Abstract

Ubi-Interact is a promising solution to the challenges arising from the extended adoption of Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Mixed Reality (XR) environments like reusability, extendability, modularity, etc. As more and more systems and devices are integrated into this domain, a system for combining these systems gets more important. However, one other important requirement to consider for XR environments is the privacy of the users (or bystanders) and the security, which is stated to be one of the future steps for the Ubi-Interact development. XR systems come together with their own inherent security concerns regarding their capabilities of pervasive data collection and real-time interaction. However, the security research in this field, or vice versa, is still far from being extensively studied. This thesis investigates the studies made on security and privacy in XR domains and the communication paradigms like OPC UA Publish/Subscribe (Pub-Sub), hoping to shed light on future research and development of Ubi-Interact and possibly other XR systems.

Conclusion

Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Mixed Reality (XR) technologies recently have become a mainstream domain for many applications. They have changed the way we interact with the world and our devices. They are even said to start the new era for computing. Technologies like Ubi-Interact provide a promising framework for this extending field to have a modular, extendable, and reusable development. However, concerns regarding privacy and security have also been raised with the advancements of AR, VR, XR technologies, mainly because they have the ability to continuously gather camera and sensor input, sometimes even without notice. Furthermore, the amount of research in the intersection of AR/VR/XR and privacy/security fields is hardly even the minority of all the research made in these fields. This thesis explored the work made and possible solutions to this problem. Chapter 1 introduced the AR/VR/XR systems in general and the system Ubi-Interact. Then Chapter 2 founded the backbone of the thesis with the research about privacy and security in these domains and inspected some promising solutions like ReSPonSe and DARKLY. Chapter 3 continued with the communication mechanisms that are also very important for keeping a system private and secure, at the same time keeping it usable and efficient. Chapter 4 proposed some future research options that can continue by taking this thesis as a basis.

The key contributions this thesis made can be listed as follows:

• Compiling the important research and creating a source to consult for the paradigms or solutions regarding security and privacy in AR/VR/XR domains.

• Inspecting successful systems like ReSPonSe and DARKLY to understand how security and privacy could be achieved in these domains, possibly integrating with these systems.

• Analyzing the communication paradigms, specifically Pub-Sub that’s used by Ubi-Interact and the extension OPC UA Pub-Sub that is assessed and certified to be secure and possibly could be utilized by Ubi-Interact itself.

The utilization of a secure and efficient communication framework and privacy- protection systems is crucial in XR systems. This thesis contributes to this field by compiling the research, investigating and evaluating solutions, and proposing further solutions to these challenges. This thesis’s goal is to pave the way to continue with the advancement of privacy and security in AR/VR/XR domains, specifically Ubi-Interact, allowing for safer, more secure, more efficient XR systems to be developed.

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