Keep Track! Supporting Spatial Tasks with Augmented Reality Overviews

In industrial environments, efficient management of task takeovers is critical, especially when tasks are complex and workers face frequent interruptions such as shift changes. These takeovers often increase the cognitive load and the potential for errors. We propose the integration of Augmented Reality (AR) to assist users in handling takeovers of complex, and spatial distributed tasks. We developed three visualization techniques with increasing levels of spatial registration – Diagram View as Baseline, Map View, and Location-bound View – ranging from a simple overview to spatially anchored to enhance spatial and temporal awareness during task takeovers. A comparative user study (n=24) was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of these techniques in improving task takeovers efficiency. Our results showed that the Location-bound View, in particular, significantly reduced cognitive load and improved task performance by integrating contextual information directly into the user’s field of view (FOV). This work provides insights for AR system designers and suggests that AR overviews with increasing levels of spatial registration can effectively support the takeover of complex distributed tasks in industrial settings.