Stereoscopic depth perception in video see-through augmented reality within action space

The embodiment of avatars in virtual reality (VR) is a promising tool for enhancing the user’s mental health. A great example is the treatment of body image disturbances, where eliciting a full-body illusion can help identify, visualize, and modulate persisting misperceptions. Augmented reality (AR) could complement recent advances in the field by incorporating real elements, such as the therapist or the user’s real body, into therapeutic scenarios. However, research on the use of AR in this context is very sparse. Therefore, we present a holographic AR mirror system based on an optical see-through (OST) device and markerless body tracking, collect valuable qualitative feedback regarding its user experience, and compare quantitative results regarding presence, embodiment, and body weight perception to similar systems using video see-through (VST) AR and VR. For our OST AR system, a total of 27 normal-weight female participants provided predominantly positive feedback on display properties (field of view, luminosity, and transparency of virtual objects), body tracking, and the perception of the avatar’s appearance and movements. In the quantitative comparison to the VST AR and VR systems, participants reported significantly lower feelings of presence, while they estimated the body weight of the generic avatar significantly higher when using our OST AR system. For virtual body ownership and agency, we found only partially significant differences. In summary, our study shows the general applicability of OST AR in the given context offering huge potential in future therapeutic scenarios. However, the comparative evaluation between OST AR, VST AR, and VR also revealed significant differences in relevant measures. Future work is mandatory to corroborate our findings and to classify the significance in a therapeutic context.

The perception of depth is an important aspect of augmented reality (AR): many AR applications have an important depth component, and AR displays do not display the depth of virtual objects with the same fidelity as real objects. Furthermore, the unique AR capability of x-ray vision, which affords many very compelling and interesting applications, has no perceptual equivalent in the real world. In this talk, I will discuss how we might measure AR depth perception at near-field distances; that is, distances where objects may be touched and manipulated by the hands. I will further discuss how depth perception has been measured by vision scientists historically, and I will talk about the small number of previous experiments that have examined near-field AR depth perception. I will then cover a number of near-field AR depth perception experiments that have been conducted in my laboratory. To date, these experiments show that a mismatch between focal depth and stereo disparity, which many AR display systems exhibit, causes systematic depth judgment errors. I will also discuss effects of perceptual feedback and perceptual learning, which to date have barely been studied in AR, but which are likely very important for compelling near-field AR applications such as medical and industrial tasks, where users are highly skilled and highly practiced.

As the use of virtual and augmented reality applications becomes more common, the need to fully understand how observers perceive spatial relationships grows more critical. One of the key requirements in engineering a practical virtual or augmented reality system is accurately conveying depth and layout. This requirement has frequently been assessed by measuring judgments of egocentric depth. These assessments have shown that observers in virtual reality (VR) perceive virtual space as compressed relative to the real-world, resulting in systematic underestimations of egocentric depth. Previous work has indicated that similar effects may be present in augmented reality (AR) as well.This paper reports an experiment that directly measured egocentric depth perception in both VR and AR conditions; it is believed to be the first experiment to directly compare these conditions in the same experimental framework. In addition to VR and AR, two control conditions were studied: viewing real-world objects, and viewing real-world objects through a head-mounted display. Finally, the presence and absence of motion parallax was crossed with all conditions. Like many previous studies, this one found that depth perception was underestimated in VR, although the magnitude of the effect was surprisingly low. The most interesting finding was that no underestimation was observed in AR.

Temporal order perception is essential for understanding the succession of events, and is suggested to be affected by attention or metaphorical space-time mapping. Attention theories predict that near or large objects capture attention and enter into consciousness earlier, while the metaphor hypothesis links the concepts of 'far' and 'past' in many languages, predicting that far objects is perceived as appearing earlier. This study investigated temporal order perception in three-dimensional (3D) space to clarify its underlying mechanism. Across three experiments, participants performed a temporal order judgment task, reporting which of two objects appeared first. Using binocular disparity (Experiment 1) and pictorial depth cues (gradient background and relative size, Experiment 2), we observed a consistent bias: distant and smaller objects were perceived as appearing earlier. Experiment 3 manipulated the congruency of depth cues (disparity and relative size), and the bias was reduced under incongruent conditions, indicating a joint effect of integrating depth information during temporal order perception. These findings reveal a systematic temporal bias in 3D space that challenges attentional accounts and aligns with the linguistic metaphor hypothesis, suggesting that perception is biased by prior knowledge through space-time metaphoric mapping.

The immersive augmented reality (AR) system necessitates precise depth registration between virtual objects and the real scene. Prior studies have emphasized the efficacy of surface texture in providing depth cues to enhance depth perception across various media, including the real scene, virtual reality, and AR. However, these studies predominantly focus on black-and-white textures, leaving a gap in understanding the effectiveness of colored textures. To address this gap and further explore texture-related factors in AR, a series of experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of different texture cues on depth perception using the perceptual matching method. Findings indicate that the absolute depth error increases with decreasing contrast under black-and-white texture. Moreover, textures with higher color contrast also contribute to enhanced accuracy of depth judgments in AR. However, no significant effect of texture density on depth perception was observed. The findings serve as a theoretical reference for texture design in AR, aiding in the optimization of virtual-real registration processes.

