EXMAR: EXpanded view of mobile augmented reality

Abstract

There have been many studies to minimize the psychological and physical load increase caused by mobile augmented reality systems. In this paper, we propose a new technique called “EXMAR”, which enables the user to explore his/her surroundings with an expanded field of view, resulting in a decrease of physical movement. Through this novel interaction technique, the user can explore off-screen point of interests with environmental contextual information by simple dragging gestures. To evaluate this initial approach, we conducted a proof of concept usability test under a set of scenarios such as “Exploring objects behind the user”, “Avoiding the invasion of personal space” and “Walk and type with front-view.” Through this initial examination, we found that users can explore off-screen point of interests and grasp the spatial relations without the increase of mental effort. We believe that this preliminary study gives a meaningful indication that employing the interactive field of view can be a useful method to decrease the physical load without any additional mental efforts in a mixed and augmented reality environment.