Tangible interaction technique with authoring capability for kitchen design

Augmented reality (AR) technology allows users to view and interact in real-time with virtual information layered on top of the physical environment. Interaction technique development is based on the AR application context. In some cases, using an AR basic interaction technique is unsuitable as it only allows translation and rotation of the virtual object. For example, kitchen design requires various manipulation functions, especially in changing the features of a virtual kitchen cabinet. Existing AR tangible interaction techniques specified to the kitchen design context enable alteration of the features of virtual furniture despite requiring extra input and output devices, such as a stylus, head-mounted displays (HMDs), and projectors. Such devices are not suitable for AR as they are rarely accessible in daily life. Therefore, this study aimed to develop an AR tangible interaction technique on a mobile platform with authoring capabilities for the kitchen design process. The technique uses a cube and a card as the physical medium and features manipulation functions, such as virtual object placement, position changing, deletion, and changing kitchen cabinet features. The tangible interaction technique recorded a faster mean task completion time than the AR basic interaction technique. The tangible interaction technique also recorded higher usability than the basic interaction technique. Younger and experienced users performed better. Gender did not impact the interaction technique.