Experimental evaluation of user interfaces for visual indoor navigation

Abstract

Figure 1. We present and evaluate a novel user interface for indoor navigation, incorporating two modes. In augmented reality (AR) mode, navigation instructions are shown as an overlay over the live camera image and the phone is held as depicted in Picture a). In virtual reality (VR) mode, a correctly oriented 360 • panorama image is shown when holding the phone as in Picture b). The interface particularly addresses the vision-based localization method by including special UI elements that support the acquisition of "good" query images. Screenshot c) shows a prototype incorporating the presented VR user interface. ABSTRACTMobile location recognition by capturing images of the environment (visual localization) is a promising technique for indoor navigation in arbitrary surroundings. However, it has barely been investigated so far how the user interface (UI) can cope with the challenges of the vision-based localization technique, such as varying quality of the query images. We implemented a novel UI for visual localization, consisting of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) views that actively communicate and ensure localization accuracy. If necessary, the system encourages the user to point the smartphone at distinctive regions to improve localization quality. We evaluated the UI in an experimental navigation task with a prototype, informed by initial evaluation results using design mockups. We found that VR can contribute to efficient and effective indoor navigation even at unreliable location and orientation accuracy. We discuss identified challenges and share lessons learned as recommendations for future work.

Augmented-Reality-Based Indoor Navigation: A Comparative Analysis of Handheld Devices Versus Google Glass

“…Many AR-based applications have been developed for a wide range of work domains including healthcare, defense, intelligence, and transportation [11]. AR interfaces for indoor navigation have been implemented on handheld devices and evaluated in previous studies [14] [16]. These studies found that AR could support accurate localization and improved user experience [17]; however, for handheld devices, users need to hold the devices in an appropriate manner (specific orientation and position) for the applications to work properly [16].…”

“…AR interfaces for indoor navigation have been implemented on handheld devices and evaluated in previous studies [14] [16]. These studies found that AR could support accurate localization and improved user experience [17]; however, for handheld devices, users need to hold the devices in an appropriate manner (specific orientation and position) for the applications to work properly [16]. This requirement may influence usability, navigation accuracy, and user satisfaction.…”

Indoor data management

“…In this part, we cover the state-ofthe-art techniques for data queries in indoor settings. There are indoor space queries intended for supporting efficient indoor navigation [4], [8], [9], [17], [18], [23], [38], [40]. Range queries [34], [53] and nearest neighbor (NN) queries [34] are used to find static indoor POIs.…”

User Experience Evaluation of Mobile AR services

“…The UI was evaluated with a prototype in an experimental task using design mockups. Although it was an enormous contribution, the results were specifically for indoor navigation system [23].…”