Evaluating Menu Techniques for Handheld AR with a Smartphone & Mid-Air Pen

International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI), pp. 1–10

Abstract

Adding a mid-air pen to Handheld Augmented Reality creates a new kind of bimanual interaction for which many fundamental interaction design questions have not been answered yet. In particular, menus are an essential component in most visual interfaces, but it is unclear how to best interact with them in this setting: using the pen in mid-air or on a surface, using the touchscreen, or by moving the smartphone itself. We compared basic menus for these methods by analyzing success rates, selection times, device movement, and subjective ratings. Our results indicate that interacting with a mid-air menu using the pen, and operating a menu with the hand holding the smartphone, are sufficiently competitive to the current standard of two-handed touchscreen interaction, so that interaction designers can freely choose among them based on the interaction context of their application.

Authors 4

1. Philipp Wacker Aachen

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University, Germany

2. Oliver Nowak Aachen

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University, Germany

3. Simon Voelker Aachen

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University, Germany

4. Jan Borchers Aachen

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University, Germany