Attention funnel: omnidirectional 3D cursor for mobile augmented reality platforms

The attention funnel is a general purpose AR interface technique that interactively guides the attention of a user to any object, person, or place in space. The technique utilizes dynamic perceptual affordances to draw user attention "down" the funnel to the target location. Attention funnel can be used to cue objects completely out of sight including objects behind the user, or occluded by other objects or walls.An experiment evaluating user performance with the attention funnel and other conventional AR attention directing techniques found that the attention funnel increased the consistency of the user's search by 65%, increased search speed by 22%, and decreased mental workload by 18%. The attention funnel has potential applicability as a general 3D cursor or cue in a wide array of spatially enabled mobile and AR systems, and for applications where systems can support users in visual search, object awareness, and emergency warning in indoor and outdoor spaces.

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