Implementing visual and audio notifications on augmented reality devices is a crucial element of intuitive and easy-to-use interfaces. In this paper, we explored creating intuitive interfaces through visual and audio notifications. The study evaluated user performance and preference across three conditions: visual notifications in fixed positions, visual notifications above objects, and no visual notifications with monaural sounds. The users were tasked with cooking and serving customers in an open-source Augmented-Reality sandbox environment called ARtisan Bistro. The results indicated that visual notifications above objects combined with localized audio feedback were the most effective and preferred method by participants. The findings highlight the importance of strategic placement of visual and audio notifications in AR, providing insights for engineers and developers to design intuitive 3D user interfaces.

Despite knowing exactly what an object looks like, searching for it in a person's visual field is a time-consuming and error-prone experience. In Augmented Reality systems, new algorithms are proposed to speed up search time and reduce human errors. However, these algorithms might not always provide 100% accurate visual cues, which might affect users' perceived reliability of the algorithm and, thus, search performance. Here, we examined the detrimental effects of automation bias caused by imperfect cues presented in the Augmented Reality head-mounted display using the YOLOv5 machine learning model. 53 participants in the two groups received either 100% accurate visual cues or 88.9% accurate visual cues. Their performance was compared with the control condition, which did not include any additional cues. The results show how cueing may increase performance and shorten search times. The results also showed that performance with imperfect automation was much worse than perfect automation and that, consistent with automation bias, participants were frequently enticed by incorrect cues.

As we develop computing platforms for augmented reality (AR) head-mounted display (HMDs) technologies for social or workplace environments, understanding how users interact with notifications in immersive environments has become crucial. We researched effectiveness and user preferences of different interaction modalities for notifications, along with two types of notification display methods. In our study, participants were immersed in a simulated cooking environment using an AR-HMD, where they had to fulfill customer orders. During the cooking process, participants received notifications related to customer orders and ingredient updates. They were given three interaction modes for those notifications: voice commands, eye gaze and dwell, and hand gestures. To manage multiple notifications at once, we also researched two different notification list displays, one attached to the user’s hand and one in the world. Results indicate that participants preferred using their hands to interact with notifications and having the list of notifications attached to their hands. Voice and gaze interaction was perceived as having lower usability than touch.

CubeVR incorporates the traditional studio-based learning in architecture with virtual reality (VR) and in doing so it enables features that are not available or difficult to achieve in the real-world. CubeVR allows students and instructors to move from the existing studio to a virtual environment, allowing for a more impactful learning experience. This paper presents our current state of the CubeVR prototype, informal impressions of users, and the use of different affordances in the virtual world.