Getting out of Out of Sight: Evaluation of AR Mechanisms for Awareness and Orientation Support in Occluded Multi-Room Settings

Augmented Reality can provide orientation and awareness in situations in which objects or people are occluded by physical structures. This is relevant for many situations in the workplace, where objects are scattered across rooms and people are out of sight. While several AR mechanisms have been proposed to provide awareness and orientation in these situations, little is known about their effect on people's performance when searching objects and coordinating with each other. In this paper, we compare three AR based mechanisms (map, x-ray, compass) according to their utility, usability, social presence, task load and users' preferences. 48 participants had to work together in groups of four to find people and objects located around different rooms. Results show that map and x-ray performed best but provided least social presence among participants. We discuss these and other observations as well as potential impacts on designing AR awareness and orientation support.