Virtual Reality Callouts - Demonstrating Knowledge With Spatial-Related Textual Information

Abstract

Virtual (VR) and augmented reality (AR) can bring an added value during the demonstration of knowledge, as for example within an interactive research demo. Callouts are strings of text which are connected by a line to a specific feature of an object. These visual annotations can be used during such demos and can be placed in different kinds of media, such as illustrations, technical drawings, images and videos. Callouts are also used in virtual 3D environments to anchor textual information to a specific point in space. Therefore they can be a valuable tool for virtually demonstrating knowledge. The alignment of callouts in such information rich environments is an elemental factor within the view management of the VR scene. In this paper we propose a concept for interactive microlearning application for knowledge demonstration that uses callouts as a fundamental element. We distinguish three types of interactive callout-representations by their alignment relative to the user, for being static or dynamic in their position and orientation. Within an implementation of the different callout versions we show the feasibility and in a user study we indicate a user-preference towards static positioned callouts.