Sidebars

Abstract

In a high-stress situation, such as an emergency, first responders (e.g. police, firefighters) require relevant information to be delivered in a timely, efficient way. Augmented reality seems like a natural way for emergency responders to find relevant information that is close to them. However, due to the limited angle and distance seen through the camera, many relevant points will be off-screen, making it difficult to quickly find the needed information. Several approaches for this problem have been proposed in previous works, however, most are designed for 2D maps, and those proposed for augmented reality do not allow users to quickly find a certain type of point of interest. We studied the emergency response scenario through a development project and several focus groups. Then, we implemented SidebARs: a prototype that implements two sidebars that allow users to quickly find the relevant information they are interested in, combined with layer filters and a slide bar to set a radius of interest. This visualization technique not only gives users awareness about the distance and direction of relevant points of interest, but also about their type. This paper presents the design and implementation of this prototype. A preliminary evaluation with firefighters found it to be a promising mechanism to find information during an emergency.