Digital Proxemics as Measures of Social Interaction in Hybrid XR
Abstract
Hybrid meetings are the new reality, yet they lack the richness of face-to-face interaction. In shared spaces, virtual or physical, interaction relies on more than words: proximity, non-verbal cues, and subtle movements all shape communication. Proximity captures how close we stand, where we face, and how we move around others. This paper investigates how proxemics in dyad and triad conversations translate across physical and virtual contexts. We conducted a study with 24 participants in four groups, completing social tasks under four conditions: face-to-face, co-located XR, remote XR, and hybrid XR. Our instrumentation of physical and virtual environments enables direct comparison. The work contributes a rich open dataset of 2.3 million rows across 32 columns, supporting comparative and replicable analysis. This is the first study to compare proxemics across face-to-face, co-located XR, remote XR, and hybrid XR, offering a foundation for understanding how social space translates across contexts.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
Personal Information Management and User Behavior
Interactive and Immersive Displays
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
- Publisher
- ACM
- Pages
- 1–13
- Publication date
- 13 April 2026
- Language
- EN