AiRWeb: Using AR to Extend Web Browsing Beyond Handheld Screens

2026-03-08

AI Summary

This work proposes a novel web browsing paradigm that integrates mobile devices with augmented reality (AR) to overcome the limitations imposed by constrained screen real estate. Leveraging the structural properties of web pages, the approach enables users to dynamically project selected content elements into their surrounding physical space, with control over what to project, when to project it, and how to arrange it spatially. This facilitates task-oriented, personalized information organization and interaction. A fully functional prototype is implemented using standard web technologies, supporting an end-to-end workflow from content selection on mobile devices to spatial manipulation in AR. Preliminary user studies indicate that the system is easy to learn and use, while also highlighting key design challenges, such as the activation of projection modes.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Interaction Techniques and Devices
• Application Domains: Mobility, Driving & Flight
• Search and Optimization: Applications

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Energy management for devices in mobile Web and WoT environments
• Responsible Web: Human-perceived consequences of algorithmic deployment on the web
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Personalized, context-aware and across-device search

Abstract

Browsing the Web on mobile devices is often cumbersome due to their limited screen space. We investigate a phone+AR Web browsing approach, AiRWeb, that leverages the structural properties of Web pages to allow users to seamlessly select and offload arbitrary Web content into the space surrounding them. Focusing on flexibility, AiRWeb lets users decide what to offload, when to do so, and how offloaded content is arranged, enabling personalized organization tailored to the task at hand. We developed a fully functional prototype using standard Web technologies, that covers the complete interaction workflow, from the selection of elements to offload from the phone to their manipulation in the air. Results from a preliminary study conducted using this prototype suggest that AiRWeb is learnable and usable, while also revealing open design challenges around offload mode activation in particular.

Problem

• mobile web browsing
• limited screen space
• user experience
• web content offloading

Innovation

• AR Web browsing
• content offloading
• spatial interaction
• mobile Web
• augmented reality