Virtual Reality (VR) Head-Mounted Displays (HMDs) are on the verge of becoming commodity hardware available to the average user and feasible to use as a tool for 3D work. Some HMDs include front-facing cameras, enabling Augmented Reality (AR) functionality. Apart from avoiding collisions with the environment, interaction with virtual objects may also be affected by seeing the real environment. However, whether these effects are positive or negative has not yet been studied extensively. For most tasks it is unknown whether AR has any advantage over VR. In this work we present the results of a user study in which we compared user performance measured in task completion time on a 9 degrees of freedom object selection and transformation task performed either in AR or VR, both with a 3D input device and a mouse. Our results show faster task completion time in AR over VR. When using a 3D input device, a purely VR environment increased task completion time by 22.5 percent on average compared to AR ( ). Surprisingly, a similar effect occurred when using a mouse: users were about 17.3 percent slower in VR than in AR ( ). Mouse and 3D input device produced similar task completion times in each condition (AR or VR) respectively. We further found no differences in reported comfort.

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Projector-camera (ProCam) systems have a potential to become popular and affordable as they can create interactive surfaces for example on tabletops, walls, household items or on a palm of a hand. The possibility that these systems will be used at homes in the future is increasing. The elderly living alone at home often need assistance in their daily tasks as the likelihood of cognitive and motor skill related impairments increases with age. ProCam systems could be used for guidance due to easy to manipulate large interaction surfaces, but research on its suitability for elderly users is scarce. Our research focus is on elderly users and examining their characteristics as potential users of ProCam systems and the implications for interaction design. We conducted a user study with a mixed impairments group of elderly aged 82-94 to investigate how a personalized and skill-suited user interface should be designed. In our qualitative approach, we discovered that the combinations of both cognitive and motor skill deficiencies of the elderly prohibit one-for-all designs so the user interface design should be adapted to each individual's interaction skills. Lastly, we make suggestions for designing ProCam interaction for elderly.

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