Evaluating subtle cueing in head-worn displays

Goal-oriented visual search in Augmented Reality (AR) can be facilitated by using visual cues to call attention to the target. However, traditional use of explicit cues may degrade visual search performance. In contrast, Subtle Cueing has been previously proposed as an alternative to explicit cueing, but little is known about how well it performs in head-tracked head worn displays (HWDs). Using visual search research methods in simulated augmented reality environments, our user study found that Subtle Cueing improves visual search performance in HWDs, and revealed a phenomenon whereby subjects were not able to see the target, even though subjects were primed and the target was well within view.