Extended Reality (XR) Environments¶

Status: emerging
Last updated: 2026-05-31
Sources: 9781119636113.Ch30.Pdf
Tags: [extended-reality, virtual-reality, augmented-reality, mixed-reality, cybersickness, immersion, presence]

Summary¶

Extended Reality (XR) is a technical capability offering computer-generated immersive experiences that mirror reality to varying degrees, spanning augmented, mixed, and virtual reality (Stanney et al., 2021). The chapter treats XR as a design problem with hardware and software requirements, design and implementation strategies, and a major human-factors concern in cybersickness. It frames XR's rapid advance as the product not only of technical innovation but of converging social, cultural, and policy changes.

Body¶

Context¶

Stanney et al. (2021), in their handbook chapter on extended reality (XR) environments, examine XR as a technical capability offering computer-generated immersive experiences that mirror reality to varying degrees. They treat XR as a design problem with hardware and software requirements, design and implementation strategies, and a major human-factors concern in cybersickness, and frame its rapid advance as the product of converging social, cultural, and policy changes as well as technical innovation. Within this knowledge base the article is the immersive-interface strand of human-centered design: it rests on the sensory and perceptual foundations of Sensation And Perception, shares the virtual-environment representation of Digital Human Modeling, and connects to the display reasoning of Representation Design and the experience criteria of Usability And User Experience.

Key Points¶

XR denotes a family of immersive technologies rather than a single medium. Stanney et al. distinguish Augmented Reality (AR), which overlays virtualised content onto the real world; Mixed Reality (MR), which additionally lets virtual content be aware of and interact with the real world; Virtual Reality (VR), which fully immerses users in an entirely simulated world; and XR Blended, which combines all three. This taxonomy structures the design considerations that follow (PDF p. 2, orig. p. 783).

The chapter places XR's progress in a broader context. Stanney et al. invoke Moore's law as a metaphor for rapid innovation but argue that advances in any technical domain depend on factors beyond the laboratory, including shifts in social and cultural attitudes, policy, and the boundaries between private and public or commercial and non-commercial spaces (PDF p. 1, orig. p. 782).

System requirements are central to XR design. Requirements divide into hardware and software: while 30 FPS is a minimum, any frame rate below 60 FPS can break immersion and even make users sick, so a threshold of 75 FPS or greater is recommended. This ties the quality of the immersive experience directly to measurable technical parameters (PDF p. 2, orig. p. 783).

Cybersickness is the principal human-factors concern. Stanney et al. address it alongside adaptation and aftereffects (PDF p. 17, orig. p. 798), and present remediation design strategies to reduce it (PDF p. 16, orig. p. 797).

Conclusion¶

Stanney et al. (2021) conclude that designing out cybersickness is a core XR requirement rather than an afterthought, since it can undermine the usability and safety of otherwise compelling experiences. They frame XR's rapid advance as the product of convergence across technical, social, cultural, and policy domains, and link XR design back to the sensory and perceptual foundations of human factors.

References¶

Stanney, K.M., Nye, H., Haddad, S., Hale, K.S., Padron, C.K. & Cohn, J.V. (2021) 'Extended Reality (XR) Environments', in Salvendy, G. & Karwowski, W. (eds.) Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics. 5th edn. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. stanney2021xr

Open Questions¶

Which cybersickness remediation strategies generalise across AR, MR, and VR, and which are form-specific?
How do social and policy factors, which Stanney et al. (2021) emphasise, shape XR adoption beyond technical capability?