Interaction Methods for Smart Glasses : A Survey

Since the launch of Google Glass in 2014, smart glasses have mainly been designed to support micro-interactions. The ultimate goal for them to become an augmented reality interface has not yet been attained due to an encumbrance of controls. Augmented reality involves superimposing interactive computer graphics images onto physical objects in the real world. This survey reviews current research issues in the area of human-computer interaction for smart glasses. The survey first studies the smart glasses available in the market and afterwards investigates the interaction methods proposed in the wide body of literature. The interaction methods can be classified into hand-held, touch, and touchless input. This paper mainly focuses on the touch and touchless input. Touch input can be further divided into on-device and on-body, while touchless input can be classified into hands-free and freehand. Next, we summarize the existing research efforts and trends, in which touch and touchless input are evaluated by a total of eight interaction goals. Finally, we discuss several key design challenges and the possibility of multi-modal input for smart glasses.Peer reviewe

A2W: Context-Aware Recommendation System for Mobile Augmented Reality Web Browser

Peer reviewe

What if we have Meta GPT? From Content Singularity to Human-Metaverse Interaction in AIGC Era

The global metaverse development is facing a "cooldown moment", while the academia and industry attention moves drastically from the Metaverse to AI Generated Content (AIGC) in 2023. Nonetheless, the current discussion rarely considers the connection between AIGCs and the Metaverse. We can imagine the Metaverse, i.e., immersive cyberspace, is the black void of space, and AIGCs can simultaneously offer content and facilitate diverse user needs. As such, this article argues that AIGCs can be a vital technological enabler for the Metaverse. The article first provides a retrospect of the major pitfall of the metaverse applications in 2022. Second, we discuss from a user-centric perspective how the metaverse development will accelerate with AIGCs. Next, the article conjectures future scenarios concatenating the Metaverse and AIGCs. Accordingly, we advocate for an AI-Generated Metaverse (AIGM) framework for energizing the creation of metaverse content in the AIGC era.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Emerging ExG-based NUI Inputs in Extended Realities : A Bottom-up Survey

Incremental and quantitative improvements of two-way interactions with extended realities (XR) are contributing toward a qualitative leap into a state of XR ecosystems being efficient, user-friendly, and widely adopted. However, there are multiple barriers on the way toward the omnipresence of XR; among them are the following: computational and power limitations of portable hardware, social acceptance of novel interaction protocols, and usability and efficiency of interfaces. In this article, we overview and analyse novel natural user interfaces based on sensing electrical bio-signals that can be leveraged to tackle the challenges of XR input interactions. Electroencephalography-based brain-machine interfaces that enable thought-only hands-free interaction, myoelectric input methods that track body gestures employing electromyography, and gaze-tracking electrooculography input interfaces are the examples of electrical bio-signal sensing technologies united under a collective concept of ExG. ExG signal acquisition modalities provide a way to interact with computing systems using natural intuitive actions enriching interactions with XR. This survey will provide a bottom-up overview starting from (i) underlying biological aspects and signal acquisition techniques, (ii) ExG hardware solutions, (iii) ExG-enabled applications, (iv) discussion on social acceptance of such applications and technologies, as well as (v) research challenges, application directions, and open problems; evidencing the benefits that ExG-based Natural User Interfaces inputs can introduceto the areaof XR.Peer reviewe

Emerging ExG-based NUI Inputs in Extended Realities : A Bottom-up Survey

Incremental and quantitative improvements of two-way interactions with extended realities (XR) are contributing toward a qualitative leap into a state of XR ecosystems being efficient, user-friendly, and widely adopted. However, there are multiple barriers on the way toward the omnipresence of XR; among them are the following: computational and power limitations of portable hardware, social acceptance of novel interaction protocols, and usability and efficiency of interfaces. In this article, we overview and analyse novel natural user interfaces based on sensing electrical bio-signals that can be leveraged to tackle the challenges of XR input interactions. Electroencephalography-based brain-machine interfaces that enable thought-only hands-free interaction, myoelectric input methods that track body gestures employing electromyography, and gaze-tracking electrooculography input interfaces are the examples of electrical bio-signal sensing technologies united under a collective concept of ExG. ExG signal acquisition modalities provide a way to interact with computing systems using natural intuitive actions enriching interactions with XR. This survey will provide a bottom-up overview starting from (i) underlying biological aspects and signal acquisition techniques, (ii) ExG hardware solutions, (iii) ExG-enabled applications, (iv) discussion on social acceptance of such applications and technologies, as well as (v) research challenges, application directions, and open problems; evidencing the benefits that ExG-based Natural User Interfaces inputs can introduceto the areaof XR.Peer reviewe

