Evaluating Pointing Modes and Frames of Reference for Remotely Supporting an Augmented Reality User in a Collaborative (Virtual) Environment

Abstract

With the availability of powerful and affordable Augmented Reality (AR) devices, scenarios have become popular in which people wearing AR devices are supported by remote experts. These experts often use 2D peripherals to access the video feed of the 3D head mounted device (HMD) and to augment it with verbal or digital information. This raises the question whether tools that work for these scenarios also work for remote consultations. We conducted a study to (re--)evaluate these tools in a furniture sales consultation context. We focused on the consultant side of these settings and explored how the use of different pointing methods and perspectives affect different situations during a consultation. For this, we developed and evaluated a prototype with ten furniture store workers. Initial results show that while most usability and task load scores were even, the participants reported clear favorites for certain settings. We use these results to derive design recommendations for similar future projects.