Publications

@inproceedings{Erickson2020d,

title = {Exploring the Limitations of Environment Lighting on Optical See-Through Head-Mounted Displays},

author = {Austin Erickson and Kangsoo Kim and Gerd Bruder and Gregory F. Welch},

url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/sui20a-sub1047-cam-i26-1.pdf

https://youtu.be/3jJ-j35oO1I},

doi = {10.1145/3385959.3418445},

isbn = {9781450379434},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-10-31},

booktitle = {Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction },

pages = {1-8},

publisher = {ACM},

address = {New York, NY, USA},

organization = {Association for Computing Machinery},

series = {SUI '20},

abstract = {Due to the additive light model employed by most optical see-through head-mounted displays (OST-HMDs), they provide the best augmented reality (AR) views in dark environments, where the added AR light does not have to compete against existing real-world lighting. AR imagery displayed on such devices loses a significant amount of contrast in well-lit environments such as outdoors in direct sunlight. To compensate for this, OST-HMDs often use a tinted visor to reduce the amount of environment light that reaches the user’s eyes, which in turn results in a loss of contrast in the user’s physical environment. While these effects are well known and grounded in existing literature, formal measurements of the illuminance and contrast of modern OST-HMDs are currently missing. In this paper, we provide illuminance measurements for both the Microsoft HoloLens 1 and its successor the HoloLens 2 under varying environment lighting conditions ranging from 0 to 20,000 lux. We evaluate how environment lighting impacts the user by calculating contrast ratios between rendered black (transparent) and white imagery displayed under these conditions, and evaluate how the intensity of environment lighting is impacted by donning and using the HMD. Our results indicate the further need for refinement in the design of future OST-HMDs to optimize contrast in environments with illuminance values greater than or equal to those found in indoor working environments.},

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pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Erickson2020b,

title = {Examining Whether Secondary Effects of Temperature-Associated Virtual Stimuli Influence Subjective Perception of Duration},

author = {Austin Erickson and Gerd Bruder and Pamela J. Wisniewski and Greg Welch},

url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/TimePerception_VR2020.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG2M-cbjS3s&t=1s, YouTube Presentation},

doi = {10.1109/VR46266.2020.00-34},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-03-23},

urldate = {2020-03-23},

booktitle = {Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR)},

pages = {493-499},

address = {Atlanta, Georgia},

abstract = {Past work in augmented reality has shown that temperature-associated AR stimuli can induce warming and cooling sensations in the user, and prior work in psychology suggests that a person's body temperature can influence that person's sense of subjective perception of duration. In this paper, we present a user study to evaluate the relationship between temperature-associated virtual stimuli presented on an AR-HMD and the user's sense of subjective perception of duration and temperature. In particular, we investigate two independent variables: the apparent temperature of the virtual stimuli presented to the participant, which could be hot or cold, and the location of the stimuli, which could be in direct contact with the user, in indirect contact with the user, or both in direct and indirect contact simultaneously. We investigate how these variables affect the users' perception of duration and perception of body and environment temperature by having participants make prospective time estimations while observing the virtual stimulus and answering subjective questions regarding their body and environment temperatures. Our work confirms that temperature-associated virtual stimuli are capable of having significant effects on the users' perception of temperature, and highlights a possible limitation in the current augmented reality technology in that no secondary effects on the users' perception of duration were observed.},

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pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Erickson2020,

title = {Effects of Dark Mode Graphics on Visual Acuity and Fatigue with Virtual Reality Head-Mounted Displays},

author = {Austin Erickson and Kangsoo Kim and Gerd Bruder and Greg Welch},

url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/VR2020_DarkMode2_0.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wePUk0xTLA0&t=5s, YouTube Presentation},

doi = {10.1109/VR46266.2020.00-40},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-03-23},

urldate = {2020-03-23},

booktitle = {Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR)},

pages = {434-442},

address = {Atlanta, Georgia},

abstract = {Current virtual reality (VR) head-mounted displays (HMDs) are characterized by a low angular resolution that makes it difficult to make out details, leading to reduced legibility of text and increased visual fatigue. Light-on-dark graphics modes, so-called ``dark mode'' graphics, are becoming more and more popular over a wide range of display technologies, and have been correlated with increased visual comfort and acuity, specifically when working in low-light environments, which suggests that they might provide significant advantages for VR HMDs. 

In this paper, we present a human-subject study investigating the correlations between the color mode and the ambient lighting with respect to visual acuity and fatigue on VR HMDs.

  We compare two color schemes, characterized by light letters on a dark background (dark mode), or dark letters on a light background (light mode), and show that the dark background in dark mode provides a significant advantage in terms of reduced visual fatigue and increased visual acuity in dim virtual environments on current HMDs. Based on our results, we discuss guidelines for user interfaces and applications.},

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pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Erickson2019iic,

title = {Is It Cold in Here or Is It Just Me? Analysis of Augmented Reality Temperature Visualization for Computer-Mediated Thermoception},

author = {Austin Erickson and Ryan Schubert and Kangsoo Kim and Gerd Bruder and Greg Welch},

url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Erickson2019IIC.pdf},

doi = {10.1109/ISMAR.2019.00046},

isbn = {978-1-7281-4765-9},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-10-19},

urldate = {2019-10-19},

booktitle = {Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR)},

pages = {319-327},

publisher = {IEEE},

abstract = {Modern augmented reality (AR) head-mounted displays comprise a multitude of sensors that allow them to sense the environment around them. We have extended these capabilities by mounting two heat-wavelength infrared cameras to a Microsoft HoloLens, facilitating the acquisition of thermal data and enabling stereoscopic thermal overlays in the user’s augmented view. The ability to visualize live thermal information opens several avenues of investigation on how that thermal awareness may affect a user’s thermoception. We present a human-subject study, in which we simulated different temperature shifts using either heat vision overlays or 3D AR virtual effects associated with thermal cause-effect relationships (e.g., flames burn and ice cools). We further investigated differences in estimated temperatures when the stimuli were applied to either the user’s body or their environment. Our analysis showed significant effects and first trends for the AR virtual effects and heat vision, respectively, on participants’ temperature estimates for their body and the environment though with different strengths and characteristics, which we discuss in this paper. },

