Pose AR: Assessing Pose Based Input in an AR Context

Abstract: Despite the rapidly growing adoption of augmented reality (AR) applications, existing methods for interacting with AR content are rated poorly, with surveyors of the area calling for better means of interaction, while researchers strive to create more natural input methods, mainly focusing on gesture input. This thesis aims to contribute to the aforementioned efforts by recognizing that technologies for consumer-grade smartphone-based pose estimation have been rapidly improving in recent years and due to their increased accuracy may have untapped potential ready to be utilized for user input. To this end, a rudimentary system for pose based input is integrated into prototype applications, which are constructed with both pose based input and touch input in mind. In this work, pose, pose estimation, and posed based input refer to using the distance and orientation of the user (or more precisely, the distance and orientation of their device) in relation to the AR content. Using said prototypes within a user interaction study allowed the identification of user preferences which indicate the approaches that future efforts into utilizing pose for input in an AR context ought to adopt. By comparing questionnaire answers and logged positional data across four prototype scenarios, it can be clearly identified that to perceive pose input as intuitive, the AR experiences shouldn’t employ a scale which is so large that it requires substantial shifts in the position of the user, as opposed to merely shifts in the position of the user’s device.