Occlusion based interaction methods for tangible augmented reality environments

Abstract

Traditional Tangible Augmented Reality (Tangible AR) interfaces combine a mixture of tangible user interface and augmented reality technology, complementing each other for novel interaction methods and real world anchored visualization. However, well known conventional one and two dimensional interaction methods such as pressing buttons, changing slider values, or menu selections are often quite difficult to apply to Tangible AR interfaces. In this paper we suggest a new approach, occlusion based interaction, in which visual occlusion of physical markers are used to provide intuitive two dimensional interaction in Tangible AR environments. We describe how to implement occlusion based interfaces for Tangible AR environments, give several examples of applications and describe results from informal user studies.