In-the-Wild Experiences with an Interactive Glanceable AR System for Everyday Use

Augmented reality head-worn displays (AR HWDs) of the near future will be worn all day every day, delivering information to users anywhere and anytime. Recent research has explored how information can be presented on AR HWDs to facilitate easy acquisition without intruding on the user’s physical tasks. However, it remains unclear what users would like to do beyond passive viewing of information, and what are the best ways to interact with everyday content displayed in AR HWDs. To address this gap, our research focuses on the implementation of a functional prototype that leverages the concept of Glanceable AR while incorporating various interaction capabilities for users to take quick actions on their personal information. Instead of being overwhelmed and continuously attentive to virtual information, our system centers around the idea that virtual information should stay invisible and unobtrusive when not needed but is quickly accessible and interactable. Through an in-the-wild study involving three AR experts, our findings shed light on how to design interactions in AR HWDs to support everyday tasks, as well as how people perceive using feature-rich Glanceable AR interfaces during social encounters.