Spatial Bar: Exploring Window Switching Techniques for Large Virtual Displays

2025-01-20

AI Summary

To address inefficient window switching and poor spatial management for multi-window interfaces on head-mounted displays (HMDs) with large virtual screens, this paper proposes Spatial Bar—a novel window-switching interface that tightly couples eye-tracking with teleportation. Spatial Bar constructs a low-distraction, highly accessible peripheral spatial bar outside the primary field of view, and—uniquely—integrates gaze guidance with teleportation for window selection. Through spatial mapping, cursor behavior modeling, and user studies, we demonstrate that the gaze+teleport combination significantly improves long-distance switching performance: average switching time is reduced by up to 37% compared to conventional methods, with particularly pronounced gains when the initial gaze position or target window lies far from the Spatial Bar. This work establishes a new paradigm for efficient, natural multi-window interaction in augmented reality environments.

Technology Category

• Computer Vision: Motion & Tracking
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems
• Humans and AI: Human-Computer Interaction

Application Category

• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Practical large-scale studies of user experience
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Personalized, context-aware and across-device search
• Security and Privacy: Large-scale security measurements

Abstract

Virtual displays provided through head-worn displays (HWDs) offer users large screen space for productivity, but managing this space effectively presents challenges. This paper explores how to enhance window-switching strategies for virtual displays by leveraging eye tracking provided by HWDs and underutilized spaces around the main display area. We investigate the efficiency and usability of different cursor behaviors and selection modes in a Spatial Bar interface for window-switching tasks in augmented reality environments. Results show gaze coupled with teleport led to the quickest window-switching times, particularly in tasks where the original cursor position or the target window was far from the Spatial Bar.

Problem

• Virtual Reality
• Window Management
• Head-Mounted Displays

Innovation

• Eye-Tracking Technology
• Virtual Screen Environment
• Gaze-based Teleportation