SwitchAR: Perceptual Manipulations in Augmented Reality

Perceptual manipulations (PMs) like redirected walking (RDW) are frequently applied in Virtual Reality (VR) to overcome technological limitations. These PMs manipulate the user’s visual perceptions (e.g. through rotational gains), which is currently challenging in Augmented Reality (AR). We propose SwitchAR, a PM for video pass-through AR leveraging change and inattentional blindness to imperceptibly switch between the camera stream of the real environment and a 3D reconstruction. This enables perceptual manipulations in what users still perceive as AR. We present our pipeline consisting of (1) Reconstruction, (2) Switch (AR -> VR), (3) PM and (4) Switch (VR -> AR), and discuss its challenges and our solutions. In a user study (n=20), we found that no participant noticed the switch and only one the PM. Additionally, despite revealing that a manipulation happened, participants could not detect the switch in a consecutive run. SwitchAR is a fundamental basis enabling AR PMs.