Design and Evaluation of Bare-Hand Interaction for Precise Manipulation of Distant Objects in AR

AbstractInteraction with virtual objects is one of the essential features of Augmented Reality (AR) systems. One of its main issues is how to provide precise manipulation of distant virtual objects in AR. In this work, we explore bare-hand manipulation of distant objects in AR with DOF (degree-of-freedom) separation, motion scaling, and near-field metaphors. We developed two manipulation techniques: the distant widget-based metaphor (DWBM), and the near-field widget-based metaphor (NFWBM). We conducted a user study with 20 participants to compare the two techniques in terms of performance and user experience. We found that NFWBM has faster speed, lower mental effort, better ease-of-use, and a friendlier user experience. However, there is no significant difference in terms of precision; both techniques could manipulate distant objects precisely, with an average position error of less than 0.7 cm and an average orientational error of less than 1°. We also discussed the limitations of this research and directions for future work. AcknowledgementsThanks to Prof. He for the inspiration on ideas and innovations. Thanks to Prof. Billinghurst for suggestions on writing and experimentation. Thanks to Lingxiao Yang and Shuo Feng for suggestions on writing. Thanks to Daisong Liu for his help in experimentation. Thanks to all volunteers who participated in this experiment.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/hololens2 https://unity.com/3 https://github.com/microsoft/MixedRealityToolkit-Unity4 https://developer.vuforia.com/5 https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Vector3-magnitude.html6 https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Quaternion.Angle.html7 https://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/measuring-usability-with-the-SUS.htmlAdditional informationFundingThis work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China [Grant No. 2021YFB1714900].Notes on contributorsXiaotian ZhangXiaotian Zhang is a Ph.D. student in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern Polytechnical University. His research interests include precise interaction, assembly guidance, and remote collaboration in AR/MR.Weiping HeWeiping He is a professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern Polytechnical University. He is interested in geometrical modeling, 2D bar-code recognition, direct part marking and automatic identification, AR, and MR.Mark BillinghurstMark Billinghurst is a professor of Human-Computer Interaction at the University of South Australia in Adelaide, Australia. He previously has researched wearable computing, mobile interfaces, VR, and collaborative systems, and is currently exploring empathic computing.Lingxiao YangLingxiao Yang is an undergraduate student in Applied and Computational Math Sciences major at the University of Washington. His research interests include point cloud manipulation, interactions, and applications in AR/MR.Shuo FengShuo Feng is a Ph.D. student in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern Polytechnical University. His research interests include computer graphics, cooperating assembly, and AR/VR.Daisong LiuDaisong Liu is a master student in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern Polytechnical University. His research interests include assembly guidance based on AR/MR.