Large consumer suppliers, such as automotive manufacturers and retail companies, are beginning to implement augmented reality as part of their advertising strategy. Augmented reality (AR) is defined as the integration of digitally created media within an existing actual environment. This combination of virtual three-dimensional images within tangible surroundings provides unique sensory capabil...

Gaining an accurate mental representation of real environments and realistic Virtual Environments is a gradual process. Significant aspects of an environment may be obvious to a trained expert, but not to the novice trainee. If a user does not know where to look, he or she may concentrate on irrelevant objects. This detracts from learning the locations of truly prominent landmarks. This paper e...

There has been a rapid increase in research evaluating usability of Augmented Reality (AR) systems in recent years. Although many different styles of evaluation are used, there is no clear consensus on the most relevant approaches. We report a review of papers published in International Symposium of Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR) proceedings in the past decade, building on the previous wor...

Illustration-inspired techniques have provided alternative ways to visualize time-varying data. Techniques such as speedlines, flow ribbons, strobe silhouettes and opacity-based techniques provide temporal context to the current timestep being visualized. We evaluated the effectiveness of these illustrative techniques by conducting a user study. We compared the ability of subjects to visually t...

Augmented Reality (AR) can provide additional information about mediated events, but can it enhance our learning and comprehension? We performed a user study of a location-based AR application in order to answer this question. A 2-condition (AR modality vs. non-AR digital book modality) between-subjects experiment with 36 dyads of secondary school students in Singapore was conducted to examine ...

Virtual reality (VR) is an increasingly hot tech topic. Because VR may be the ultimate virtual project as defined by this column, replacing the real world with a simulated one, it is worthwhile to pause and reflect on its potential and practicality for health sciences libraries. Virtual reality is a computer technology that uses headsets to create an immersive, computer-generated simulation tha...

We present redirection techniques that support exploration of large-scale virtual environments (VEs) by means of real walking. We quantify to what degree users can unknowingly be redirected in order to guide them through VEs in which virtual paths differ from the physical paths. We further introduce the concept of dynamic passive haptics by which any number of virtual objects can be mapped to r...

This user study investigated how rendering quality contributes to the sense of presence and level of task performance of participants in a virtual environment. Fiftyfive participants performed the task of dropping four objects in a two-room, virtual environment which was drawn with varying degrees of texture and lighting quality. Their physiological reactions were measured along with their accu...

Human interactions are characterized by explicit as well as implicit channels of communication. While the explicit channel transmits overt messages, the implicit ones transmit hidden messages about the communicator (e.g., his/her intentions and attitudes). There is a growing consensus that providing a computer with the ability to manipulate implicit affective cues should allow for a more meanin...

Video game consoles that enable gamers to use active body movements are becoming increasingly popular. Yet, little is known about the influence of movement on how gamers experience such games. This study takes an exploratory approach, using different data collection methods. A theory about the relationship between body movement and gaming experience emerges through the systematic collection and...