PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE SPECIAL ISSUE ON APPLICATIONS OF AUGMENTED REALITY ENVIRONMENTS 1 Augmented Reality for Construction Site Monitoring and Documentation

Abstract—Augmented Reality allows for an on-site presentation of information that is registered to the physical environment. Applications from civil engineering, which require users to process complex information, are among those which can benefit particularly highly from such a presentation. In this paper, we will describe how to use Augmented Reality (AR) to support monitoring and documentation of construction site progress. For these tasks, the staff responsible usually requires fast and comprehensible access to progress information to enable comparison to the as-built status as well as to as-planned data. Instead of tediously searching and mapping related information to the actual construction site environment, our AR system allows for the access of information right where it is needed. This is achieved by superimposing progress as well as as-planned information onto the user’s view of the physical environment. For this purpose, we present an approach that uses aerial 3D reconstruction to automatically capture progress information and a mobile AR client for on-site visualization. Within this paper, we will describe in greater detail how to capture 3D, how to register the AR system within the physical outdoor environment, how to visualize progress information in a comprehensible way in an AR overlay and how to interact with this kind of information. By implementing such an AR system, we are able to provide an overview about the possibilities and future applications of AR in the construction industry

Augmented reality and older adults:A comparison of prompting types

Older adults can benefit from technologies that help them to complete everyday tasks. However, they are an often-under-represented population in augmented reality (AR) research. We present the results of a study in which people aged 50 years or older were asked to perform actions by interpreting visual AR prompts in a lab setting. Our results show that users were less successful at completing actions when using ARROWand HIGHLIGHT augmentations than when using ghosted OBJECT or GHOSTHAND augmentations. We found that user confidence in performing actions varied according to action and augmentation type. Users preferred combined AUDIO+TEXT prompts (our control condition) overall, but the GHOSTHAND was the most preferred visual prompt. We discuss reasons for these differences and provide insight for developers of AR content for older adults. Ourwork provides the first comparative study of AR with older adults in a non-industrial context.</p

Augmented reality and older adults:A comparison of prompting types

Older adults can benefit from technologies that help them to complete everyday tasks. However, they are an often-under-represented population in augmented reality (AR) research. We present the results of a study in which people aged 50 years or older were asked to perform actions by interpreting visual AR prompts in a lab setting. Our results show that users were less successful at completing actions when using ARROWand HIGHLIGHT augmentations than when using ghosted OBJECT or GHOSTHAND augmentations. We found that user confidence in performing actions varied according to action and augmentation type. Users preferred combined AUDIO+TEXT prompts (our control condition) overall, but the GHOSTHAND was the most preferred visual prompt. We discuss reasons for these differences and provide insight for developers of AR content for older adults. Ourwork provides the first comparative study of AR with older adults in a non-industrial context.</p

Ten Open Challenges in Medical Visualization

The medical domain has been an inspiring application area in visualization research for many years already, but many open challenges remain. The driving forces of medical visualization research have been strengthened by novel developments, for example, in deep learning, the advent of affordable VR technology, and the need to provide medical visualizations for broader audiences. At IEEE VIS 2020, we hosted an Application Spotlight session to highlight recent medical visualization research topics. With this article, we provide the visualization community with ten such open challenges, primarily focused on challenges related to the visualization of medical imaging data. We first describe the unique nature of medical data in terms of data preparation, access, and standardization. Subsequently, we cover open visualization research challenges related to uncertainty, multimodal and multiscale approaches, and evaluation. Finally, we emphasize challenges related to users focusing on explainable AI, immersive visualization, P4 medicine, and narrative visualization.acceptedVersio

