An evaluation of wearable information spaces

Abstract

Two dimensional windows based interfaces may not be appropriate for wearable computers. We draw on virtual reality techniques to design and evaluate alternate methods for information presentation in a wearable environment. We find simple body-stabilised displays provide benefits over traditional head-stabilised displays. Users find body-stabilised displays easier to use, more enjoyable and more intuitive, and are able to perform better on a search task. Spatial audio and visual cues further enhanced performance.

The personal cockpit

“…Billinghurst's following work [21,22], we see the potential of head-tracking [200] for improving interaction with multiple displays. Many similar world-and body-centric concepts followed on other platforms such as spatially aware mobiles [176,230] and projectors [36].…”

“…For instance, arranging multiple visualizations side-by-side can allow for faster and easier comparison than navigating between multiple components on a single abstract interface; the user can easily switch views using physical head or body motion and apply spatial memory to recall the location of important items, making for an efficient and intuitive experience. Several research studies have shown examples where interfaces that leverage motion in space over large displays [126,186], multiple displays [21,190] or through virtual navigation [38,121] can provide more efficient navigation or improved understanding of complex tasks.…”

An experimental study of spatial sound usefulness in searching and navigating through AR environments

“…The architecture of CARE's server is based on Spring and Apache CXF frameworks (Spring 2015;Apache 2015).…”

“…What is more, spatial sound can play a significant role in human-computer interaction (HCI) systems including augmented reality applications. Researches reported that presence of spatial sound in AR applications improves efficiency in performing tasks (Billinghurst et al 1998;Zhou et al 2004), enhances depth perception of AR scenes, contributes to the AR experience (Zhou et al 2004), and helps to identify various 3D objects placed in AR scenes (Sodnik et al 2006;Zhou et al 2004). Cohen and Wenzel (1995) extensively explain multidimensional sound techniques including VR and to some extent AR domains.…”

“…For instance, Billinghurst et al (1998) presented a wearable augmented reality interface that provides spatialized 3D graphics and audio cues to aid performance in finding objects. In the presented experiment, authors examined how spatial cues affected performance using various configurations combining spatialized visual and audio information.…”