Enhancing Visitor Experience or Hindering Docent Roles: Attentional Issues in Augmented Reality Supported Installations

Studies using augmented reality (AR) technology have suggested that users focus excessively on the virtual content in the AR environment at the expense of the physical world around them. This has implications related to the design of installations that aim to incorporate the user's physical environment as part of the AR experience. To better understand how user attention is managed in an AR environment, we present an observational study of Rewild Our Planet, a multi-modal installation that combined video, audio, a human docent and mobile AR to promote awareness about environmental issues. We found that, while AR was successful in engaging visitors, it drew attention away from other modalities within the installation. This impacts the work of the human docent and affects how visitors absorb information presented in the installation. Based on these observations, we present guidelines to inform the design of future AR-supported installations with the aim of minimizing or taking advantage of the observed attentional issues

Impact of Task on Attentional Tunneling in Handheld Augmented Reality

Attentional tunneling describes a phenomenon in Augmented Reality (AR) where users excessively focus on virtual content while neglecting their physical surroundings. This leads to the concern that users could neglect hazardous situations when using AR applications. However, studies have often confounded the role of the virtual content with the role of the associated task in inducing attentional tunneling. In this paper, we disentangle the impact of the associated task and of the virtual content on the attentional tunneling effect by measuring reaction times to events in two user studies. We found that presenting virtual content did not significantly increase user reaction times to events, but adding a task to the content did. This work contributes towards our understanding of the attentional tunneling effect on handheld AR devices, and highlights the need to consider both task and context when evaluating AR application usage

Potentilla fulgens (Family Rosaceae), a medicinal plant of north-east India: a natural anthelmintic?

The cestode parasite, Raillietina echinobothrida and the trematode, Gastrothylax crumenifer were exposed to the ethanolic root peel extract of Potentilla fulgens, an antiparasitic local medicinal plant of Meghalaya, India, to evaluate the anthelmintic efficacy of the plant. The parasites were incubated in 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 mg crude alcoholic extract per ml of phosphate buffered saline (PBS) at a temperature of 37 ± 1°C. Paralysis and death were observed at 2.00 ± 0.05 and 2.80 ± 0.06 h for the cestode and 1.21 ± 0.06 and 2.18 ± 0.04 h for the trematode parasites at the highest test concentration of the plant extract. The commercial anthelmintic, Praziquantel (PZQ) showed higher activity at the tested concentration (0.02 mg/ml). To further investigate the efficacy of the plant extract, vital tegumental enzymes of the parasite viz. Acid phosphatase (AcPase), Alkaline phosphatase (AlkPase) and Adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) were studied. Quantitatively, the total enzyme activity of AcPase, AlkPase and ATPase was found to be reduced significantly by 69.20, 66.43 and 29.63% for R. echinobothrida and 47.96, 51.79 and 42.63% for G. crumenifer, respectively compared to the respective controls; histochemical study also showed reduction in the visible staining of the enzymes. The reference drug, PZQ also showed more or less similar effect like that of the plant extract. The result suggests that phytochemicals of P. fulgens have anthelmintic potential