EXTENDED REALITY IN SOCIAL SCIENCE: A CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATION

The aim of this work comes from the necessity of clarifying the different linguistic expressions and terminologies used in the field of extended reality (XR). In particular, we examine this problem from a pedagogical point of view, with special attention to its methodological aspects. Recently, we assisted to an extremely fast development of XR technologies, and several linguistic and terminological expressions were used to identify the different aspects of XR. However, these expressions do not explain in a clear and exhaustive way their similarities, differences, and fields of applications. Conceptual clarification is a fundamental phase in social science studies. In fact, in every research is necessary to create, delimit, outline, and define the subject under analysis. The XR field of research is extremely wide, and it can be subdivided in numerous subgroups that are characterized by different types of applied XR technologies (e.g., Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, Augmented Virtuality, Virtual Reality). After defining each type of XR experience, we outline and describe the methods and tools that it uses. Firstly, we take into account and analyze the main important terms to understand what it means by “extended reality experiences” and then, we focus our attention on the concepts of "presence" and "immersion". After that, we report a summary of the main technological devices that allow the visualization of the XR (e.g., World Fixed Display, Head Mounted Display, Hand-held-display). After a careful analysis of the characteristics and criteria that differentiate the various classification methods, we realize a graphical representation showing, in an organized and clear way, the aspects characterizing VR technologies. This diagram allows an immediate and exhaustive conceptual clarification of this argument.