In augmented reality (AR), users can place virtual objects anywhere in a real-world room, called AR layout. Although several object manipulation techniques have been proposed in AR, it is difficult to use them for AR layout owing to the difficulty in freely changing the position and size of virtual objects. In this study, we make the World-in-Miniature (WIM) technique available in AR to support AR layout. The WIM technique is a manipulation technique that uses miniatures, which has been proposed as a manipulation technique for virtual reality (VR). Our system uses the AR device's depth sensors to acquire a mesh of the room in real-time to create and update a miniature of a room in real-time. In our system, users can use miniature objects to move virtual objects to arbitrary positions and scale them to arbitrary sizes. In addition, because the miniature object can be manipulated instead of the real-scale object, we assumed that our system will shorten the placement time and reduce the workload of the user. In our previous study, we created a prototype and investigated the properties of manipulating miniature objects in AR. In this study, we conducted an experiment to evaluate how our system can support AR layout. To conduct a task close to the actual use, we used various objects and made the participants design an AR layout of their own will. The results showed that our system significantly reduced workload in physical and temporal demand. Although, there was no significant difference in the total manipulation time.

翻译：在增强现实（AR）中，用户可将虚拟物体放置于真实房间的任意位置，这一过程称为AR布局。尽管已有多种AR物体操控技术被提出，但由于难以自由改变虚拟物体的位置与尺寸，这些技术应用于AR布局仍面临挑战。本研究将"世界缩影"（World-in-Miniature, WIM）技术引入AR以支持AR布局。WIM技术是一种利用微型模型进行操控的技术，最初作为虚拟现实（VR）的交互手段被提出。本系统通过AR设备的深度传感器实时获取房间网格数据，并据此动态生成与更新房间微型模型。用户可通过操控微型物体将虚拟物体移动至任意位置并调整至任意尺寸。此外，由于用户可操作微型物体而非真实比例的物体，我们推测本系统将缩短布局时间并降低用户的工作负荷。在前期研究中，我们构建了原型系统并探究了AR环境下操控微型物体的特性。本研究通过实验评估系统对AR布局的实际支持效果。为贴近实际使用场景，实验采用多种虚拟物体，并让参与者根据自主意愿设计AR布局。结果表明，本系统显著降低了用户在体力与时间需求方面的工作负荷，但总操作时间未见显著差异。