, interaction techniques, and reality awareness.

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