AUTHOR=Tabone Wilbert , Happee Riender , Yang Yue , Sadraei Ehsan , García de Pedro Jorge , Lee Yee Mun , Merat Natasha , de Winter Joost 

TITLE=Immersive insights: evaluating augmented reality interfaces for pedestrians in a CAVE-based experiment

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Virtual Reality

VOLUME=5

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/virtual-reality/articles/10.3389/frvir.2024.1353941

DOI=10.3389/frvir.2024.1353941

ISSN=2673-4192

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Introduction:</bold> Augmented reality (AR) has been increasingly studied in transportation, particularly for drivers and pedestrians interacting with automated vehicles (AVs). Previous research evaluated AR interfaces using online video-based questionnaires but lacked human-subject research in immersive environments. This study examined if prior online evaluations of nine AR interfaces could be replicated in an immersive virtual environment and if AR interface effectiveness depends on pedestrian attention allocation.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> Thirty participants completed 120 trials in a CAVE-based simulator with yielding and non-yielding AVs, rating the interface’s intuitiveness and crossing the road when they felt safe. To emulate visual distraction, participants had to look into an attention-attractor circle that disappeared 1 s after the interface appeared.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> The results showed that intuitiveness ratings from the current CAVE-based study and the previous online study correlated strongly (<italic>r</italic> ≈ 0.90). Head-locked interfaces and familiar designs (augmented traffic lights, zebra crossing) yielded higher intuitiveness ratings and quicker crossing initiations than vehicle-locked interfaces. Vehicle-locked interfaces were less effective when the attention-attractor was on the environment’s opposite side, while head-locked interfaces were relatively unaffected by attention-attractor position.</p><p><bold>Discussion:</bold> In conclusion, this ‘AR in VR’ study shows strong congruence between intuitiveness ratings in a CAVE-based study and online research, and demonstrates the importance of interface placement in relation to user gaze direction.</p>