Design Patterns for Situated Visualization in Augmented Reality

Situated visualization has become an increasingly popular research area in the visualization community, fueled by advancements in augmented reality (AR) technology and immersive analytics. Visualizing data in spatial proximity to their physical referents affords new design opportunities and considerations not present in traditional visualization, which researchers are now beginning to explore. However, the AR research community has an extensive history of designing graphics that are displayed in highly physical contexts. In this work, we leverage the richness of AR research and apply it to situated visualization. We derive design patterns which summarize common approaches of visualizing data in situ. The design patterns are based on a survey of 293 papers published in the AR and visualization communities, as well as our own expertise. We discuss design dimensions that help to describe both our patterns and previous work in the literature. This discussion is accompanied by several guidelines which explain how to apply the patterns given the constraints imposed by the real world. We conclude by discussing future research directions that will help establish a complete understanding of the design of situated visualization, including the role of interactivity, tasks, and workflows.Comment: To appear in IEEE VIS 202

Beyond two dimensions: architecture through three dimensional visibility graph analysis

Architecture consists of spatial relations that accommodate functions, afford social relations and create visual interest. Through openings and walls, architects manipulate continuities and discontinuities of visual fields in two and three dimensions. Analytical diagrams and models of these fields have been offered by space syntax, especially through visibility graph analysis (VGA), graphing visual relations in two dimensions. This paper introduces a new approach to VGA that departs from planar restrictions. We show how a graph can be generated of inter-visible locations on a planar surface that incorporates relations among elements in three dimensions. Using this method, we extend the current space syntax analysis of architectural space to a new methodology for diagramming and modelling three-dimensional visual relationships in architecture. The paper is structured in three parts. The first section provides an overview of the principles of visibility analysis using graphs, and explains the method by which visibility relations of ‘accessible’ and ‘inaccessible’ space in two and three dimensions are computed. This leads to a graph representation, which uses a mix of ‘directed’ and ‘undirected’ visibility connections, and a new multi-variant spatial categorisation analysis that informs the properties of multi-directional graphs. The second part of the paper tests the three-dimensional visibility model through the analysis of hypothetical and real spatial environments. The third part analyses Giuseppe Terragni’s Casa del Fascio, describing architectural characteristics that are not captured by two-dimensional analysis, and allowing a comparative understanding of spatial configuration in two and three dimensions. The paper concludes with a discussion about the significance of this new model as an analytical and architectural tool

Projection Grid Cues: An Efficient Way to Perceive the Depths of Underground Objects in Augmented Reality

La réalité augmentée est un outil de plus en plus utilisé pour vi- sualiser des données 3D propres à certains métiers. Cependant, les indices visuels standards n’ont pas été évalués dans un contexte im- pliquant une occultation physique (par ex. le sol) des objets virtuels. Nous souhaitons donc évaluer les avantages et les inconvénients de la combinaison et de l’hybridation de deux sortes d’indices visuels : une grille représentant le sol et la projection par le dessus d’objets souterrains. Plus spécifiquement, nous explorons comment chaque combinaison contribue à la bonne perception de la position et de la profondeur des objets. La projection seule ou combinée à la grille génère 2.7 fois moins d’erreurs et génère une charge mentale per- çue 2.5 fois inférieure à la grille seule ou aucun indice. Notre étude montre qu’il s’agit de deux techniques efficaces pour visualiser des objets souterrains. Également, nous recommandons l’utilisation d’une technique ou d’une autre en fonction des conditions dans lesquelles elles seront utilisées.Augmented Reality is increasingly used for visualizing underground networks. However, standard visual cues for depth perception have never been thoroughly evaluated using user experiments in a context involving physical occlusion (e.g. ground) of virtual objects (e.g. elements of buried a network). We hence evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of two techniques based on the combinations of two well-known depth cues: grid and shadows anchors. More specifically, we explore how each combination can contribute to positioning, and depth perception. We show that with shadows anchors only or combined with the grid, users generate 2.7 times fewer errors and have a 2.5 times lower perceived workload (NASA-TLXscore) than with the grid only or no visual cue. Our investigation study shows that they are two effective techniques for visualizing underground objects. We also recommend the use of one technique or another depending on the situation in which they will be use