Ontology-based mobile augmented reality in cultural heritage sites: information modeling and user study

Augmented reality (AR) has received much attention in the cultural heritage domain as an interactive medium for requesting and accessing information regarding heritage sites. In this study, we developed a mobile AR system based on Semantic Web technology to provide contextual information about cultural heritage sites. Most location-based AR systems are designed to present simple information about a point of interest (POI), but the proposed system offers information related to various aspects of cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, linked to the POI. This is achieved via an information modeling framework where a cultural heritage ontology is used to aggregate heterogeneous data and semantically connect them with each other. We extracted cultural heritage data from five web databases and modeled contextual information for a target heritage site (Injeongjeon Hall and its vicinity in Changdeokgung Palace in South Korea) using the selected ontology. We then implemented a mobile AR application and conducted a user study to assess the learning and engagement impacts of the proposed system. We found that the application provides an agreeable user experience in terms of its affective, cognitive, and operative features. The results of our analysis showed that specific usage patterns were significant with regard to learning outcomes. Finally, we explored how the study’s key findings can provide practical design guidance for system designers to enhance mobile AR information systems for heritage sites, and to show system designers how to support particular usage patterns in order to accommodate specific user experiences better.

     

The effect of tracking technique on the quality of user experience for augmented reality mobile navigation

Augmented reality (AR) technology is changing the way we interact with the world by making the journey seamless and interactive. This is done by layering digital enhancements over an existing reality or real life scenario. However, employing AR technologies in wayfinding and navigation does not automatically bring positive experiences. We argue that tracking techniques are important in mobile AR navigation and fundamentally affect the quality of user experience. In this paper, we propose two different tourist AR applications based on different tracking techniques. In addition to the analysis of the applications, we conducted a user evaluation to study the effect of different AR tracking techniques on the performance of users and the quality of user experience.     

Satisfied or not: user experience of mobile augmented reality in using natural language processing techniques on review comments

Virtual Reality - With the rapid developments and improvements in mobile technologies, mobile devices have become one of the primary interfaces of augmented reality technologies. In this study, we...     

Exploring MARS: developing indoor and outdoor user interfaces to a mobile augmented reality system

We describe an experimental mobile augmented reality system (MARS) testbed that employs different user interfaces to allow outdoor and indoor users to access and manage information that is spatially registered with the real world. Outdoor users can experience spatialized multimedia presentations that are presented on a head-tracked, see-through, head-worn display used in conjunction with a hand-held pen-based computer. Indoor users can get an overview of the outdoor scene and communicate with outdoor users through a desktop user interface or a head- and hand-tracked immersive augmented reality user interface.     

移动增强现实框架系统

在已有的移动增强现实( MAR)系统中存在开发困难,虚拟现实( AR)效果观察缺乏通用性的问题,提出了一种MAR系统的通用框架,该框架包括三个部分：为智能移动设备用户所使用的通用MAR观察器、为MAR应用提供网络服务的MAR服务器,以及为开发人员提供了MAR应用定制器。该框架结合高通的Vuforia SDK针对平面图像实现了MAR的应用定制和通用AR效果浏览。框架为开发人员提供了无代码开发功能,为移动用户提供了遍览一类AR应用的通用观察器。实验结果表明该MAR框架系统降低了MAR应用的开发门槛与时间费用,大大提高了开发效率。     

Modeling user experience: A case study on a mobile device

User experience (UX) consists of all aspects of interactions between a user and a product. Recently, many studies have been conducted to define the UX concept, but few studies have attempted to quantify UX. This paper proposed quantification models that integrate major elements of UX into a single index. A variety of models were proposed and evaluated including compensatory (i.e. simple linear, polynomial and S-shaped value) and non-compensatory (i.e. conjunctive and disjunctive) models. A case study with a commercial tablet PC was conducted in which a total of 26 subjects participated in a laboratory environment. Each participant performed a pretest ensuring the ability to make ratio judgments and then evaluated predefined dimensions with the modified magnitude estimation procedure. A total of 22 hierarchical dimensions were evaluated such as overall UX, its elements (i.e. usability, affect and user value) and sub-elements. Both compensatory and non-compensatory models had high performance in terms of goodness of fit. The results of this study are expected to help product or service designers develop indices representing an overall UX value.Relevance to industryThis study proposed quantification models that aggregate elements of UX. Although the UX index has been controversial, the single value developed by the models can be expected to help decision-makers understand about products or services intuitively.     

