ABSTRACT Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that superimposes digital information onto the real world. As one of the three major forms of AR, spatial augmented reality (SAR) projects virtual content into public spaces, making it accessible to collaborators. Due to its shared large display area, SAR has significant potential for application in collaborative design. However, existing SAR interaction methods may suffer from inefficiencies and poor collaborative experiences. To address this issue, CoPadSAR, a Pad‐based cross‐device interaction method, is proposed. It can map 2D operations from each Pad onto 3D objects within the SAR environment, allowing users to collaborate using multiple Pads. Moreover, a prototype is presented that supports collaborative painting, annotation, and object creation. Furthermore, a comparative study involving 40 participants (20 pairs) is conducted. The results indicate CoPadSAR reveals better group performance than controller‐based, gesture, and tangible interactions. It has greater usability and provides a better collaborative experience. The interviews further confirm the user preference for it. This study contributes to expanding the application of SAR in collaborative design.

Perspective taking has various effects on students’ learning, including the development of innovative capabilities, improved communication efficiency in distance education, and enhanced learning performances in practical tasks. Current collaboration systems often provide only a single third-person or first-person perspective and require the placement of markers on physical objects to achieve perspective alignment. These limitations restrict users’ observation and participation in the collaboration process, resulting in a less-than-ideal experience. To address this issue, a perspective taking supported augmented reality collaboration learning platform centered around a general technology course is proposed in this article. Users have the ability to view each other’s perspectives and utilize various collaboration cues, including sketches, voice, models, gestures, and gaze. In addition, a comparative study was conducted for the first time, comparing the effects of different perspective collaborations on students’ learning performance, internal motivation, collaboration experience, and intention to continue using the system. The study revealed significant improvements in learning performance when using the proposed system. Students also reported higher levels of intrinsic motivation, better collaborative experiences, and a greater willingness to continue using the proposed system. User interviews further confirmed the preference for and enjoyment of the proposed system.

Gamified and immersive educational interventions have proven to be powerful motivators to encourage participation in unattractive activities, and human–computer interaction (HCI) is crucial for the successful development of such educational interventions. However, existing interaction methods suffer from either visuo-tactile inconsistency or unfriendly interaction methods, resulting in an unenjoyable user experience. Hence, in this article, the visuo-tactile interaction design based on Norman’s design principles (visibility, feedback, constraint, consistency, affordance, and mapping) and spatial augmented reality (SAR) for intuitive cultural education is proposed for the first time, and an application for Chinese chess, SARChess, is implemented as a case study. Players interact with tangible chess pieces rather than through a digital interface, and the visual output and tangible input are integrated seamlessly to achieve high-level visuo-tactile consistency. Furthermore, a mixed investigation method based on pretest–posttest design, subjective questionnaires, and theme-based interviews was designed and performed to evaluate the user experience, learning performance, and player motivation of SARChess from both objective and subjective perspectives. The results show that SARChess has a significantly better user experience, learning performance, and player motivation than conventional chess and mouse-interaction-based chess, and the unique gameplay and visual cues in SARChess make it more engaging to participants. Additionally, this study finds and summarizes some design implications for applying design principles to traditional cultural education applications.

Abstract How to intuitively illustrate phenomena while retaining good operation experiences is a key issue in experimental learning. Virtual experiments with desktop environments, handheld devices, or headsets can show invisible phenomena for students. However, they are either visuo‐tactile inconsistent in space or with heavy physical burdens, causing bad experiences. A spatial augmented reality (SAR) based circuit experiment is developed. It allows students to interact with 3D (three dimensional) printed tangible objects without wearing any devices, having low physical burdens. Objects' poses are tracked using Microsoft Azure Kinect and inertial measurement unit. Virtual phenomena are projected onto the tangible objects and tabletop accordingly. Physical input and virtual output space are completely fused from students' view. It also offers efficient operation manners to students. A questionnaire comparing user experiences between the SAR and conventional experiment reveals that the former has a better learning experience.

We present a fast perceptual radiometric compensation method for inter-reflection in immersive projection environment. Radiometric compensation is the inverse process of light transport. As light transport process can be described by a matrix-vector multiplication equation, radiometric compensation for inter-reflection can be achieved by solving the equation to get the vector, during which matrix inversion should be computed. As the dimensions of the matrix are equivalent to the resolution of images, such matrix inversion is both time and storage consuming. Unlike previous methods, our method adopts projector-camera system to simulate the inversion, and treats the compensation as a non-linear optimization problem which is formulated from full light transport matrix and non-linear color space conversion. To make physical multiplication simulation more practical, the method adjusts the range of projector-camera system adaptively and reduces the high-frequency errors caused by clipping error and measured error to make the compensated results smoother. We implement an immersive projection display prototype. The experiments show that our method achieves better results compared with the previous method.