{"id":3628,"date":"2026-05-20T15:24:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T20:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/?p=3628"},"modified":"2026-05-20T16:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T21:05:09","slug":"examining-task-performance-during-visual-search-in-xr-environments-with-visual-stimuli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/2026\/05\/20\/examining-task-performance-during-visual-search-in-xr-environments-with-visual-stimuli\/","title":{"rendered":"Examining Visual Search Performance in XR Environments amidst Visual Distractions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Extended Reality (XR) head-worn displays (HWDs) represent a new generation of technologies capable of seamlessly integrating digital content into the physical world. As XR HWDs become more widely adopted, malicious actors are incentivized to develop novel attack methods to manipulate user awareness and attention. Consequently, it is important for researchers and designers to investigate how such visual disruptions affect users\u2019 ability to interact with XR systems. In this preliminary work, we examine how visual stimuli may distract users in XR. We present findings from a user study on visual search performance across multiple 3D user interface conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Participant view of the virtual environment during a study trial with no visual distraction stimuli shown, illustrating all four combinations of Selection Modality and Frame of Reference conditions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Extended Reality (XR) head-worn displays (HWDs) represent a new generation of technologies capable of seamlessly integrating digital content into the physical world. As XR HWDs become more widely adopted, malicious actors are incentivized to develop novel attack methods to manipulate user awareness and attention. Consequently, it is important for researchers and designers to investigate how …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":383,"featured_media":3629,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[51,78],"ppma_author":[479,555,557,466,391],"class_list":["post-3628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-projects","tag-interface-design","tag-virtual-reality"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2026\/05\/BaselineAndDistract-scaled.png","authors":[{"term_id":479,"user_id":383,"is_guest":0,"slug":"agiovannelli","display_name":"Alexander Giovannelli","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2022\/05\/IMG_6776-e1651771320966.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2022\/05\/IMG_6776-e1651771320966.jpg"},"author_category":"1","user_url":"https:\/\/agiovannelli.github.io\/","last_name":"Giovannelli","first_name":"Alexander","job_title":"","description":"My expertise lies at the intersection of human-computer interaction, extended reality, and computer-supported cooperative work. I investigate how immersive environments can support effective remote and cross-temporal collaboration, with a growing focus on integrating AI assistance into collaborative XR workflows."},{"term_id":555,"user_id":488,"is_guest":0,"slug":"matthewg03","display_name":"Matthew Gallagher","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2025\/09\/3DUIPictureTemp.png","url2x":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2025\/09\/3DUIPictureTemp.png"},"author_category":"1","user_url":"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps","last_name":"Gallagher","first_name":"Matthew","job_title":"","description":""},{"term_id":557,"user_id":469,"is_guest":0,"slug":"ayushroy24","display_name":"Ayush Roy","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dccbadfd7d9679a77c909fcf42e9467a369fa110472d4490606859820621f93e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Roy","first_name":"Ayush","job_title":"","description":"Hi, I\u2019m Ayush Roy, a first-year Ph.D. student at Virginia Tech. My research interests lie at the intersection of human-computer interaction, extended reality (XR), and computer-supported cooperative work. I am particularly interested in designing, developing, and evaluating XR systems that enable asynchronous collaborative sensemaking and enhance collaborative decision-making and data exploration in immersive environments."},{"term_id":466,"user_id":335,"is_guest":0,"slug":"ciilo","display_name":"Cory Ilo","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/715e42664b3358101cfe4bb556a94092a52552fe4fa5351e072c24c70bc8252b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/cilo9737\/","last_name":"Ilo","first_name":"Cory","job_title":"","description":"The goal of my research is to build smart interaction techniques and\/or intelligent user interfaces which adapt to the user's total context, e.g. environment, user task, time of day, location, etc. Essentially, the AR system should be able to infer the user's intent to aid interaction or dynamically adjust user interfaces by utilizing the surrounding, inherent context.\r\n\r\nAside from research, my passions include video games, fitness, and traveling. One day, I hope to make open-world AR video games, where your body functions as the controller, a reality!"},{"term_id":391,"user_id":331,"is_guest":0,"slug":"dbowman","display_name":"Doug Bowman","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2021\/01\/professional_photo2_2019-cropped-square-smaller-scaled.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/141\/2021\/01\/professional_photo2_2019-cropped-square-smaller-scaled.jpg"},"author_category":"1","user_url":"","last_name":"Bowman","first_name":"Doug","job_title":"","description":"Doug A. Bowman is the Frank J. Maher Professor of Computer Science<\/a> at Virginia Tech<\/a>. He is the principal investigator of the 3D Interaction Group<\/a>, focusing on the topics of three-dimensional user interfaces, VR\/AR user experience, and the benefits of immersion in virtual environments.\r\n\r\nDr. Bowman is one of the co-authors of 3D User Interfaces: Theory and Practice<\/a>. He has served in many roles for the IEEE Virtual Reality Conference<\/a>, including program chair, general chair, and steering committee chair. He also co-founded the IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces (now part of IEEE VR). He received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation for his work on 3D Interaction, and has been named an ACM Distinguished Scientist. He received the Technical Achievement award from the IEEE Visualization and Graphics Technical Committee in 2014 and the Career Impact Award from IEEE ISMAR in 2021.\r\n\r\nHis undergraduate degree in mathematics and computer science is from Emory University, and he received his M.S. and Ph.D. in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology.\r\n\r\nCurriculum vitae (PDF)<\/a>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/383"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3628"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3636,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3628\/revisions\/3636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3628"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.cs.vt.edu\/3digroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=3628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}