AR Digital Workspace: Extending the Workspace of a Mobile Device into Real Space

Abstract

We propose AR Digital Workspace that extends the workspace of a mobile device in order to solve the narrow display area of mobile devices. The proposed interface allows a user to place multiple application windows on a flat surface in real space through a mobile device. The display area can be changed by moving the mobile device, allowing the user to easily switch between the applications. The user can change the positions and sizes of windows, operate applications in the windows, and copy and paste text between windows by touching the screen of the mobile device. The user can also copy characters in real space by recognizing characters in the images captured by the device’s camera. This interface allows the user to work with a large amount of information displayed in a large workspace. We conducted an experiment to compare the proposed interface with a traditional touchscreen interface using a task that involves switching between multiple applications to explore necessary information and answer questions ( N = 14 ). The results showed no difference in task completion time between the methods, but as trials were repeated, the completion time with the proposed method decreased, and on the last trial, the proposed method took significantly less time than the touchscreen interface. It was also shown that the proposed method was significantly less burdensome for more than half of the NASA-TLX items.