Intro:
- Paper reading #6: Handheld Augmented Reality Indoor Navigation with Activity-Based Instructions
- Alessandro Mulloni, Hartmut Seichter, and Dieter Schmalstieg. 2011. Handheld augmented reality indoor navigation with activity-based instructions. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI '11). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 211-220. DOI=10.1145/2037373.2037406 http://doi.acm.org.lib-ezproxy.tamu.edu:2048/10.1145/2037373.2037406
- Alessandro Mulloni
- Born in Udine, Italy, in 1981.
- Completed bachelors in computer science at the University of Milan
- Received masters in computer science at the University of Udine
- Studies focused on 3D real-time graphics and on Human-Computer Interaction
- Worked as a researcher at the ITIA-CNR in Milan, inside the HCILab in Udine, and in the Handheld Augmented Reality group at the Graz University of Technology
- Since 2008, working on PhD at the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Handheld Augmented Reality
- Hartmut Seichter
- 2003 - 2007, The University of Hong Kong, Architecture, PhD
- Augmented Reality, Collaborative Design, Urban Design
- 1996 - 2002, Bauhaus Universität Weimar, Architektur, Diplom Ingenieur
- Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality
- Languages: German (First language), English (Fluent), Russian (basic knowledge)
- Dieter Schmalstieg
- Professor and head of the Institute for Computer Graphics and Vision at Graz University of Technology (TUG), Austria
- Current research interests are augmented reality, virtual reality, real-time graphics, 3D user interfaces, and visualization
- Received Dipl.-Ing. (1993), Dr. techn. (1997) and Habilitation (2001) degrees from Vienna University of Technology
- Author and co-author of over 200 peer-reviewed scientific publications
- Associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics
- Member of the editorial advisory board of computers & graphics and of Springer Virtual Reality
- Member of the steering committee of the IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality
- Chair of the EUROGRAPHICS working group on Virtual Environments (1999-2010)
Summary:
A new design of an augmented
reality interface, that supports indoor navigation, is used by combining activity-based instructions and sparse localization points to help with navigation in a building. Info points are used as checkpoints and provide AR information to the user in both text and WIM (world-in-miniature) maps. The user uses the instructions given by the information displayed on a handheld device to perform activities and the interface adapts the visualization, by changing the density/quality of the information shown. Users were tested with and without info points, to present the results of the effectiveness of the
presence of info points and how they affect a users' performance on indoor navigation
tasks. The results of this study show that info points act
as confirmation points and provide an overview of the task, resulting in an
improvement in task performance.
1. Indoor navigation with mixed reality world-in-miniature views and sparse localization on mobile devices- Presents the design of an interface that provides continuous navigational support for indoor scenarios where localization is only available at sparse, discrete locations (info points) and uses an interface with turn-by-turn instructions and WIM maps. Extremely similar to the current paper.
2. Location based applications for mobile augmented reality - Talks about implementing indoor location based applications for a mobile AR system. Relevant to current paper because it uses a mobile device and augmented reality for indoor location based applications.
3. An experimental virtual museum based on augmented reality and navigation - Similar to current work because it describes an experiment using augmented reality to navigate a virtual museum.
4. Transformative reality: Augmented reality for visual prostheses - Uses a technique similar to AR called transformative reality where transformations are performed in real time to render low resolution vision for those who have visual handicaps. Also talks about indoor navigation. Cool idea for visually impaired.
5. Trends in augmented reality tracking, interaction and display: A review of ten years of ISMAR - Reviews the 10 year development of augmented reality at a ISMAR conference, with a focus on tracking, interaction, and display research. Looks into the future of AR and helps researchers decide which topics should be explored.
6. First Person Indoor/Outdoor Augmented Reality Application: ARQuake - This paper talks about a 1st person indoor/outdoor augmented reality application, called ARQuake, that is converted from the desktop game Quake. Relevant in the sense of augmented reality.
7. Outdoor augmented reality gaming on five dollars a day - Discusses hardware options available for a public AR gaming system and the reasons behind selecting appropriate sensors, head mounted displays, power sources, and controllers. Relevant to current work through augmented reality.
8. Outdoor See-Through Vision Utilizing Surveillance Cameras - Presents a novel outdoor mixed-reality system designed for those who carry a camera attached device outdoors, where several surveillance cameras are embedded. Relevant because of mixed-reality to be used as surveillance outdoors.
9. Interoperable augmented web browsing for exploring virtual media in real space - This paper focuses on the media for interoperable AR systems, assuming that these devices will become more wide spread and many people will share individual news in real world space. Discusses the use of augmented reality.
10. Building Virtual and Augmented Reality museum exhibitions - This paper talks about a system that allows museums to build/manage, both, virtual and augmented reality exhibits, based on 3D model representations of artifacts. Relevant because of the use of AR to create visualizations.
All of these works relate to the current work because they either use augmented reality in a way or have to do with the study of navigation techniques.
Evaluation:
The authors evaluated the work quantitatively, qualitatively, objectively, and subjectively. They measure the number of steps each participant took using a step counter and the amount of time it took to complete a task using a stop watch. The number of errors, both soft (user able to recover from mistake) and hard (not able to recover), were counted by one of the authors, too. The quantitative and subjective results are shown in the table below. The participants were also asked to fill out a NASA TLX questionnaire to evaluate the study based on the mental demand, physical demand, temporal demand, performance, effort, and frustration of the user using the system (with/without infor points. The qualitative/subjective results of the questionnaire are shown in the picture after the table. The AR navigation system was evaluated as a system. The study was conducted with/without info points and tasks that required all types of navigation instructions. The tasks were fairly similar in length and difficulty. This experiment tested every part of the AR navigation system.
Step difference | Time (seconds) | Soft | Hard | Total
NoIP 29.75 | 135 | 19 | 3 | 22
IP -2.25 | 142 | 9 | 1 | 10
Table 1. Task performance per condition: median difference
in step count from a pre-recorded ground truth, median task
completion time, and total number of navigation errors.
The results show that info points are extremely useful/helpful. Users felt that the info points reduced their workload and info points also reduced the amount of steps taken and mistakes made. Info points may have taken longer because time is spent at each of them browsing the displayed information.
Discussion:
This paper presents good ideas and is novel because it is one of the first studies to implement augmented reality and activity-based instructions to help with navigation indoors. I believe work was evaluated appropriately because it tested performance with and without info points and it measured the study quantitatively and objectively, and qualitatively and subjectively. This idea could be really useful because it could help those who are in unfamiliar environments find their way. The info points are a really good idea, too, because humans like to confirm that what they are doing is right or if they are on the right track. Sparse localization is good because resources do not have to be wasted to set up a continuous infrastructure throughout a building. Overall, I liked the study and would like to see this implemented, especially in large buildings where their are no distinguishing landmarks within the building. Augmented reality was already a cool idea and using it to find objects would make it kind of fun.