Augmented reality technologies undertake focus role which provide opportunity to harmonize the earthilyreality with virtual field and evaluate their integral elements.The very first examples of augmented realityapplications are viewers on the head,simulators,wearable tools,pocket PCs,desktop PCs and cameras whichare integrated externally but augmented reality applications have gain a great acceleration by developingtechnologies such as internet,becoming popular for the mobile devices and their mobile applicationsaccordingly and especially by the appearance of the smart wears and increase on their functions.Augmentedreality applications that are often used in defence,industry,medicine,trade and entertainment are now startedto be used in the education.Augmented reality applications achieve deep learning of the systems or objectswhich are hard to learn by attracting attention and cares of the students by providing their different viewsduring teaching and learning process.Also these applications supports students to use their creativity byexpanding their imagination.Especially if we consider today’s students are digital natives(Y and Z generation) who grow up in the multimedia world and inside the technology,it is a reality that augmented reality applications which have rich content in the learning-teaching environments can have a role that increase themotivations of the students instead of a classic course book. In the light of these information, in this study theresearch and application samples of augmented reality which is now used widely in teaching and learningprocess the effect of augmented reality on teaching and learning is handled.Keywords: Augmented reality, augmented reality applications in education

Users always got bad experiences while using the general virtual reality head-mounted displays (HMDs) because of the low pixel density through optical lenses. For this reason, the narrow field-of-view (FoV) and high pixel density are the main goals we are going to pursue in the near-field video see-through augmented reality (AR) applications with sophisticated operations, such as the biological observation with AR microscope (e.g. Scope+ [Huang et al. 2015]), the AR surgery simulation, and telescope applications. Therefore with high resolution to see tiny objects clearly is the most important concern in this paper.

There is a growing interest for the broad use of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) in the fields of bioinformatics and cheminformatics to visualize complex biological and chemical structures. AR and VR technologies allow for stunning and immersive experiences, offering untapped opportunities for both research and education purposes. However, preparing 3D models ready to use for AR and VR is time-consuming and requires a technical expertise that severely limits the development of new contents of potential interest for structural biologists, medicinal chemists, molecular modellers and teachers. Herein we present the RealityConvert software tool and associated website, which allow users to easily convert molecular objects to high quality 3D models directly compatible for AR and VR applications. For chemical structures, in addition to the 3D model generation, RealityConvert also generates image trackers, useful to universally call and anchor that particular 3D model when used in AR applications. The ultimate goal of RealityConvert is to facilitate and boost the development and accessibility of AR and VR contents for bioinformatics and cheminformatics applications. http://www.realityconvert.com. dfourch@ncsu.edu. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Three-dimensional sound's effectiveness in virtual reality (VR) environments has been widely studied. However, due to the big differences between VR and augmented reality (AR) systems in registration, calibration, perceptual difference of immersiveness, navigation, and localization, it is important to develop new approaches to seamlessly register virtual 3-D sound in AR environments and conduct studies on 3-D sound's effectiveness in AR context. In this paper, we design two experimental AR environments to study the effectiveness of 3-D sound both quantitatively and qualitatively. Two different tracking methods are applied to retrieve the 3-D position of virtual sound sources in each experiment. We examine the impacts of 3-D sound on improving depth perception and shortening task completion time. We also investigate its impacts on immersive and realistic perception, different spatial objects identification, and subjective feeling of human presence and collaboration. Our studies show that applying 3-D sound is an effective way to complement visual AR environments. It helps depth perception and task performance, and facilitates collaborations between users. Moreover, it enables a more realistic environment and more immersive feeling of being inside the AR environment by both visual and auditory means. In order to make full use of the intensity cues provided by 3-D sound, a process to scale the intensity difference of 3-D sound at different depths is designed to cater small AR environments. The user study results show that the scaled 3-D sound significantly increases the accuracy of depth judgments and shortens the searching task completion time. This method provides a necessary foundation for implementing 3-D sound in small AR environments. Our user study results also show that this process does not degrade the intuitiveness and realism of an augmented audio reality environment

This study explores the integration of mobile Augmented Reality (AR) applications within the context of the National Museum of Malaysia, focusing on enhancing the educational experience for visitors. The project aims to address the challenge of enhancing museum experiences through innovative technologies. The research problem centers on designing an AR application for the National Museum of Malaysia to enrich the visitor engagement and understanding, as stemmed from the decline in museum visitors, with the National Museum of Malaysia experiencing a staggering 70% drop in income in 2020 and 2021. Utilizing Unity Editor and other libraries, the project developed the National Museum AR App, featuring four distinct AR experiences corresponding to different exhibits within the museum. Methods involve AR content creation, user testing, and data analysis. Overall, findings suggest that the AR application effectively meets visitors' learning needs and enhances the educational value of museum exhibits by providing unique AR features. The significance of the project lies in its potential to transform cultural heritage tourism by bridging the gap between traditional museum experiences and digital engagement. The study also serves as a preliminary investigation to guide the future development and deployment of AR applications within the museum setting.