Information at a glance [augmented reality user interfaces]

What if we could visualize and interact with information directly in the context of our surroundings? Our research group is exploring how augmented reality (AR) could someday make this possible. AR integrates a complementary virtual world with the physical world-for example, by using head-tracked see-through head-worn displays to overlay graphics on what we see. Instead of looking back and forth between the real world and a PDA, we look directly at the real world and the virtual information overlaid on it. At the heart of this approach is context-aware computing, computing systems that are sensitive to the context in which they operate, ranging from human relationships to physical location. For example, information might be tied to specific locations within a global, Earth-centered, coordinate system. How can we design effective mobile AR user interfaces? We've been trying to answer this question in part by developing experimental AR research prototypes. In AR, as in work on information visualization using desktop technologies, the amount of information available can far exceed what a system can legibly display at a given time, necessitating information filtering. Julier et al. (2000) have developed information filtering techniques for AR that depend on the user's goals, object importance, and proximity. We assume that a system can accomplish information filtering of this sort and that our system is displaying everything it should.     

ARbility: re-inviting older wheelchair users to in-store shopping via wearable augmented reality

Virtual Reality - Engaging in outdoor daily activities such as shopping is an essential, yet challenging activity for older wheelchair users (OWU). However, little is investigated on how to augment...     

Collaborative use of mobile augmented reality with paper maps

The popularity of augmented reality (AR) applications on mobile devices is increasing, but there is as yet little research on their use in real-settings. We review data from two pioneering field trials where MapLens, a magic lens that augments paper-based city maps, was used in small-group collaborative tasks. The first study compared MapLens to a digital version akin to Google Maps, the second looked at using one shared mobile device vs. using multiple devices. The studies find place-making and use of artefacts to communicate and establish common ground as predominant modes of interaction in AR-mediated collaboration with users working on tasks together despite not needing to.     

Awareness marks: adaptive services through user interactions with augmented objects

The ambient intelligence paradigm involves one important challenge: to be adaptive to users and context through simple and natural interactions. To meet this goal, it is important to associate data with relevant everyday objects in the environment, including users themselves, and to enable interaction mechanisms between these objects. Following this premise, in this paper, we present a conceptual model to link contextual information with augmented elements acquired from user interactions in an implicit and transparent way. In this way, it is possible to personalize and enhance offered services in order to facilitate daily user activities. We call this contextual data “awareness marks”, and these awareness marks make it possible to offer novel services adapted from past events that were captured as they happened. Moreover, we have developed and evaluated a set of prototypes using Near Field Communication technology, which follows the presented model.     

面向移动增强现实的实时深度学习目标检测方法综述

移动增强现实(AR)借助智能移动终端将虚拟信息和真实世界进行实时融合,能否实时准确地对 环境中需要增强的物体进行目标检测直接决定了系统的性能。随着深度学习的快速发展,近年来出现了大量的 基于深度学习的目标检测方法。由于存在移动增强设备计算能力有限、能耗大、模型尺寸大以及卸载任务到边 缘云端的网络延迟严重等问题,将深度学习方法应用于移动 AR 的目标检测是一项具有挑战性的问题。首先从 Two stage 和 One stage 的 2 方面对目前深度学习目标检测算法进行综述;然后对面向移动 AR 的目标检测系统 架构进行归纳分类,分析了基于本地端、云端或边缘端和协作式的移动 AR 目标检测系统并总结了各自的优势 和局限性;最后对移动 AR 中目标检测亟待解决的问题和未来发展方向进行了展望和预测。     

A rapid prototyping software infrastructure for user interfaces in ubiquitous augmented reality

Recent user interface concepts, such as multimedia, multimodal, wearable, ubiquitous, tangible, or augmented-reality-based (AR) interfaces, each cover different approaches that are all needed to support complex human–computer interaction. Increasingly, an overarching approach towards building what we call ubiquitous augmented reality (UAR) user interfaces that include all of the just mentioned concepts will be required. To this end, we present a user interface architecture that can form a sound basis for combining several of these concepts into complex systems. We explain in this paper the fundamentals of DWARFs user interface framework (DWARF standing for distributed wearable augmented reality framework) and an implementation of this architecture. Finally, we present several examples that show how the framework can form the basis of prototypical applications.     

