arXiv subjects

Shengdong Zhao

Publications and source records attributed to Shengdong Zhao.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

ATOM: Geometry-Aware Microgesture towards Object-Agnostic Tangible Interaction

This paper presents ATOM, an integrated framework towards agnostic and tangible object interactions with microgestures. Our goal is to support microgesture interactions across different everyday objects, with the capability to automatically leverage the geometric affordance of each object. We formulate a fingertip-aware detection pipeline to leverage generative 2D and 3D models for geometry enhancement and refinement. We then introduce a usability-based method to prioritize the detected elements based on their ergonomic suitability for interactions. Building on this foundation, we further develop an AR system to transform everyday handheld objects into tangible user interfaces with 0D, 1D, and 2D microgesture interactions. Across transitions among everyday cooking objects of varying shapes and sizes, ATOM outperformed ablation baselines in task completion, usability (SUS), and workload (NASA-TLX). A further study with 10 objects demonstrates ATOM's generalizability across objects and grasps, highlighting its potential towards fluid, object-agnostic tangible interaction in real-world AR scenarios.

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arXiv2026

LiverPlan: A Stage-Adaptive Immersive Visual Analytics Framework for Anatomical Liver Surgical Planning

Anatomical liver resection (ALR) surgery is the most important treatment for liver cancer, yet preoperative planning demands complex, multi-stage clinical reasoning under competing safety constraints. Current 2D desktop tools are not well equipped to support this process, exhibiting three fundamental limitations: reliance on monolithic interfaces that fail to adapt to the distinct cognitive demands of each planning stage; a perceptual bottleneck caused by limited anatomical spatial representation and missing plane-vessel intersection visualization; and an attention bottleneck stemming from fragmented critical safety criteria display across separate views. We present LiverPlan, a stage-adaptive immersive visual analytics framework for ALR planning, grounded in an 8-month collaboration with two expert hepatobiliary surgeons. Decomposing the surgical planning process into three sequential yet cognitively distinct stages, LiverPlan externalizes the cognitive demand of each stage via tailored techniques: (1) context-preserving focus and hue-preserving rendering for anatomical discovery; (2) direct 3D resection plane manipulation coupled with real-time, embedded visual feedback on critical safety criteria during plan refinement; and (3) explicit plane-vessel intersection visualization for anticipatory surgery preparation. A within-subjects study with eight hepatobiliary surgeons against a desktop baseline shows large-effect-size improvements in task completion time, perceived cognitive workload, and system usability on controlled planning tasks. Moreover, our study reveals broader insights: LiverPlan reduces cognitive burden and encourages a shift in surgeons from merely satisfying safety criteria to actively optimizing them, suggesting that explicit visualization of spatial relationships lowers the cognitive barrier to complex surgical planning.

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arXiv2026

You Cannot Optimize What You Cannot Measure: Multitasking Evaluation as the Missing Foundation of AI-Mediated Heads-Up Interaction

AI-mediated heads-up augmented reality (AR) replaces fixed interfaces with dynamically adapting ones that decide what information to present, in what form, and when, based on a continually changing context that cannot be fully anticipated beforehand. Although it remains an interface, its behavior over time is only partially specified at design time. We argue that this shift requires a corresponding change in evaluation: from snapshots to trajectories. A fixed interface is evaluated in a snapshot --- one context, one session, one set of task-performance metrics. A fluid interface must be evaluated over a trajectory --- a sequence of contexts with transitions, sampled from the distribution the interface will actually encounter, and tracked long enough for user trust to form, evolve, and potentially deteriorate. Drawing on the literature for heads-up AR multitasking enabled by optical see-through head-mounted displays (OST-HMDs), we find that current evaluation practice remains largely snapshot-based. Most studies use fixed-condition, single-session designs; interference between concurrent tasks is rarely quantified directly; and commonly used workload measures cannot disentangle cognitive load attributable to individual tasks. To address these limitations, we argue for three shifts: from isolated metrics to Performance Operating Characteristic (POC) interference frontiers, from fixed conditions to evaluation over context trajectories, and from single-session snapshots to longitudinal trust measurement.

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arXiv2026

CRAFT: Exploring Wearable Creative AI on Smart Glasses for Fiction Writing in Real-World Contexts

Creative writing increasingly integrates AI assistance, yet current tools miss in-situ moments when writers draw inspiration from real-world experiences. We envision Context-aware Reality-Fiction Transformation (CRAFT), an approach for AI glasses that translates daily experiences into fiction narratives. We explored its desirability, feasibility, and potential viability through three studies. Interviews with nine writers yielded desires and three design goals: 1) augmenting in-situ perception to bridge reality-fiction gaps, 2) promoting authenticity grounded in real-world experiences while maintaining fictionalization, and 3) preserving creative agency, enjoyment, and life-art boundaries. Co-design workshops with 16 writers and researchers operationalized these goals into concrete interaction mechanisms using a technology probe. We then conducted supported field trials with eight writers across 24 sessions using a refined probe, revealing writer-perceived benefits (e.g., enriched fictional ideas from serendipitous encounters), emergent practices (e.g., micro-creation), and design considerations for future sustained use. We contribute design explorations for the CRAFT approach, offering design implications and empirical insights on ubiquitous human-AI creative collaboration in everyday life.

