What is the difference between augmented reality and 2D navigation electronic maps in pedestrian wayfinding?

ABSTRACT

Augmented reality (AR) navigation aids have become widely used in pedestrian navigation, yet few studies have verified their usability from the perspective of human spatial cognition, such as visual attention, cognitive processing, and spatial memory. We conducted an empirical study in which smartphone-based AR aids were compared with a common two-dimensional (2D) electronic map. We conducted eye-tracking wayfinding experiments, in which 73 participants used either a 2D electronic map or AR navigation aids. We statistically compared participants’ wayfinding performance, visual attention, and route memory between two groups (AR and 2D map navigation aids). The results showed their wayfinding performance did not differ significantly. Regarding visual attention, the participants using AR tended to have significantly shorter fixation durations, greater saccade amplitudes, and smaller pupil sizes on average than the 2D map participants, which indicates lower average cognitive workloads throughout the wayfinding process. Considering attention on environmental objects, the participants using AR paid less visual attention to buildings but more to persons than the participants using 2D maps. Sketched routes results revealed that it was more difficult for AR participants to form a clear memory of the route. The aim of this study is to inspire more usability research on AR navigation.

KEYWORDS:

• Augmented reality
• 2D electronic map
• navigation aids
• pedestrian navigation
• eye-tracking
• wayfinding
• usability

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Liao Hua for help with data analysis; Dr. Kimberly Moravec and Dr. Maxine Garcia from Edanz Group (https://en-author-services.edanzgroup.com/) for editing a draft of this manuscript; and all the participants in the experiment for their contributions to the study.

Disclosure statement

There are no relevant financial or non-financial competing interests to report.

Data availability statement

As a result of the protection of the research participants’ privacy and subsequent ethical problems, the original eye-tracking data, including video records, cannot be publicly shared. Despite this, we have prepared a tidy data table encoded from the original data, with one participant per line. The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in the Harvard Dataverse at http://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/LDXSUH.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China [Grant No. 2017YFB0503602] and National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No. 41871366].