Abstract:
Non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) has been shown as a powerful way to
enhance both visual coherence and immersion in augmented reality (AR).
However, it has only been evaluated in idealized pre-rendered scenarios with
handheld AR devices. In this paper we investigate the use of NPR in an
immersive, stereoscopic, wide field-of-view head-mounted video see-through AR
display. This is a demanding scenario, which introduces many real-world
effects including latency, tracking failures, optical artifacts and
mismatches in lighting. We present the AR-Rift, a low-cost video see-through
AR system using an Oculus Rift and consumer webcams. We investigate the
themes of consistency and immersion as measures of psychophysical
non-mediation. An experiment measures discernability and presence in three
visual modes: conventional (unprocessed video and graphics), stylized
(edge-enhancement) and virtualized (edge-enhancement and color extraction).
The stylized mode results in chance-level discernability judgments,
indicating successful integration of virtual content to form a visually
coherent scene. Conventional and virutalized rendering bias judgments towards
correct or incorrect respectively. Presence as it may apply to immersive AR,
and which, measured both behaviorally and subjectively, is seen to be
similarly high over all three conditions.