A mobile platform for controlling and interacting with a do-it-yourself smart eyewear

Purpose: Smart eyewear, such as augmented or virtual reality headset, allows the projection of virtual content through a display worn on the user's head. This paper aims to present a mobile platform, named " CARTON " , which transforms a smartphone into smart eyewear, following a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach. This platform is composed of three main components: a blueprint to build the hardware prototype with very simple materials and regular tools; a software development kit (SDK) to help with the development of new applications (e.g. augmented reality app); and, finally, a second SDK (ControlWear) to interact with mobile applications through a Smartwatch. Design/methodology/approach: User experiments were conducted, in which participants were asked to create, by themselves, the CARTON's hardware part and perform usability tests with their own creation. A second round of experimentation was conducted to evaluate three different interaction modalities. Findings: Qualitative user feedback and quantitative results prove that CARTON is functional and feasible to anyone, without specific skills. The results also showed that ControlWear had the most positive results, compared with the other interaction modalities, and that user interaction preference would vary depending on the task. Originality/value: The authors describe a novel way to create a smart eyewear available for a wide audience around the world. By providing everything open-source and open-hardware, they intend to solve the reachability of technologies related to smart eyewear and aim to accelerate research around it.

[1]  Eamonn O'Neill,et al.  Development of an Inexpensive Augmented Reality (AR) Headset , 2015, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[2]  Trevor Darrell,et al.  Head gesture recognition in intelligent interfaces: the role of context in improving recognition , 2006, IUI '06.

[3]  Ramesh Raskar,et al.  Alternative Augmented Reality Approaches: Concepts, Techniques, and Applications , 2003, Eurographics.

[4]  Daniela Karin Rosner,et al.  DIY for CHI: methods, communities, and values of reuse and customization , 2009, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[5]  J. G. Tanenbaum,et al.  Democratizing technology: pleasure, utility and expressiveness in DIY and maker practice , 2013, CHI.

[6]  Charles Gouin-Vallerand,et al.  CARTON Project: Do-It-Yourself Approach to Turn a Smartphone into a Smart Eyewear , 2016, MoMM.

[7]  Thea van der Geest,et al.  Wearables for all: development of guidelines to stimulate accessible wearable technology design , 2016, W4A.

[8]  Thomas Alexander,et al.  Prolonged work with head mounted displays , 2014, ISWC '14 Adjunct.

[9]  Jessica J. Lee,et al.  Facial aesthetics: concepts & clinical diagnosis. , 2012, Archives of facial plastic surgery.

[10]  Andy Cockburn,et al.  User-defined gestures for augmented reality , 2013, INTERACT.

[11]  Eric Paulos,et al.  Rise of the expert amateur: DIY projects, communities, and cultures , 2010, NordiCHI.

[12]  Dominique L. Scapin,et al.  Ergonomic criteria for the evaluation of human-computer interfaces , 1993 .

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

[14]  Yutaka Yamauchi,et al.  Collaboration with Lean Media: how open-source software succeeds , 2000, CSCW '00.

[15]  Ahmed Amer,et al.  Affordable altered perspectives: Making augmented and virtual reality technology accessible , 2014, IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC 2014).