Many companies are experimenting with, and developing, advertisements for virtual reality (VR) consumer applications. So far, the development of VR advertising has not accounted for the voices of VR users. Since VR users will be the ones impacted by VR advertising, it is both a requirement and a moral imperative to center their voices in the discussion. We interviewed 22 VR users (14 of which had experienced VR ads, 8 of which had not) to understand their experiences with, and attitudes towards, VR advertising. Many participants had already encountered VR advertisements, ranging from static billboards in virtual worlds to virtual markets. While some participants acknowledged that VR advertising could provide benefits (including monetizing the VR ecosystem and more informative advertising), many were concerned about in-app VR advertisements ruining the immersion of VR experiences, unavoidable ads that were forced on users, privacy risks, physical harms, and manipulation. We conclude by discussing avenues for designing VR advertisements that align with users' needs and wants.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3713095
We know little about the impact of augmented reality (AR) on human cognition, particularly regarding involuntary autobiographical memory (IAM). IAMs are spontaneous recollections of personal events, ubiquitous in daily life but under-researched in both psychology and human-computer interaction. We first discuss the potential opportunities and risks of replacing conventional displays with AR to increase the likelihood of IAMs. We then report on a study investigating whether stimuli displayed on the same mobile device using video-see-through AR are more likely to resurface than those shown with a simple 3D viewer. We found that AR elicits approximately twice as many IAMs in controlled settings with immediate re-exposure to contextual cues, but no measurable effect was found in everyday settings with delayed re-exposure. Therefore, AR can enhance IAMs, but its effects may be modest and short-lived in most cases. Nevertheless, future studies could reveal stronger effects of AR in other settings.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3713922
Flights in general aviation require pilots to navigate using 2D maps, which splits their attention between the cockpit and the outside environment, reducing situation awareness. Augmented reality (AR) can bridge the gap between the inside and outside world, and thus can resolve the issue of attention switches. In a mixed methods simulator study with 19 pilots, we tested an AR application that integrated invisible and hard-to-see aeronautical data and navigation features with the visible world. Results show that the AR tool enhances and accelerates orientation, and can result in flight trajectories being more accurate with AR than without AR. Situation awareness, measured with a subjective self-rating, was not increased with AR support. Participants voiced concerns about AR content occluding outside features, while positive feedback included use cases in unfamiliar areas and in low visibility, as well as highlighting of hazards.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3713597
Authoring site-specific outdoor augmented reality (AR) experiences requires a nuanced understanding of real-world context to create immersive and relevant content. Existing ex-situ authoring tools typically rely on static 3D models to represent spatial information. However, in our formative study (n=25), we identified key limitations of this approach: models are often outdated, incomplete, or insufficient for capturing critical factors such as safety considerations, user flow, and dynamic environmental changes. These issues necessitate frequent on-site visits and additional iterations, making the authoring process more time-consuming and resource-intensive. To mitigate these challenges, we introduce CoCreatAR, an asymmetric collaborative mixed reality authoring system that integrates the flexibility of ex-situ workflows with the immediate contextual awareness of in-situ authoring. We conducted an exploratory study (n=32) comparing CoCreatAR to an asynchronous workflow baseline, finding that it enhances engagement, creativity, and confidence in the authored output while also providing preliminary insights into its impact on task load. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for integrating real-world context into site-specific AR authoring systems.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3714274
This research investigates the use of hybrid user interfaces to enhance text readability in augmented reality (AR) by combining optical see-through head-mounted displays with smartphones. While this integration can improve information legibility, it may also introduce display switching side effects. The extent to which these side effects hinder user experience and when the benefits outweigh drawbacks remain unclear. To address this gap, we conducted an empirical study (N=24) to evaluate how hybrid user interfaces affect AR reading tasks across different content distances, which induce varying levels of display switching. Our findings show that hybrid user interfaces offer significant readability benefits compared to using the HMD only, reducing mental and physical demands when reading text linked to content at closer distances. However, as the distance between displays increases, the compensatory behaviors users adopt to manage increased switching costs negate these benefits, making hybrid user interfaces less effective. Based on these findings, we suggest (1) using smartphones as supplementary displays for text in reading-intensive tasks, (2) implementing adaptive display positioning to minimize switching overhead in such scenarios, and (3) adjusting the smartphone's role based on content distance for less intensive reading tasks. These insights provide guidance for optimizing smartphone integration in hybrid interfaces and enhancing AR systems for reading applications.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3713879
Desktop environments can integrate augmented reality (AR) head-worn devices to support 3D representations, visualizations, and interactions in a novel yet familiar setting. As users navigate across the dual realities---desktop and AR---a way to move 3D objects between them is needed. We devise three baseline transition techniques based on common approaches in the literature and evaluate their usability and practicality in an initial user study (N=18). After refining both our transition techniques and the surrounding technical setup, we validate the applicability of the overall concept for real-world activities in an expert user study (N=6). In it, computational chemists followed their usual desktop workflows to build, manipulate, and analyze 3D molecular structures, but now aided with the addition of AR and our transition techniques. Based on our findings from both user studies, we provide lessons learned and takeaways for the design of 3D object transition techniques in desktop + AR environments.