Augmented Reality Visualization Techniques for Attention Guidance to Out-of-View Objects: A Systematic Review

Recent advancements in augmented reality (AR) hardware, software and application capabilities have introduced exciting benefits and advantages, especially in industrial and occupational fields. However, many new challenges have arisen with the increasing use of AR in real work settings, such as increased visual capture and attention demanded by graphics presented within a relatively small field of view (FOV) (as compared to users’ natural FOV). This systematic review paper addresses how to effectively use and design AR visualization techniques to cue objects located outside a user’s FOV. We posit that new visualization techniques are needed to cue out-of-view objects while maintaining user attention and minimizing distraction from the user’s primary task. A significant amount of research has been done to examine effective visualizations for guiding attention in AR, specifically how to encode direction and distance of out-of-view objects. Our review compares the performance associated with existing techniques, as well as what characteristics have been implemented and studied. In this work, we also present design guidelines derived from our analysis and synthesis to understand what visualization technique characteristics may be effective. Our final recommendations describe the value of reference lines, feedback to users, location indicators, best practices to encode direction and distance, and the use of subtle cues.