Multisensory View Management for Augmented Reality

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Ernst Kruijff
• Subject Area: Image and Language Processing, Computer Graphics and Visualisation, Human Computer Interaction, Ubiquitous and Wearable Computing
• Term: from 2017 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 320128462

Augmented reality (AR) is a field of research that has seen a steep incline in attention over the last years. Recently, it has been driven by simple cell phone applications as well as the appearance of low-cost head-worn display devices. While AR itself is highly affected by visual perception aspects, relatively little work has been performed on studying perceptual issues. To improve the usability and performance of AR systems and applications, perceptual issues must be approached systematically: there is a need to understand the mechanisms behind these problems, to derive requirements and subsequently find solutions to mitigate effects. While some systematic studies have been performed on visual issues, there are still numerous problems to be solved that span both perceptual and (as a result of human information processing) cognitive dimensions. Creating a better understanding of these issues will aid the design of more effective visualization and view management techniques. Novel visualization techniques are required to encode information and communicate more clearly the relationship between the information and the real environment. On the other hand, view management techniques are used to define the visual appearance and lay out the information within the view afforded by the display device. These techniques are required particularly for applications with increasing complexity. Even more so, visualization techniques can be closely intertwined with view management techniques, as the way we visualize information may be adapted by the view management system being deployed. The main goal of the work program is to improve the perception and processing of increasingly complex information displayed in narrow field of view head-worn augmented reality devices through the usage of multisensory cues. To this extent, through the outlined research we want to create a better understanding of how visual and non-visual cues can enhance view management in head-worn narrow field of view displays, explore novel view management techniques deploying visual, auditory and tactile cues, and validate novel techniques in controlled laboratory and real-life settings. Doing so, we will also perform comparative validations with wider field-of-view display systems (provided by cooperating partners) to create a better understanding of theadvantages of the techniques, as well as the potential portability towards wider field of view displays.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants