Eye strain presents a significant challenge in human-information interaction in virtual reality (VR), as prolonged exposure contributes to various eye problems. This study introduces a new gaze redirection method called EyeXRciser, which passively activates eye movements to help prevent eye muscle stiffness during VR reading. This method achieves gaze redirection by slowly shifting the relative position of the text window within the user’s field of view through a head-bound coordinate system. We implemented our method with two different redirection speeds (i.e., unnoticeable speed at 0.03 rad/s; noticeable speed at 0.12 rad/s) and conducted a user study (N = 24) comparing with a baseline using a fixed text window. Results show that both our methods successfully minimized the decline in accommodative ability caused by prolonged reading, without negatively impacting reading comprehension. Results also show that the unnoticeable redirection speed produced less subjective discomfort, eye fatigue, and reading distraction than the noticeable speed.

Current Mixed Reality (MR) headsets are typically controlled by mid-air hand inputs, which require significant arm effort and consequently reduce input speed and accuracy during extended sessions. We propose BlanchTouch, a research prototype that explores an alternative touch input approach for MR by appropriating uninstrumented flat surfaces as interactive areas, with reduced arm effort. It incorporates a CNN model that detects the fingertip’s pressure-induced blanching phenomenon when a firm touch is applied to hard surfaces, serving as a confirmation of selection. Additionally, hand tracking via the headset is employed to determine the fingertip’s position, thereby providing targeting information for virtual buttons or objects. BlanchTouch operates using only the headset’s built-in cameras and sensors, without requiring additional hardware or prior surface calibration, enabling walk-up use in unfamiliar environments. We conducted two user studies to evaluate the system and compare its performance against a baseline (a real touchscreen) and the state-of-the-art mid-air interaction. Results demonstrated that BlanchTouch achieved an average input positional error of 5.33mm and a recall rate of 97.88%. Furthermore, the findings indicate that BlanchTouch enables competitive input speeds, alleviates arm strain, and delivers satisfactory feedback for each touch.

In this paper, we present FanType, a text entry technique that enables efficient typing on small virtual keyboards in extended reality (XR), closely resembling thumb-based typing on smartphones and tablets. While virtual environments theoretically provide unlimited space, practical XR usage often occurs in mobile and spatially constrained contexts, such as when using augmented reality (AR) headsets while walking or in confined environments, where large virtual keyboards are impractical, as they occupy substantial visual space and interfere with other virtual or real content. To address this, FanType integrates a fan-shaped interface that groups keys within the thumb's reach and leverages a lift-up gesture for disambiguation, thereby reducing hand movement while preserving natural typing speed. Additionally, an intention-inferring mechanism involving tailored algorithms is implemented to counterbalance touch bias and further ensure input accuracy. A user study with 22 participants evaluated the method on tablet- and smartphone-size portrait keyboards, comparing it with a baseline (touch-only) and a state-of-the-art mid-air technique. Results provide insights into the performance of such a design and highlight the challenges of designing typing methods for small virtual keyboards.

During cycling activities, cyclists often focus on pedestrians, vehicles or road conditions in front of their bicycle. Because of this forward focus, approaching vehicles from behind can easily be missed, which can result in accidents, injury, or death. Although rear information can viewed with handle-mounted mirrors or monitors, looking down can distract the cyclist from other hazards.

To date, virtual and augmented reality technologies enable users to view multiple, large virtual screens in their workspaces. However, users must frequently rotate their heads to shift focus among these screens. This paper presents GlanXR, a fast and robust handsfree approach for screen switching in virtual reality. GlanXR incorporates a peripheral interface that remains fixed within the user’s view, in which screens can be dynamically selected based on the user’s eye-head position beyond an adaptive range. Additionally, the user triggers the switch to the screen chosen by making an opposing head rotation in the direction of the eye-head position to minimize false triggers. We conducted an experiment including a fast-switching scenario and a working simulation scenario with 24 participants to assess the effectiveness of GlanXR as compared to a baseline (taskbar), an expansive multi-screen setup, and a gazebased screen selection method. The results indicate that GlanXR facilitates precise screen-switching, minimizes the necessity for head rotation, and allows users to maintain a neutral head position.

During cycling activities, cyclists often monitor a variety of information such as heart rate, distance, and navigation using a bike-mounted phone or cyclocomputer. In many cases, cyclists also ride on sidewalks or paths that contain pedestrians and other obstructions such as potholes, so monitoring information on a bike-mounted interface can slow the cyclist down or cause accidents and injury. In this article, we present HazARdSnap, an augmented reality-based information delivery approach that improves the ease of access to cycling information and at the same time preserves the user's awareness of hazards. To do so, we implemented real-time outdoor hazard detection using a combination of computer vision and motion and position data from a head mounted display (HMD). We then developed an algorithm that snaps information to detected hazards when they are also viewed so that users can simultaneously view both rendered virtual cycling information and the real-world cues such as depth, position, time to hazard, and speed that are needed to assess and avoid hazards. Results from a study with 24 participants that made use of real-world cycling and virtual hazards showed that both HazARdSnap and forward-fixed augmented reality (AR) user interfaces (UIs) can effectively help cyclists access virtual information without having to look down, which resulted in fewer collisions (51% and 43% reduction compared to baseline, respectively) with virtual hazards.

In virtual reality, VR sickness resulting from continuous locomotion via controllers or joysticks is still a significant problem. In this article, we present a set of algorithms to mitigate VR sickness that dynamically modulate the user's field of view by modifying the contrast of the periphery based on movement, color, and depth. In contrast with previous work, this vision modulator is a shader that is triggered by specific motions known to cause VR sickness, such as acceleration, strafing, and linear velocity. Moreover, the algorithm is governed by delta velocity, delta angle, and average color of the view. We ran two experiments with different washout periods to investigate the effectiveness of dynamic modulation on the symptoms of VR sickness, in which we compared this approach against a baseline and pitch-black field-of-view restrictors. Our first experiment made use of a just-noticeable-sickness design, which can be useful for building experiments with a short washout period.

Finite Control Set Model Predictive Control (FCSMPC) is widely acknowledged as a simple and effective control scheme for permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drives. It delivers the merit of quick dynamic response however faces problems such as large current ripples and unsatisfactory steady state performance. This paper proposes a FCSMPC method which minimizes the current ripples by integrating the concept of duty cycle and virtual voltage vectors. In the proposed method, six symmetrically positioned virtual voltage vectors are introduced in addition to the six original active voltage vectors to expand the finite control set, among which one optimal vector is selected and applied in each sampling interval according to the enumeration-based principle of cost function minimization. Then, the duration of the optimal vector is decided by an efficiently calculated duty ratio. Compared to the conventional FCSMPC, the proposed method causes no additional computation burden but exhibits much lower current ripples. The proposed method is experimentally compared with two typical FCSMPC methods for an interior permanent magnet synchronous machine and it is proved that the proposed method delivers better steady-state performance while maintaining quick dynamic response.