Smartphones are integral to modern life, yet research highlights the cognitive drawbacks associated even with their mere presence. Physically removing them from sight is a solution, but it is sometimes impractical and may increase anxiety due to fear of missing out. In response, we introduce a simple but effective use of augmented reality (AR) head-mounted displays, focusing not on augmenting reality with virtual objects, but on diminishing reality by selectively removing or occluding distracting objects, from the user's field of view. We compared cognitive task performance across four conditions: the smartphone being physically nearby, physically remote, visually removed and visually occluded via AR. Our findings reveal that using AR to visually cancel out smartphones significantly mitigates cognitive distractions caused by their presence. Specifically, the AR interventions had effects similar to physically removing the phone. These results suggest potential for novel AR applications designed to diminish reality, thereby enhancing cognitive performance.

翻译：智能手机已成为现代生活不可或缺的一部分，但研究表明，即便手机仅存在于视野中，也会带来认知上的负面影响。将手机从视线中物理移除是一种解决方法，但有时并不实用，并可能因害怕错过信息而增加焦虑。为此，我们提出一种简单但有效的增强现实（AR）头戴式显示器使用方法，其重点并非通过虚拟物体增强现实，而是通过从用户视野中有选择地移除或遮挡干扰物体来削弱现实。我们比较了四种条件下的认知任务表现：智能手机物理近在咫尺、物理远离、通过AR视觉移除以及通过AR视觉遮挡。研究结果表明，使用AR技术对智能手机进行视觉消除，能显著减轻其存在所引发的认知干扰。具体而言，AR干预措施的效果与物理移除手机相似。这些发现揭示了新型AR应用的潜力，即通过削弱现实来提升认知能力。