Spatialstrates: Cross-Reality Collaboration through Spatial Hypermedia

TY - GEN

T1 - Spatialstrates

T2 - The 38th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology

AU - Borowski, Marcel

AU - Grønbæk, Jens Emil

AU - Butcher, Peter W.S.

AU - Ritsos, Panagiotis D.

AU - Klokmose, Clemens Nylandsted

AU - Elmqvist, Niklas

PY - 2025/9/28

Y1 - 2025/9/28

N2 - Consumer-level XR hardware now enables immersive spatial computing, yet most knowledge work remains confined to traditional 2D desktop environments. These worlds exist in isolation: writing emails or editing presentations favors desktop interfaces, while viewing 3D simulations or architectural models benefits from immersive environments. We address this fragmentation by combining spatial hypermedia, shareable dynamic media, and cross-reality computing to provide (1) composability of heterogeneous content and of nested information spaces through spatial transclusion, (2) pervasive cooperation across heterogeneous devices and platforms, and (3) congruent spatial representations despite underlying environmental differences. Our implementation, the Spatialstrates platform, embodies these principles using standard web technologies to bridge 2D desktop and 3D immersive environments. Through four scenarios—collaborative brainstorming, architectural design, molecular science visualization, and immersive analytics—we demonstrate how Spatialstrates enables collaboration between desktop 2D and immersive 3D contexts, allowing users to select the most appropriate interface for each task while maintaining collaborative capabilities.

AB - Consumer-level XR hardware now enables immersive spatial computing, yet most knowledge work remains confined to traditional 2D desktop environments. These worlds exist in isolation: writing emails or editing presentations favors desktop interfaces, while viewing 3D simulations or architectural models benefits from immersive environments. We address this fragmentation by combining spatial hypermedia, shareable dynamic media, and cross-reality computing to provide (1) composability of heterogeneous content and of nested information spaces through spatial transclusion, (2) pervasive cooperation across heterogeneous devices and platforms, and (3) congruent spatial representations despite underlying environmental differences. Our implementation, the Spatialstrates platform, embodies these principles using standard web technologies to bridge 2D desktop and 3D immersive environments. Through four scenarios—collaborative brainstorming, architectural design, molecular science visualization, and immersive analytics—we demonstrate how Spatialstrates enables collaboration between desktop 2D and immersive 3D contexts, allowing users to select the most appropriate interface for each task while maintaining collaborative capabilities.

KW - Cross-reality

KW - Hypermedia

KW - Augmented Reality

KW - Extended Reality

KW - Collaboration

KW - 2D/3D Integration

U2 - 10.1145/3746059.3747708

DO - 10.1145/3746059.3747708

M3 - Article in proceedings

BT - UIST '25

PB - Association for Computing Machinery

Y2 - 28 September 2025 through 1 October 2025

ER -