Interaction Management for Ubiquitous Augmented Reality User Interfaces

One of the major challenges of current computer science research is to provide users with suitable means of interaction with increasingly powerful and complex computer systems. In recent years several concepts in user interface technologies and human computer interaction have been evolved. Among them augmented, mixed and virtual reality, tangible, ubiquitous and wearable user interfaces. All these technologies are, more and more, converging into a new user interface paradigm which we call Ubiquitous Augmented Reality. Ubiquitous Augmented Reality user interfaces incorporate a wide variety of concepts such as multi-modal, multi-user and multi-device aspects. Also these include new input and output devices. In contradiction to classic 2D user interfaces, there has no standardization taken place for ubiquitous augmented reality user interfaces’ input and output devices nor for the interaction techniques utilized in such user interfaces. This thesis presents a method that handles interaction management for ubiquitous augmented reality user interfaces, consisting of flexible integration of I/O devices at runtime and information-flow control. The presented solution allows to assemble user interfaces very quickly and to change the behavior of them at runtime. This enables researchers to experiment and identify appropriate interaction techniques, metaphors and idioms. The presented component for interaction management has been prototypical implemented and tested within the project CAR. That has been conducted at the augmented reality research group of the Technische Universität München. The project CAR is part of a interdisciplinary research project that aims at the development of user interfaces in automobiles of the near future (five to ten years). Its main goal is to provide a collaboration platform for researches of different disciplines to discuss and develop new concepts for human computer interaction in automobile environments.