Map Navigation Using a Wearable Mid-air Display

Paper in proceedings, 2015

Advances in display technologies could soon make - wearable mid-air displays -devices that present dynamic images floating in mid-air relative to a mobile user---available. Such devices may enable new input and output modalities compared to current mobile devices, and seamlessly offer information on the go. This paper presents a functional prototype for the purpose of understanding these modalities in more detail, including suitable applications and device placement. We first collected results from an online survey identified map navigation as one of the most desirable applications and suggested placement preferences. Based on these rankings, we built a wearable mid-air display mockup consisting of mobile phone, pico projector, and a holder frame, mountable in two alternative ways: wrist and chest. We then designed an experiment, asking participants to navigate different urban routes using map navigation displayed in mid-air. For map navigation, participants ranked wrist-mount safer than chest-mount. The experiment results validate the use of a wearable mid-air display for map navigation. Based on our online survey and experiment, we offer insights and recommendations for the design of wearable mid-air displays.