AUTHOR=Steed Anthony , Izzouzi  Lisa , Brandstätter  Klara , Friston Sebastian , Congdon  Ben , Olkkonen Otto , Giunchi  Daniele , Numan  Nels , Swapp  David TITLE=Ubiq-exp: A toolkit to build and run remote and distributed mixed reality experiments JOURNAL=Frontiers in Virtual Reality VOLUME=3 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/virtual-reality/articles/10.3389/frvir.2022.912078 DOI=10.3389/frvir.2022.912078 ISSN=2673-4192 ABSTRACT=

Developing mixed-reality (MR) experiments is a challenge as there is a wide variety of functionality to support. This challenge is exacerbated if the MR experiment is multi-user or if the experiment needs to be run out of the lab. We present Ubiq-Exp - a set of tools that provide a variety of functionality to facilitate distributed and remote MR experiments. We motivate our design and tools from recent practice in the field and a desire to build experiments that are easier to reproduce. Key features are the ability to support supervised and unsupervised experiments, and a variety of tools for the experimenter to facilitate operation and documentation of the experimental sessions. We illustrate the potential of the tools through three small-scale pilot experiments. Our tools and pilot experiments are released under a permissive open-source license to enable developers to appropriate and develop them further for their own needs.