Head-worn augmented reality (AR) is a hotly pursued and increasingly feasible contender paradigm for replacing or complementing smartphones and watches for continual information consumption. Here, we compare three different AR navigation aids (on-screen compass, on-screen radar and in-world vertical arrows) in a wide-area outdoor user study (n=24) where participants search for hidden virtual target items amongst physical and virtual objects. We analyzed participants' search task performance, movements, eye-gaze, survey responses and object recall. There were two key findings. First, all navigational aids enhanced search performance relative to a control condition, with some benefit and strongest user preference for in-world arrows. Second, users recalled fewer physical objects than virtual objects in the environment, suggesting reduced awareness of the physical environment. Together, these findings suggest that while navigational aids presented in AR can enhance search task performance, users may pay less attention to the physical environment, which could have undesirable side-effects.

翻译：头戴式增强现实（AR）作为一种备受关注且日益可行的新兴范式，有望替代或补充智能手机与手表，实现持续的信息获取。本研究通过一项广域户外用户实验（n=24），比较了三种不同的AR导航辅助工具（屏幕指南针、屏幕雷达和场景内垂直箭头），参与者需在物理与虚拟物体混杂的环境中搜寻隐藏的虚拟目标物品。我们分析了参与者的搜索任务表现、移动轨迹、眼动数据、问卷调查反馈及物体记忆情况。主要发现如下：第一，所有导航辅助工具相较于对照组均提升了搜索性能，其中场景内箭头方案既带来一定效益，也获得了最强的用户偏好；第二，用户对环境中物理物体的记忆数量少于虚拟物体，表明其对物理环境的感知度有所下降。综合而言，这些发现提示，尽管AR呈现的导航辅助工具能提升搜索任务表现，但用户可能降低对物理环境的关注度，这可能带来不利的副作用。