Virtual, mixed, and augmented reality: a systematic review for immersive systems research

Immersive systems can be used to capture new data, create new experiences, and provide new insights by generating virtual elements of physical and imagined worlds. Immersive systems are seeing increased application across a broad array of fields. However, in many situations it is unknown if an immersive application performs as well or better than the existing application in accomplishing a specific task. The purpose of this study is to conduct a systematic review of the literature that addresses the performance of immersive systems. This review assesses those applications where experiments, tests, or clinical trials have been performed to evaluate the proposed application. This research addresses a broad range of application areas and considers studies that compared one or more immersive systems with a control group or evaluated performance data for the immersive system pre- and post-test. The results identify those applications that have been successfully tested and also delineate areas of future research where more data may be needed to assess the effectiveness of proposed applications.