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arXiv2026

Hierarchical Resource Rationality Explains Human Reading Behavior

Reading is a pervasive and cognitively demanding activity that underpins modern human culture. It is a prime instance of a class of tasks where eye movements are coordinated for the purpose of comprehension. Existing theories explain either eye movements or comprehension during reading, but the critical link between the two remains unclear. Here, we propose resource-rational optimization as a unifying principle governing adaptive reading behavior. Eye movements are selected to maximize expected comprehension while minimizing cognitive and temporal costs, organized hierarchically across nested time scales: fixation decisions support word recognition; sentence-level integration guides skipping and regression; and text-level comprehension goals shape memory construction and rereading. A computational implementation successfully replicates an unprecedented range of findings in human reading, from lexical effects to comprehension outcomes. Together, these results suggest that resource rationality provides a general mechanism for coordinating perception, memory, and action in knowledge-intensive human behaviors, offering a principled account of how complex cognitive skills adapt to limited resources.

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arXiv2026

Simulation-based Optimization for Augmented Reading

Augmented reading systems aim to adapt text presentation to improve comprehension and task performance, yet existing approaches rely heavily on heuristics, opaque data-driven models, or repeated human involvement in the design loop. We propose framing augmented reading as a simulation-based optimization problem grounded in resource-rational models of human reading. These models instantiate a simulated reader that allocates limited cognitive resources, such as attention, memory, and time under task demands, enabling systematic evaluation of text user interfaces. We introduce two complementary optimization pipelines: an offline approach that explores design alternatives using simulated readers, and an online approach that personalizes reading interfaces in real time using ongoing interaction data. Together, this perspective enables adaptive, explainable, and scalable augmented reading design without relying solely on human testing.

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arXiv2026

PersonaMail: Learning and Adapting Personal Communication Preferences for Context-Aware Email Writing

LLM-assisted writing has seen rapid adoption in interpersonal communication, yet current systems often fail to capture the subtle tones essential for effectiveness. Email writing exemplifies this challenge: effective messages require careful alignment with intent, relationship, and context beyond mere fluency. Through formative studies, we identified three key challenges: articulating nuanced communicative intent, making modifications at multiple levels of granularity, and reusing effective tone strategies across messages. We developed PersonaMail, a system that addresses these gaps through structured communication factor exploration, granular editing controls, and adaptive reuse of successful strategies. Our evaluation compared PersonaMail against standard LLM interfaces, and showed improved efficiency in both immediate and repeated use, alongside higher user satisfaction. We contribute design implications for AI-assisted communication systems that prioritize interpersonal nuance over generic text generation.

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arXiv2026

Wearable AR for Restorative Breaks: How Interactive Narrative Experiences Support Relaxation for Young Adults

Young adults often take breaks from screen-intensive work by consuming digital content on mobile phones, which undermines rest through visual fatigue and inactivity. We introduce a design framework that embeds light break activities into media content on AR smart glasses, balancing engagement and recovery. The framework employs three strategies: (1) seamlessly guiding users by embedding activity cues aligned with media elements; (2) transitioning to audio-centric formats to reduce visual load while sustaining immersion; and (3) structuring sessions with "rise-peak-closure" pacing for smooth transitions. In a within-subjects study (N = 16) comparing passive viewing, reminder-based breaks, and non-narrative activities, InteractiveBreak instantiated from our framework seamlessly guided activities, sustained engagement, and enhanced break quality. These findings demonstrate wearable AR's potential to support restorative relaxation by transforming breaks into engaging and meaningful experiences.

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arXiv2025

Spatial Balancing: Designing an LLM-Powered Spatial Externalization Interface for Iterative Science Communication Writing

Science communication revision requires writers to dynamically balance scientific exposition and narrative engagement - a process where writers often struggle with competing directions. Existing LLM-assisted tools help with co-writing, but offer limited support for navigating this iterative, multi-directional revision process. To address this gap, we designed Spatial Balancing, an exploratory revision environment that maps rhetorical goals and revision strategies onto a two-dimensional spatial canvas for experienced science communication creators with domain expertise but lacking formal professional training. By building a design space of communication strategies and embedding them into a spatial exploratory canvas, our system treats feedback as navigational cues rather than prescriptive judgments. Our findings show that this integrated revision environment helps writers stay focused on writing goals, reason about revision as trajectories, and explore alternatives, which supports greater metacognitive control and confidence without increasing workload. This work highlights the value of spatially externalized revision environments for supporting iterative, reflective thinking during LLM-assisted writing.

