Investigating Users’ Color Perception in Optical See-through Augmented Reality： The Effect of Ambient Light on Interface Color

The light perceived by users in optical see-through augmented reality (AR) comes from the mixed light of the real-world and AR devices, so the AR interface elements will be affected by the real-world light, which may lead to the color distortion of virtual graphics. This paper focuses on the user's perception of AR interface color and the influence of ambient light on AR graphics color. We conducted a user behavior study and recruited 18 participants to observe eight AR colors under three ambient illuminations through Microsoft HoloLens. Participants need to complete the color matching task, and match the color perceived in AR with the palette rendered on iPad. Our analysis shows that red and yellow are relatively stable in AR, and the perception difference between participants in these two-color regions is small; In addition, we also found that the ambient light intensity only affects a few colors, such as blue and purple, but has little effect on most colors. This study can provide a reference for the design of AR interface color coding.