ICAT Playdate — Securing Trustworthy XR Interactions through Human-Machine Networks in Healthcare

Securing trustworthy XR interactions is a core requirement for the Future of Work that uses immersive technologies and mixed reality. Our specific context includes applications of remote collaboration between VR and AR users in a telemedicine context. For example, we are interested in exploring how users trust the use of mixed-reality devices for this type of application, including current medical students who will be at the forefront of the integration of immersive tech in medicine in the future.

Securing trust is critical for adoption, and even more critical in a medical context when it comes to data security and privacy. This is integrated into our project by investigating the role authentication plays for connecting with remote medical experts, and whether users trust the instructions or medical diagnoses they may receive from remote caregivers in this system. We will be developing a VR/AR remote collaboration system as part of this project. Methods we plan to explore for increasing trust in this ecosystem include authentication methods and expert evaluation of the anticipated data flows to identify areas that need enhanced security as a result of increased sensors included on mixed-reality devices and the applications they are likely to support in tele-medicine.