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arXiv2025

Progressive Sentences: Combining the Benefits of Word and Sentence Learning

The rapid evolution of lightweight consumer augmented reality (AR) smart glasses (a.k.a. optical see-through head-mounted displays) offers novel opportunities for learning, particularly through their unique capability to deliver multimodal information in just-in-time, micro-learning scenarios. This research investigates how such devices can support mobile second-language acquisition by presenting progressive sentence structures in multimodal formats. In contrast to the commonly used vocabulary (i.e., word) learning approach for novice learners, we present a "progressive presentation" method that combines both word and sentence learning by sequentially displaying sentence components (subject, verb, object) while retaining prior context. Pilot and formal studies revealed that progressive presentation enhances recall, particularly in mobile scenarios such as walking. Additionally, incorporating timed gaps between word presentations further improved learning effectiveness under multitasking conditions. Our findings demonstrate the utility of progressive presentation and provide usage guidelines for educational applications-even during brief, on-the-go learning moments.

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arXiv2025

WSCoach: Wearable Real-time Auditory Feedback for Reducing Unwanted Words in Daily Communication

The rise of wearable smart devices raises unprecedented opportunities for self-improvement through ubiquitous behavior tracking and guidance. However, the design of effective wearable behavior intervention systems remains relatively unexplored. To address this gap, we conducted controlled studies focusing on the reduction of unwanted words (e.g., filler words, swear words) in daily communication through auditory feedback using wearable technology. We started with a design space exploration, considering various factors such as the type, duration, and timing of the auditory feedback. Then, we conducted pilot studies to reduce the space of design choices and prototyped a system called WSCoach (Wearable Speech Coach), which informs users when they utter unwanted words in near-real-time. To evaluate WSCoach, we compared it with a state-of-the-art mobile application supporting post-hoc conversation analysis. Both approaches were effective in reducing the occurrence of unwanted words, but WSCoach appears to be more effective in the long run. Finally, we discuss guidelines for the design of wearable audio-based behavior monitoring and intervention systems and highlight the potential of wearable technology for facilitating behavior correction and improvement. For supplementary material, please see the META Appendix and our OSF project at https://osf.io/6vhwn/?view_only=489498d3ac2d4703a17475fc6ca65dfa.

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arXiv2025

SimulataR: Rapid Assisted Reality Prototyping using Design-Blended Videos

Assisted Reality (aR) is a subfield of Augmented Reality (AR) that overlays information onto a user's immediate view via see-through head-mounted displays (OST-HMDs). This technology has proven to be effective and energy-efficient to support the user and information interaction for everyday wearable intelligent systems. The aR viewing experience, however, is affected by varying real-world backgrounds, lighting, and user movements, which makes designing for aR challenging. Designers have to test their designs in-situ across multiple real-world settings, which can be time-consuming and labor-intensive. We propose SimulataR, a cost-effective desktop-based approach for rapid aR prototyping using first-person-view context videos blended with design prototypes to simulate an aR experience. A field study involving 12 AR users comparing SimulataR to real OST-HMDs found that SimulataR can approximate the aR experience, particularly for indoors and in low-to-moderate lit outdoor environments. Case studies with two designers who used SimulataR in their design process demonstrates the potential of design-blended videos for rapid aR prototyping.

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arXiv2025

AiGet: Transforming Everyday Moments into Hidden Knowledge Discovery with AI Assistance on Smart Glasses

Unlike the free exploration of childhood, the demands of daily life reduce our motivation to explore our surroundings, leading to missed opportunities for informal learning. Traditional tools for knowledge acquisition are reactive, relying on user initiative and limiting their ability to uncover hidden interests. Through formative studies, we introduce AiGet, a proactive AI assistant integrated with AR smart glasses, designed to seamlessly embed informal learning into low-demand daily activities (e.g., casual walking and shopping). AiGet analyzes real-time user gaze patterns, environmental context, and user profiles, leveraging large language models to deliver personalized, context-aware knowledge with low disruption to primary tasks. In-lab evaluations and real-world testing, including continued use over multiple days, demonstrate AiGet's effectiveness in uncovering overlooked yet surprising interests, enhancing primary task enjoyment, reviving curiosity, and deepening connections with the environment. We further propose design guidelines for AI-assisted informal learning, focused on transforming everyday moments into enriching learning experiences.

