Glance-Box

Glanceable User Interfaces for Augmented Reality (AR) reveal virtual content “at a glance” to provide rapid information retrieval, often based on gaze interaction. They are ideal when the augmented content covers a small proportion of the view space. When the size of virtual content grows, the potential to occlude the real-world increases provoking safety concerns. Compounding this is the \emph{Midas Touch Problem}, where users unintentionally select virtual elements by simply looking at them. Extending dwell time does not eliminate involuntary selections, impeding interaction time. In this work, we present Glance-Box, a novel interaction system for AR combining Glanceable interfaces and world-based 3D interfaces across three Levels-Of-Detail, including progressively more information and visuals.

Glance-box uses a combination of eye-gaze and hand interactions, focusing on user safety. A 2D Glanceable interface facilitates rapid information retrieval at a glance, while extended 3D interfaces provide interaction with denser content and 3D objects. Glance-Box couples blink-based and gaze-based interactions to minimize errors arising from the Midas Touch Problem. While applicable across domains, the Glance-Box interface is designed and optimized for performing manufacturing tasks in the real world. We evaluated the Glance-Box interface using an object selection task of a manufacturing process. Participants completed subsequent tasks faster using Glance-Box, employing incrementally smaller LOD interfaces over time. The perceived accuracy of Glance-Box gaze-based inputs was high, even when the device’s eye tracker accuracy was coarse.