PhoneCursor: Improving 3D Selection Performance With Mobile Device in AR

This study proposes a novel technology as a creative method to interact with an augmented reality (AR) system called PhoneCursor, which is incorporated onto head-mounted displays. PhoneCursor is designed to offer more intuitive, portable and natural interaction. Its technical realization combines the gyroscope and acceleration sensor based on mobile phone. In view of the target selection ability as a base function of PhoneCursor, it also enhances the performance in solving some difficult selection problems in AR, including far and small object selection, 3D occlusion, dense object selection, and batch selection problem. An experiment based on the ISO 9241-9 standard is conducted to investigate this ability, wherein the PhoneCursor technique is compared with the widely used and well-performing head-movement-based selection technique. Results show that PhoneCursor performs better in terms of movement time and throughput than the conventional technique. Some applications are further proposed to showcase the potential of using the PhoneCursor technique in AR scenarios.