Jens Grubert

MultiFi: Multi Fidelity Interaction with Displays On and Around the Body

Display devices on and around the body such as smartwatches, head-mounted displays or tablets enable users to interact on the go. However, diverging input and output fidelities of these devices can lead to interaction seams that can inhibit efficient mobile interaction, when users employ multiple devices at once. We present MultiFi, an interactive system that combines the strengths of multiple displays and overcomes the seams of mobile interaction with widgets distributed over multiple devices. A comparative user study indicates that combined head-mounted display and smartwatch interfaces can outperform interaction with single wearable devices.

Augmented reality browsers: essential products or only gadgets?

How lessons learned from the evolution of the Web and Web browsers can influence the development of AR browsers.

Towards Pervasive Augmented Reality: Context-Awareness in Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality is a technique that enables users to interact with their physical environment through the overlay of digital information. While being researched for decades, more recently, Augmented Reality moved out of the research labs and into the field. While most of the applications are used sporadically and for one particular task only, current and future scenarios will provide a continuous and multi-purpose user experience. Therefore, in this paper, we present the concept of Pervasive Augmented Reality, aiming to provide such an experience by sensing the user’s current context and adapting the AR system based on the changing requirements and constraints. We present a taxonomy for Pervasive Augmented Reality and context-aware Augmented Reality, which classifies context sources and context targets relevant for implementing such a context-aware, continuous Augmented Reality experience. We further summarize existing approaches that contribute towards Pervasive Augmented Reality. Based our taxonomy and survey, we identify challenges for future research directions in Pervasive Augmented Reality.

Exploring the design of hybrid interfaces for augmented posters in public spaces

The use of Augmented Reality for overlaying visual information on print media like street posters has become widespread over the last few years. While this user interface metaphor represents an instance of cross-media information spaces the specific context of its use has not yet been carefully studied, resulting in productions generally relying on trial-and-error approaches. In this paper, we explicitly consider mobile contexts in the consumption of augmented print media. We explore the design space of hybrid user interfaces for augmented posters and describe different case studies to validate our approach. Outcomes of this work inform the design of future interfaces for publicly accessible augmented print media in mobile contexts.

The utility of Magic Lens interfaces on handheld devices for touristic map navigation

This paper investigates the utility of the Magic Lens metaphor on small screen handheld devices for map navigation given state of the art computer vision tracking. We investigate both performance and user experience aspects. In contrast to previous studies a semi-controlled field experiment ( n = 18 ) in a ski resort indicated significantly longer task completion times for a Magic Lens compared to a Static Peephole interface in an information browsing task. A follow-up controlled laboratory study ( n = 21 ) investigated the impact of the workspace size on the performance and usability of both interfaces. We show that for small workspaces Static Peephole outperforms Magic Lens. As workspace size increases performance gets equivalent and subjective measurements indicate less demand and better usability for Magic Lens. Finally, we discuss the relevance of our findings for the application of Magic Lens interfaces for map interaction in touristic contexts. Investigation of Magic Lens and Static Peephole on smartphones for maps.Two experiments: semi-controlled field experiment in a ski resort and lab study.For A0 sized posters Magic Lens is slower and less preferred.For larger workspace sizes performance between interfaces is equivalent.Magic Lens interaction results in better usability for large workspaces.

Mobile interactive hologram verification

Verification of paper documents is an important part of checking a persons identity, authorization for access or simply establishing a trusted currency. Many documents such as passports or paper bills include holograms or other view-dependent elements that are difficult to forge and therefore are used to verify the genuineness of that document. View-dependent elements change their appearance based both on viewing direction and dominant light sources, thus it requires special knowledge and training to accurately distinguish original elements from forgeries. We present an interactive application for mobile devices that integrates the recognition of the documents with the interactive verification of view-dependent elements. The system recognizes and tracks the paper document, provides user guidance for view alignment and presents a stored image of the elements appearance depending on the current view of the document also recording user decisions. We describe how to model and capture the underlying spatially varying BRDF representation of view-dependent elements. Furthermore, we evaluate this approach within a user study and demonstrate that such a setup captures images that are recognizable and that can be correctly verified.

Playing it real again: a repeated evaluation of magic lens and static peephole interfaces in public space

We repeated a study on the usage of a magic lens and a static peephole interface for playing a find-and-select game in a public space. While we reproduced the study setup and procedure the task was conducted in a public transportation stop with different characteristics. The results on usage duration and user preference were significantly different from those reported for previous conditions. We investigate possible causes, specifically the differences in the spatial characteristics and the social contexts in which the study took place.

Challenges in mobile multi-device ecosystems

BackgroundCoordinated multi-display environments from the desktop, second-screen to gigapixel display walls are increasingly common. Personal and intimate mobile and wearable devices such as head-mounted displays, smartwatches, smartphones and tablets are rarely part of such multi-device ecosystems.MethodsWe conducted a literature research and an expert survey to identify challenges in mobile multi-device ecosystems.ResultsWe present grounded challenges relevant for the design, development and use of mobile multi-device environments as well as opportunities for future research. While our surveys indicated that a large number of challenges have been identified, there seems to be little agreement among experts on the importance of individual challenges.ConclusionBy presenting the identified challenges, we contribute to a better understanding about factors that impede the creation and use of mobile multi-device ecosystems and hope to contribute to shaping the research agenda on interacting with those systems.

[Poster] Towards user perspective augmented reality for public displays

We work towards ad-hoc augmentation of public displays on handheld devices, supporting user perspective rendering of display content. Our prototype system only requires access to a screencast of the public display, which can be easily provided through common streaming platforms and is otherwise self-contained. Hence, it easily scales to multiple users.

Perceptual issues in optical-see-through displays

Optical see-through devices enable observers to see additional information embedded in real environments. There is already some evidence of increasing visual load in respective systems. We investigated visual performance when users performed visual search tasks or dual tasks only on the optical see-through device, only on a computer screen, or switching between both. In spite of having controlled for basic differences between both devices, switching between the presentation devices produced costs in visual performance. The assumption that these decreases in performance are partly due to differences localizing the presented objects was confirmed by convergence data.