Mobile Infospaces: Mapping Information to Neuropsychological Patterns of Human-Spatial Cognition to Support Wearable, Augmented-Reality Interface Design

This project will develop a systematic process of mapping Augmented Reality information organization to the human brain's prodigious capacity for spatial cognition. Fundamental to human thinking and utilizing much of the brain's resources is spatial cognition: a matrix for mental imagery manipulation, mathematical reasoning, spatial mental models of time, certain aspects of language organization, and memory organization. A neuropsychological human factors route to AR interface design may produce a solid basis for systematic theory, research, and guidelines for the design of mobile, AR interfaces. To accomplish this the research will: (1) extend neurological and behavioral research on human spatial cognition to systematically map egocentric (i.e., body centered) spatial perception and object manipulation in AR systems; (2) add new capabilities to the METLAB's ImageTclAR toolkit in support of this project and spatial AR interface design, and (3) develop multi-user mobile AR prototypes with both body and environmentally stabilized components using new hybrid tracking techniques based on visual tracking and ShapeTape sensors. It will also systematically conduct Human Computer Interaction experiments to evaluate and confirm the effect of new Mobile Infospaces interface techniques on: information object search and perception, tool and data object semantics, ease of object manipulation and procedural performance, memory for the location and properties of data tools and objects, group navigation, situational awareness, and cognitive maps of the environment. Finally, the project will organize and systematize findings and interface design experience into Mobile Infospaces AR Design Guidelines.

The new models and methods developed for AR system design will impact mobile AR research and development in two main ways. For research, it will provide a empirically validated theoretical foundation for augmented reality design using a neuropsychological and behaviorally valid human factors model of spatial cognition in information displays. For interface design, it will provide information display guidelines and ImageTclAR interface development tools that can establish parameters for optimizing the placement of tools, organization of menus and data, and clustering of procedures for mobile, augmented-reality and immersive virtual reality users.