Participants
A Participant in LABO represents the user’s presence and capabilities during an Epoch within an Experience. It defines how the user is embodied (e.g., hands, eyes, visuals), how they interact with the environment (e.g., grabbing, teleportation, gaze), and what behavioural or sensor data is captured.
Participants are modular assets that can be reused across multiple Epochs. This enables consistent control schemes across different parts of an experiment, or the creation of task-specific variants for unique interaction needs. For instance:
- A screen-based Participant with eye tracking and UI interaction, used to deliver instructions or record self-report data.
- A navigation-enabled Participant with teleport controls and body tracking, used for spatial exploration or memory tasks.
- A manipulation-focused Participant with hand tracking and grab interactors, designed for object sorting or motor coordination experiments.
- A gaze-only Participant configured for passive observation tasks, useful in attentional bias or visual search studies.
By assembling and reusing Participants thoughtfully, researchers can create flexible, repeatable interaction schemes that adapt to the structure of their experimental design.