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Norouzi2019esg,

title = {Effects of Shared Gaze Parameters on Visual Target Identification Task Performance in Augmented Reality},

author = {Nahal Norouzi and Austin Erickson and Kangsoo Kim and Ryan Schubert and Joseph J. LaViola Jr. and Gerd Bruder and Gregory F. Welch},

url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/a12-norouzi.pdf},

doi = {10.1145/3357251.3357587},

isbn = {978-1-4503-6975-6/19/10},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-10-19},

urldate = {2019-10-19},

booktitle = {Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction (SUI)},

pages = {12:1-12:11},

publisher = {ACM},

abstract = {Augmented reality (AR) technologies provide a shared platform for users to collaborate in a physical context involving both real and virtual content. To enhance the quality of interaction between AR users, researchers have proposed augmenting users' interpersonal space with embodied cues such as their gaze direction. While beneficial in achieving improved interpersonal spatial communication, such shared gaze environments suffer from multiple types of errors related to eye tracking and networking, that can reduce objective performance and subjective experience.

In this paper, we conducted a human-subject study to understand the impact of accuracy, precision, latency, and dropout based errors on users' performance when using shared gaze cues to identify a target among a crowd of people. We simulated varying amounts of errors and the target distances and measured participants' objective performance through their response time and error rate, and their subjective experience and cognitive load through questionnaires. We found some significant differences suggesting that the simulated error levels had stronger effects on participants' performance than target distance with accuracy and latency having a high impact on participants' error rate. We also observed that participants assessed their own performance as lower than it objectively was, and we discuss implications for practical shared gaze applications.},

note = {Best Paper Award},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Kim2019edm,

title = {Effects of Dark Mode on Visual Fatigue and Acuity in Optical See-Through Head-Mounted Displays},

author = {Kangsoo Kim and Austin Erickson and Alexis Lambert and Gerd Bruder and Gregory F. Welch},

url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Kim2019edm.pdf},

doi = {10.1145/3357251.3357584},

isbn = {978-1-4503-6975-6/19/10},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-10-19},

urldate = {2019-10-19},

booktitle = {Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction (SUI)},

pages = {9:1-9:9},

publisher = {ACM},

abstract = {Light-on-dark color schemes, so-called "Dark Mode," are becoming more and more popular over a wide range of display technologies and application fields. Many people who have to look at computer screens for hours at a time, such as computer programmers and computer graphics artists, indicate a preference for switching colors on a computer screen from dark text on a light background to light text on a dark background due to perceived advantages related to visual comfort and acuity, specifically when working in low-light environments.

In this paper, we investigate the effects of dark mode color schemes in the field of optical see-through head-mounted displays (OST-HMDs), where the characteristic "additive" light model implies that bright graphics are visible but dark graphics are transparent. We describe a human-subject study in which we evaluated a normal and inverted color mode in front of different physical backgrounds and among different lighting conditions. Our results show that dark mode graphics on OST-HMDs have significant benefits for visual acuity, fatigue, and usability, while user preferences depend largely on the lighting in the physical environment. We discuss the implications of these effects on user interfaces and applications.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Norouzi2019cb,

title = {Walking Your Virtual Dog: Analysis of Awareness and Proxemics with Simulated Support Animals in Augmented Reality },

author = {Nahal Norouzi and Kangsoo Kim and Myungho Lee and Ryan Schubert and Austin Erickson and Jeremy Bailenson and Gerd Bruder and Greg Welch

},

url = {https://sreal.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Final__AR_Animal_ISMAR.pdf},

doi = {10.1109/ISMAR.2019.00040},

isbn = {978-1-7281-4765-9},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-10-16},

urldate = {2019-10-16},

booktitle = {Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), 2019},

pages = {253-264},

publisher = {IEEE},

abstract = {Domestic animals have a long history of enriching human lives physically and mentally by filling a variety of different roles, such as service animals, emotional support animals, companions, and pets. Despite this, technological realizations of such animals in augmented reality (AR) are largely underexplored in terms of their behavior and interactions as well as effects they might have on human users' perception or behavior. In this paper, we describe a simulated virtual companion animal, in the form of a dog, in a shared AR space. We investigated its effects on participants' perception and behavior, including locomotion related to proxemics, with respect to their AR dog and other real people in the environment. We conducted a 2 by 2 mixed factorial human-subject study, in which we varied (i) the AR dog's awareness and behavior with respect to other people in the physical environment and (ii) the awareness and behavior of those people with respect to the AR dog. Our results show that having an AR companion dog changes participants' locomotion behavior, proxemics, and social interaction with other people who can or can not see the AR dog. We also show that the AR dog's simulated awareness and behaviors have an impact on participants' perception, including co-presence, animalism, perceived physicality, and dog's perceived awareness of the participant and environment. We discuss our findings and present insights and implications for the realization of effective AR animal companions.},

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pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}