Physical Guides: An Analysis of 3D Sketching Performance on Physical Objects in Augmented Reality

This work is part of the ARPen track of our Personal Photonics project in which we investigate techniques that allow you to construct 3d models in Augmented Reality by using a pen to sketch around existing objects. We measured and compared the drawing performance when following a path specified either by a visual line or a shape on both physical and virtual objects. Results indicate that users deviate 48% less when drawing on a physical object compared to virtual objects.

We presented our results in a poster at the ACM CHI 2018 conference in April 2018 and as a full paper at the ACM SUI 2018 conference in October 2018.

Video

Youtube Video (CHI)

SUI Video:

Abstract

Besides sketching in mid-air, Augmented Reality (AR) lets users sketch 3D designs directly attached to existing physical objects. These objects provide natural haptic feedback whenever the pen touches them, and, unlike in VR, there is no need to digitize the physical object first. Especially in Personal Fabrication, this lets non-professional designers quickly create simple 3D models that fit existing physical objects, such as a lampshade for a lamp socket. We categorize guidance types of real objects into flat, concave, and convex surfaces, edges, and surface markings. We studied how accurately these guides let users draw 3D shapes attached to physical vs. virtual objects in AR. Results show that tracing physical objects is 48% more accurate, and can be performed in a similar time compared to virtual objects. Guides on physical objects further improve accuracy especially in the vertical direction. Our findings provide initial metrics when designing AR sketching systems.

Contact: Philipp Wacker

Publications

2018

Philipp Wacker, Adrian Wagner, Simon Voelker and Jan Borchers. Physical Guides: An Analysis of 3D Sketching Performance on Physical Objects in Augmented Reality. In Proceedings of the 6th Symposium on Spatial User Interaction, SUI '18, pages 10, ACM, New York, NY, USA, October 2018.

Philipp Wacker, Adrian Wagner, Simon Voelker and Jan Borchers. Physical Guides: An Analysis of 3D Sketching Performance on Physical Objects in Augmented Reality. In Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA '18, pages LBW626:1–LBW626:6, ACM, New York, NY, USA, April 2018.