Extended-Reality Technologies: An Overview of Emerging Applications in Medical Education and Clinical Care.

This study investigates the benefits of augmented reality (AR) in the tourism industry and its impact on data security. The background of the research highlights that information technology is becoming increasingly important in the tourism industry, with augmented reality (AR) being a major focus for enhancing visitor experiences. In this context, concerns about user data protection arise since AR applications may require personal information such as user location and travel preferences. A comparative research method was used to compare two popular augmented reality (AR) applications: Smartify, Arts and Culture, Zome, Augmented Reality, Maps AR, Guideo, and AR Trial. The results indicate that most applications have adequate data security policies, including data transfer encryption and user control over their data. Zome was found to be the best in terms of data security and user privacy, scoring 90% in the assessment. This research underscores the importance of using AR applications to maintain data security and user privacy in the tourism industry and suggests further research to learn more about the data privacy practices of AR applications.

Introduction: Augmented Reality (AR) systems are systems in which users view and interact with virtual objects overlaying the real world. AR systems are used across a variety of disciplines, i.e., games, medicine, and education to name a few. Optical See-Through (OST) AR displays allow users to perceive the real world directly by combining computer-generated imagery overlaying the real world. While perception of depth and visibility of objects is a widely studied field, we wanted to observe how color, luminance, and movement of an object interacted with each other as well as external luminance in OST AR devices. Little research has been done regarding the issues around the effect of virtual objects’ parameters on depth perception, external lighting, and the effect of an object’s mobility on this depth perception.Methods: We aim to perform an analysis of the effects of motion cues, color, and luminance on depth estimation of AR objects overlaying the real world with OST displays. We perform two experiments, differing in environmental lighting conditions (287 lux and 156 lux), and analyze the effects and differences on depth and speed perceptions.Results: We have found that while stationary objects follow previous research with regards to depth perception, motion and both object and environmental luminance play a factor in this perception.Discussion: These results will be significantly useful for developers to account for depth estimation issues that may arise in AR environments. Awareness of the different effects of speed and environmental illuminance on depth perception can be utilized when performing AR or MR applications where precision matters.

It is thought that it would be appropriate to use augmented reality technology, which provides many educational advantages for effective environmental education. This research aims to examine the effect of environmental education using augmented reality (AR) applications on the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of primary school third-grade students towards the environment and to find out the children's views on AR. The case study design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the research. The research was carried out with seventeen primary school third-grade students from a public school in the 2021-2022 academic year. Environmental education was given to the selected class with augmented reality applications for six weeks. The data were collected with the ‘Semi-Structured Interview Form’ prepared by the researcher. Content analysis technique was used in the analysis of the data. According to the findings obtained from the interviews; it has been concluded that environmental education using AR applications is effective in the knowledge, attitude, behavior, and environmental awareness of third-grade students towards the environment. In addition to these, in the interviews; it has been determined that students have positive emotions towards AR reality applications; they want to use the applications in other lessons; AR applications facilitate their learning and positively affect their approaches towards living / non-living beings, the environment and environmental problems.

The purpose of teaching aid is important to attract students to always be active in the classroom. It is important to focus on educational activities among students such as the usage of teaching aid during the teaching and learning process. Therefore, the objective of this study is to identify the usability of augmented reality (AR) application 'Fertigation System' among form 1 students of SMK Behrang 2020 who took Design and Technology subject. The application was developed using the ADDIE model which has five phases including analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. The design of the studies used was quantitative method (survey method). The instrument of study used was a questionnaire. In the first phase (Analysis), a questionnaire that was endorsed by experts was distributed to 35 respondents to identify the needs of the AR application development. In this phase, there were 72% of respondents agreed the needs of the AR application development. For the next phases, an AR 'Fertigation System' has been designed and developed. A questionnaire was distributed together with the AR application that has been developed and verified by three experts from different fields (language, education, content). After that, a pilot study was conducted among 50 students of form 1 who took Design and Technology subject at SMK Behrang 2020 as respondents for improvement purposes (Implementation phase). For the final phase (Evaluation), a questionnaire and application of AR 'Fertigation System' which has been verified and improved was distributed to 76 respondents comprising form 1 students who took Design and Technology subject at SMK Behrang 2020. The results of this study showed that 62.72% of the respondents strongly agreed with the usability of the AR application 'Fertigation System'. All data obtained was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) to obtain the average value, percentage, frequency and standard deviation. In conclusion, the results of this study show that the AR application of the 'Fertigation System' that has been developed can be used among form 1 students who took Design and Technology subject at SMK Behrang 2020, Perak.