An increasing number of systems are exploiting mixed reality but to date there are no systematic methods, techniques or guidelines for the development of such systems. In bringing together contributions on a broad range of mixed reality development issues this book provides a sound theoretical foundation for a disciplined approach to mixed reality engineering.

Divided into three parts: interaction design, software design and implementation, the first section covers generic and specific mixed reality design elements and provides an overview of the design method; Part 2 addresses technical solutions for interaction techniques, development tools and a global view of the mixed reality software development process. The final section contains detailed case studies to highlight the application of mixed reality in a variety of fields including aviation, architecture, emergency management, games, and healthcare.

An increasing number of systems are exploiting mixed reality but to date there are no systematic methods, techniques or guidelines for the development of such systems. In bringing together contributions on a broad range of mixed reality development issues this book provides a sound theoretical foundation for a disciplined approach to mixed reality engineering.

Divided into three parts: interaction design, software design and implementation, the first section covers generic and specific mixed reality design elements and provides an overview of the design method; Part 2 addresses technical solutions for interaction techniques, development tools and a global view of the mixed reality software development process. The final section contains detailed case studies to highlight the application of mixed reality in a variety of fields including aviation, architecture, emergency management, games, and healthcare.

Reading has arguably the longest and richest history of any domain for scientifically considering the impact of technology on the user. From the 1920s to the 1950s, Miles Tinker [1963] and other researchers ran hundreds of user tests that examined the effects of different fonts and text layout variables, such as the amount of vertical space between each line of text (called leading). Their research focused on user performance, and reading speed was the favoured measure. They charted the effect of the manipulated variables on reading speed, looking for the point at which their participants could read the fastest. Their assumption was that faster reading speeds created a more optimal experience. Printers and publishers eagerly consumed this research. In recent years, some of these variables have been reexamined as the technology and capabilities evolve with the advent of computers and computer screens. Dillon [1992] examined how to design textual information for an electronic environment. Boyarski et al. [1998] examined the effect of fonts that were designed for computer screens. Dyson & Kipping [1998] examined the effect of line length on computer screens. Larson et al. [2000] examined the effect of 3-D rotation on reading. Gugerty et al. [2004] demonstrated a reading performance advantage with the Microsoft ClearType display technology.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the 8th IFIP International Conference on Engineering for Human-Computer Interaction, EHCI 2001, held in Toronto, Canada, in May 2001.The 21 revised full papers and 4 revised short papers presented have passed through 2 rounds of reviewing and improvement and were selected from more than 50 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on software engineering methods, formal methods, toolkits, user interface evaluation, user interface plasticity, 3D user interfaces, input and output devices, mobile interaction, and context sensitive interaction.

The need for ensuring that usability measurement results can contribute to the ongoing development of a software product in a formative way is the main theme of this paper. It is recognized that acquiring, structuring, and analysing data about the actual progression of a product's development is a challenging task. Even more difficult, is the problem of making the results of any analysis of that data readily accessible to all the participants at regular intervals in the process. The paper presents an approach to supporting that process exemplified in SEDRES (Systems Engineering Data Representation and Exchange Standardization), a European Aerospace collaborative project on developing a data exchange capability for design tools. The main subject is the role of a software tool called NUD*IST (Non-numerical Unstructured Data Indexing Searching and Theorizing) (QSR, 1997), in providing support for structuring and analysing longitudinal data and for regular feedback to the project partners about the product under development. The paper begins with an overview of the context of use, a systems engineering project involving five major companies in the European Aerospace industry. SEDRES is a three year project which started in January 1996, co-funded by an ESPRIT grant from the European Commission. The project partners comprise Aerospatiale, Alenia, British Aerospace, Daimler-Benz Aerospace, Saab and Linkoping University (Sweden), the Australian Centre for Test & Evaluation (ACTE), and Loughborough University Telecommunications and Computer-Human Interaction (LUTCHI) Research Centre.