Semantic Interaction in Augmented Reality Environments for Microsoft HoloLens

TL;DR

This paper presents a real-time semantic interaction system using Microsoft HoloLens that annotates indoor 3D environments with semantic labels, enabling intuitive user interactions through gestures for robotics applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel online 3D semantic annotation method combining 2D segmentation with 3D mesh fusion for augmented reality environments on HoloLens.

Findings

High accuracy in semantic labeling of indoor environments

Real-time performance suitable for interactive applications

Effective gesture-based control for object interaction

Abstract

Augmented Reality is a promising technique for human-machine interaction. Especially in robotics, which always considers systems in their environment, it is highly beneficial to display visualizations and receive user input directly in exactly that environment. We explore this idea using the Microsoft HoloLens, with which we capture indoor environments and display interaction cues with known object classes. The 3D mesh recorded by the HoloLens is annotated on-line, as the user moves, with semantic classes using a projective approach, which allows us to use a state-of-the-art 2D semantic segmentation method. The results are fused onto the mesh; prominent object segments are identified and displayed in 3D to the user. Finally, the user can trigger actions by gesturing at the object. We both present qualitative results and analyze the accuracy and performance of our method in detail on an indoor dataset.