3D Tabletop AR: A Comparison of Mid-Air, Touch and Touch+Mid-Air Interaction

This paper contributes a first comparative study of three techniques for selecting 3D objects anchored to the table in tabletop Augmented Reality (AR). The impetus for this study is that touch interaction makes more sense when the targeted objects are anchored to the table. We experimentally compare touch and a mixed (touch+mid-air) techniques with the common direct mid-air technique. The touch and mixed techniques involve a decomposition of the 3D task into a 2D task by touch on the table followed by a 1D task by touch or mid-air interaction. Results show that: (1) The touch and mixed techniques present completion times similar to the mid-air technique and are more accurate than the mid-air technique; (2) The mixed technique defines a good compromise between accuracy of touch interaction and speed of mid-air interaction.