WozARd: A Wizard of Oz Method for Wearable Augmented Reality Interaction - A Pilot Study

Head-mounted displays and other wearable devices open up for innovative types of interaction for wearable augmented reality (AR). However, to design and evaluate these new types of AR user interfaces, it is essential to quickly simulate undeveloped components of the system and collect feedback from potential users early in the design process. One way of doing this is the wizard of Oz (WOZ) method. The basic idea behind WOZ is to create the illusion of a working system by having a human operator, performing some or all of the system's functions. WozARd is a WOZ method developed for wearable AR interaction. The presented pilot study was an initial investigation of the capability of the WozARd method to simulate an AR city tour. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from 21 participants performing a simulated AR city tour. The data analysis focused on seven categories that can have an impact on how the WozARd method is perceived by participants: precision, relevance, responsiveness, technical stability, visual fidelity, general user-experience, and human-operator performance. Overall, the results indicate that the participants perceived the simulated AR city tour as a relatively realistic experience despite a certain degree of technical instability and human-operator mistakes.

[1]  Alexandre Fleury,et al.  Evaluating user preferences for video transfer methods from a mobile device to a TV screen , 2013, Pervasive Mob. Comput..

[2]  J. McGrath.  Methodology matters: doing research in the behavioral and social sciences , 1995 .

[3]  Blair MacIntyre,et al.  Wizard of Oz interfaces for mixed reality applications , 2005, CHI EA '05.

[4]  Saturnino Luz,et al.  WebWOZ: a wizard of oz prototyping framework , 2010, EICS '10.

[5]  Peter Eisert,et al.  VENTURI - immersiVe ENhancemenT of User-woRld Interactions , 2012 .

[6]  Manfred Tscheligi,et al.  ConWIZ: a tool supporting contextual Wizard of Oz simulation , 2012, MUM.

[7]  J. F. Kelley,et al.  An empirical methodology for writing user-friendly natural language computer applications , 1983, CHI '83.

[8]  Steven K. Feiner,et al.  A touring machine: Prototyping 3D mobile augmented reality systems for exploring the urban environment , 1997, Digest of Papers. First International Symposium on Wearable Computers.

[9]  Blair MacIntyre,et al.  Here We Are! Where Are We? Locating Mixed Reality in The Age of the Smartphone , 2012, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[10]  Mattias Wallergård,et al.  WozARd: a wizard of oz tool for mobile AR , 2013, MobileHCI '13.

[11]  Jun Rekimoto,et al.  Augment-able reality: situated communication through physical and digital spaces , 1998, Digest of Papers. Second International Symposium on Wearable Computers (Cat. No.98EX215).

[12]  Yang Li,et al.  Design Challenges and Principles for Wizard of Oz Testing of Location-Enhanced Applications , 2007, IEEE Pervasive Computing.

[13]  James A. Landay,et al.  Guest Editors' Introduction: Rapid Prototyping for Ubiquitous Computing , 2005, IEEE Pervasive Comput..

[14]  Steven K. Feiner,et al.  A touring machine: Prototyping 3D mobile augmented reality systems for exploring the urban environment , 1997, Digest of Papers. First International Symposium on Wearable Computers.

[15]  Vivian Genaro Motti,et al.  Understanding the wearability of head-mounted devices from a human-centered perspective , 2014, SEMWEB.

[16]  A. Green,et al.  Applying the Wizard-of-Oz framework to cooperative service discovery and configuration , 2004, RO-MAN 2004. 13th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (IEEE Catalog No.04TH8759).

[17]  Anne Marie Piper,et al.  A Wizard-of-Oz elicitation study examining child-defined gestures with a whole-body interface , 2013, IDC.

[18]  Harry Hochheiser,et al.  Research Methods for Human-Computer Interaction , 2008 .

[19]  Alois Ferscha,et al.  Augmented reality navigation systems , 2006, Universal Access in the Information Society.

[20]  Arne Jönsson,et al.  Wizard of Oz studies: why and how , 1993, IUI '93.

[21]  Blair MacIntyre,et al.  Wizard of Oz support throughout an iterative design process , 2005, IEEE Pervasive Computing.

[22]  Blair MacIntyre,et al.  Media studies, mobile augmented reality, and interaction design , 2013, INTR.

[23]  Ivan E. Sutherland,et al.  A head-mounted three dimensional display , 1968, AFIPS Fall Joint Computing Conference.

[24]  Philipp K. Janert,et al.  Data Analysis with Open Source Tools , 2010 .

[25]  K. A. Ericsson,et al.  Verbal reports as data. , 1980 .

[26]  Scott R. Klemmer,et al.  Exiting the Cleanroom: On Ecological Validity and Ubiquitous Computing , 2008, Hum. Comput. Interact..

[27]  Noel M. O'Boyle.  Janert PK: Data Analysis with Open Source Tools , 2011 .

[28]  Ray Bareiss,et al.  A wizard of oz tool for android , 2012, Mobile HCI.

[29]  Ronald Azuma,et al.  A Survey of Augmented Reality , 1997, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[30]  Mark Billinghurst,et al.  A Wizard of Oz study for an AR multimodal interface , 2008, ICMI '08.