SelectVisAR: Selective Visualisation of Virtual Environments in Augmented Reality

TL;DR

SelectVisAR is a system that selectively visualizes virtual environments in augmented reality to improve the experience of AR users observing VR users, focusing on relevant virtual information to reduce overload.

Contribution

It introduces a human-centric, selective visualization system for AR that enhances virtual environment perception for AR users observing VR users, with multiple visualization conditions.

Findings

Selective visualization improves AR user understanding of VR actions.

Different visualization conditions affect AR user perception and experience.

The system supports multiple visualization modes for flexible AR observation.

Abstract

When establishing a visual connection between a virtual reality user and an augmented reality user, it is important to consider whether the augmented reality user faces a surplus of information. Augmented reality, compared to virtual reality, involves two, not one, planes of information: the physical and the virtual. We propose SelectVisAR, a selective visualisation system of virtual environments in augmented reality. Our system enables an augmented reality spectator to perceive a co-located virtual reality user in the context of four distinct visualisation conditions: Interactive, Proximity, Everything, and Dollhouse. We explore an additional two conditions, Context and Spotlight, in a follow-up study. Our design uses a human-centric approach to information filtering, selectively visualising only parts of the virtual environment related to the interactive possibilities of a virtual reality user. The research investigates how selective visualisations can be helpful or trivial for the augmented reality user when observing a virtual reality user.