3D modeling with the Tinmith mobile outdoor augmented reality system

At the Wearable Computer Lab at the University of South Australia, we have been performing research into outdoor augmented reality (AR) systems for the last seven years. During this time the technology has vastly improved, resulting in more accurate systems that have better quality output. While tracking and registration are important issues in the area of AR, it's also important that we have suitable user interfaces that let people effectively view information and control the computer to get the desired output. Therefore, the Tinmith project explores the problem of interacting with a mobile AR system outdoors and the types of possible applications.     

Treating cockroach phobia using a serious game on a mobile phone and augmented reality exposure: A single case study

In vivo exposure has proved its efficacy in the treatment of specific phobias; however, not all patients benefit from it. Communication and information technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) have improved exposure treatment adherence and acceptance. Serious games (SG) could also be used in order to facilitate exposure treatment. A line of research on SG is emerging which focuses on health issues. We have developed a SG for the treatment of cockroach phobia that uses a mobile phone as the application device. This work examines results of an N = 1 study about whether the use of this mobile game can facilitate treatment of this specific phobia preparing her for the AR exposure. A 25-year-old woman with cockroach phobia participated in the study. Results showed that the use of the mobile game reduced her level of fear and avoidance before a “one-session” AR exposure treatment was applied, following the guidelines by Öst. The participant found very helpful the use of the SG before the AR exposure session and she was willing to use it after the AR exposure session as a homework assignment. Although the results of this study are preliminary, SG appears to be a line of research of high interest in clinical psychology for the treatment of specific phobias.     

Smart Vidente: advances in mobile augmented reality for interactive visualization of underground infrastructure

Many civil engineering tasks require to access geospatial data in the field and reference the stored information to the real-world situation. Augmented reality (AR), which interactively overlays 3D graphical content directly over a view of the world, can be a useful tool to visualize but also create, edit and update geospatial data representing real-world artifacts. We present research results on the next-generation field information system for companies relying on geospatial data, providing mobile workforces with capabilities for on-site inspection and planning, data capture and as-built surveying. To achieve this aim, we used mobile AR technology for on-site surveying of geometric and semantic attributes of geospatial 3D models on the user’s handheld device. The interactive 3D visualizations automatically generated from production databases provide immediate visual feedback for many tasks and lead to a round-trip workflow where planned data are used as a basis for as-built surveying through manipulation of the planned data. Classically, surveying of geospatial objects is a typical scenario performed from utility companies on a daily basis. We demonstrate a mobile AR system that is capable of these operations and present first field trials with expert end users from utility companies. Our initial results show that the workflows of planning and surveying of geospatial objects benefit from our AR approach.     

Exploring the impact of use context on mobile hedonic services adoption: An empirical study on mobile gaming in China

Unlike traditional technologies, the use of mobile technology is exposed to shifting use contexts. Use context has frequently been described as an important factor influencing the adoption of mobile innovations. However, empirical evidence about the impact of use context is limited. This paper investigated the effect of use context on the formation of users’ perceptions of mobile hedonic services by using mobile gaming as an example. Through the employment of structural equation modelling technology, an adoption model of mobile gaming is proposed and assessed based on results from 267 questionnaires. The results show that use context is the strongest predictor of mobile game adoption. It directly or indirectly affects all different perceptions of mobile gaming in significant ways, including perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, cognitive concentration, attitude and behavioral intention. Additionally, perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment and cognitive concentration all have a positive influence on the attitudinal variables of mobile game acceptance. We concluded that the formation of people’s perceptions about mobile gaming is conditional and based on the special consideration of certain use contexts. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.