2025 Theses Master's

Kinematic Differences Between Virtual and Real World Performance of Complex Motor Tasks: A Literature Review

Miller, Jack

Over the last couple decades expanded reality (XR) technology has become widely adopted across multiple domains. However, there is a lack of work compiling potential differences between XR and real world (RW) motor task performance. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to compile and analyze research comparing XR and RW motor task performance. To this end, a collection of scholarly articles was compiled from 4 reputable databases, before being screened for inclusion. A total of 22 studies were included for analysis, 19 from the database search and 3 manually sourced. XR movements were found to be significantly slower, more exaggerated, and be highly variable. Despite this the relative coordination and sequencing of XR movements closely resembled the RW performance. The practical implications of these findings is discussed to inform future XR technology use, for both training and research purposes.