Using Abstract Tangible Proxy Objects for Interaction in Optical See-through Augmented Reality

TL;DR

This paper explores using physical proxy objects for interaction in optical see-through augmented reality, studying how shape deviations affect usability, presence, and performance, and finding that proxies need to resemble virtual objects sufficiently.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into the acceptable level of abstraction for physical proxy objects in augmented reality interactions.

Findings

Physical proxies can be abstracted to some degree.

Proxies must have a shape similar to the virtual object.

Shape similarity impacts usability and presence.

Abstract

Interaction with virtual objects displayed in Optical See-through Augmented Reality is still mostly done with controllers or hand gestures. A much more intuitive way of interacting with virtual content is to use physical proxy objects to interact with the virtual objects. Here, the virtual model is superimposed on a physical object, which can then be touched and moved to interact with the virtual object. Since it is not possible to use an exact replica as a tangible proxy object for every use case, we conducted a study to determine the extent to which the shape of the physical object can deviate from the shape of the virtual object without massively impacting performance and usability, as well as the sense of presence. Our study, in which we investigated different levels of abstraction for a sofa model, shows that the physical proxy object can be abstracted to a certain degree. At the same time, our results indicate that the physical object must have at least a similar shape as the virtual object in order to serve as a suitable proxy.