HoloStation: augmented visualization and presentation

As much as stories need to be told, images need to be presented. Although visualizations are meant to be self-explanatory, often enhancing their expressive power by incorporating a certain degree of interactivity, visualized images today often fail to encourage the active engagement of the user/audience. In many cases, interactive interventions by a human presenter have the potential to drastically improve the engagement with visualization. Rather than just showing the content, the presenter then enhances information delivery, e.g., by providing the context of the visualization. In this paper, we propose a novel concept called augmented presentation in which the human presenter occupies the same physical space as the visualized information, thereby presenting and interacting with the visualized images seamlessly. Depending on the level of engagement the presenter's role may vary: from a simple storyteller to an augmented presenter who may be regarded as a part of the visualized entity. To further the development of the new idea of augmented presentation, we have designed, implemented, and user-tested a visualization system named HoloStation. The presenter is placed between two projection screens: the front one is half-mirrored and the rear one is a conventional wall screen. The 3D stereoscopic images are rendered to appear in-between, thereby creating a coherent 3D visualization space filled with digital information and the human presenter. We have conducted a controlled experiment to investigate the subjective level of immersion and engagement of the audience with HoloStation compared to the traditional presentation. Our results suggest that our new form of augmented presentation has a potential not only to enhance the quality of information presentation but also to enrich the user experience on visualizations.