More Familiar or Unfamiliar? Exploring the Impact of Adding Avatars to Three-Dimensional Collaborative Virtual Environments on Peer Social Presence

Remote maintenance refers to the maintenance tasks performed by off-site personnel using communication devices. The quality of collaboration among off-site personnel has been a focus of research on remote maintenance. With the rapid development of virtual technology, remote collaboration has gradually transformed into a three-dimensional (3D) collaborative virtual environment (CVEs) based on mixed reality technology. 3D CVEs has improved the efficiency of the staff using real-time screen sharing and fusion of virtual and real information. The interaction modes provided by 3D CVEs also have deepened the sense of task participation of off-site personnel. Nevertheless, the addition of new technologies has had a complex impact on trust, communication, cohesion, and task performance among off-site personnel. In this study, we investigated the combined effects of intimacy between collaborators and the avatar interaction mode provided by a 3D CVEs on social presence, interpersonal trust, task performance, and task load during collaboration. The results showed that acquaintances were able to quickly establish good interpersonal trust among themselves and had better task performance even in a CVEs. For strangers, performing tasks through CVEs enhanced their social presence. In addition, the avatar had a more complex effect on the performance of members with different levels of intimacy in 3D CVEs.