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arXiv2024

Collective Creation of Intimacy: Exploring the Cosplay Commission Practice within the Otome Game Community in China

Cosplay commission (cos-commission) is a new form of commodified intimate relationship within the Otome game community in China. To explore the motivations, practices, experiences, and challenges, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 participants in different roles. Our findings reveal that cos-commission, as a hybrid activity, provides participants with a chance to collaboratively build meaningful connections. It also offers a pathway for personal exploration and emotional recovery. However, the vague boundary between performative roles and intimate interactions can give rise to unexpected negative outcomes, such as attachment-driven entanglements and post-commission ``withdrawal symptoms.'' While digital platforms facilitate communication in cos-commissions, they often lack sufficient safeguards. This preliminary work provides insights into the formation process of hybrid intimate relationship and its potential to foster personalized, long-term support for mental well-being, and reveals potential privacy and safety challenges.

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arXiv2024

GPTVoiceTasker: Advancing Multi-step Mobile Task Efficiency Through Dynamic Interface Exploration and Learning

Virtual assistants have the potential to play an important role in helping users achieves different tasks. However, these systems face challenges in their real-world usability, characterized by inefficiency and struggles in grasping user intentions. Leveraging recent advances in Large Language Models (LLMs), we introduce GptVoiceTasker, a virtual assistant poised to enhance user experiences and task efficiency on mobile devices. GptVoiceTasker excels at intelligently deciphering user commands and executing relevant device interactions to streamline task completion. The system continually learns from historical user commands to automate subsequent usages, further enhancing execution efficiency. Our experiments affirm GptVoiceTasker's exceptional command interpretation abilities and the precision of its task automation module. In our user study, GptVoiceTasker boosted task efficiency in real-world scenarios by 34.85%, accompanied by positive participant feedback. We made GptVoiceTasker open-source, inviting further research into LLMs utilization for diverse tasks through prompt engineering and leveraging user usage data to improve efficiency.

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arXiv2024

SelfIE: Self-Initiated Explorable Instructions Towards Enhanced User Experience

Given the widespread use of procedural instructions with non-linear access (situational information retrieval), there has been a proposal to accommodate both linear and non-linear usage in instructional design. However, it has received inadequate scholarly attention, leading to limited exploration. This paper introduces Self-Initiated Explorable (SelfIE) instructions, a new design concept aiming at enabling users to navigate instructions flexibly by blending linear and non-linear access according to individual needs and situations during tasks. Using a Wizard-of-Oz protocol, we initially embodied SelfIE instructions within a toy-block assembly context and compared it with baseline instructions offering linear-only access (N=21). Results show a 71% increase in user preferences due to its ease of reflecting individual differences, empirically supporting the prior proposal. Besides, our observations identify three strategies for flexible access and suggest the potential of enhancing the user experience by considering cognitive processes and implementing flexible access in a wearable configuration. Following the design phase, we translated the WoZ-based design embodiment as working prototypes on the tablet and OHMD to assess usability and compare user experience between the two configurations (N=8). Our data yields valuable insights into managing the trade-offs between the two configurations, thereby facilitating more effective flexible access development.

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arXiv2024

TOM: A Development Platform For Wearable Intelligent Assistants

Advanced digital assistants can significantly enhance task performance, reduce user burden, and provide personalized guidance to improve users' abilities. However, the development of such intelligent digital assistants presents a formidable challenge. To address this, we introduce TOM, a conceptual architecture and software platform (https://github.com/TOM-Platform) designed to support the development of intelligent wearable assistants that are contextually aware of both the user and the environment. This system was developed collaboratively with AR/MR researchers, HCI researchers, AI/Robotic researchers, and software developers, and it continues to evolve to meet the diverse requirements of these stakeholders. TOM facilitates the creation of intelligent assistive AR applications for daily activities and supports the recording and analysis of user interactions, integration of new devices, and the provision of assistance for various activities. Additionally, we showcase several proof-of-concept assistive services and discuss the challenges involved in developing such services.

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arXiv2024

Demonstrating PilotAR: A Tool to Assist Wizard-of-Oz Pilot Studies with OHMD

While pilot studies help to identify potential interesting research directions, the additional requirements in AR/MR make it challenging to conduct quick and dirty pilot studies efficiently with Optical See-Through Head-Mounted Displays (OST HMDs, OHMDs). To overcome these challenges, including the inability to observe and record in-context user interactions, increased task load, and difficulties with in-context data analysis and discussion, we introduce PilotAR (https://github.com/Synteraction-Lab/PilotAR), a tool designed iteratively to enhance AR/MR pilot studies, allowing live first-person and third-person views, multi-modal annotations, flexible wizarding interfaces, and multi-experimenter support.

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