Press-n-Paste : Copy-and-Paste Operations with Pressure-sensitive Caret Navigation for Miniaturized Surface in Mobile Augmented Reality

Publisher Copyright: © 2021 ACM.Copy-and-paste operations are the most popular features on computing devices such as desktop computers, smartphones and tablets. However, the copy-and-paste operations are not sufficiently addressed on the Augmented Reality (AR) smartglasses designated for real-time interaction with texts in physical environments. This paper proposes two system solutions, namely Granularity Scrolling (GS) and Two Ends (TE), for the copy-and-paste operations on AR smartglasses. By leveraging a thumb-size button on a touch-sensitive and pressure-sensitive surface, both the multi-step solutions can capture the target texts through indirect manipulation and subsequently enables the copy-and-paste operations. Based on the system solutions, we implemented an experimental prototype named Press-n-Paste (PnP). After the eight-session evaluation capturing 1,296 copy-and-paste operations, 18 participants with GS and TE achieve the peak performance of 17,574 ms and 13,951 ms per copy-and-paste operation, with 93.21% and 98.15% accuracy rates respectively, which are as good as the commercial solutions using direct manipulation on touchscreen devices. The user footprints also show that PnP has a distinctive feature of miniaturized interaction area within 12.65 mm∗14.48 mm. PnP not only proves the feasibility of copy-and-paste operations with the flexibility of various granularities on AR smartglasses, but also gives significant implications to the design space of pressure widgets as well as the input design on smart wearables.Peer reviewe

From seen to unseen: Designing keyboard-less interfaces for text entry on the constrained screen real estate of Augmented Reality headsets

Text input is a very challenging task in the constrained screen real-estate of Augmented Reality headsets. Typical keyboards spread over multiple lines and occupy a significant portion of the screen. In this article, we explore the feasibility of single-line text entry systems for smartglasses. We first design FITE, a dynamic keyboard where the characters are positioned depending on their probability within the current input. However, the dynamic layout leads to mediocre text input and low accuracy. We then introduce HIBEY, a fixed 1-line solution that further decreases the screen real-estate usage by hiding the layout. Despite its hidden layout, HIBEY surprisingly performs much better than FITE, and achieves a mean text entry rate of 9.95 words per minute (WPM) with 96.06% accuracy, which is comparable to other state-of-the-art approaches. After 8 days, participants achieve an average of 13.19 WPM. In addition, HIBEY only occupies 13.14% of the screen real estate at the edge region, which is 62.80% smaller than the default keyboard layout on Microsoft Hololens.Peer reviewe

Mobile Augmented Reality: User Interfaces, Frameworks, and Intelligence

Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) integrates computer-generated virtual objects with physical environments for mobile devices. MAR systems enable users to interact with MAR devices, such as smartphones and head-worn wearables, and perform seamless transitions from the physical world to a mixed world with digital entities. These MAR systems support user experiences using MAR devices to provide universal access to digital content. Over the past 20 years, several MAR systems have been developed, however, the studies and design of MAR frameworks have not yet been systematically reviewed from the perspective of user-centric design. This article presents the first effort of surveying existing MAR frameworks (count: 37) and further discuss the latest studies on MAR through a top-down approach: (1) MAR applications; (2) MAR visualisation techniques adaptive to user mobility and contexts; (3) systematic evaluation of MAR frameworks, including supported platforms and corresponding features such as tracking, feature extraction, and sensing capabilities; and (4) underlying machine learning approaches supporting intelligent operations within MAR systems. Finally, we summarise the development of emerging research fields and the current state-of-the-art, and discuss the important open challenges and possible theoretical and technical directions. This survey aims to benefit both researchers and MAR system developers alike.Peer reviewe