A Taxonomy of Interaction Techniques for Immersive Augmented Reality based on an Iterative Literature Review

Developers of interactive systems have a variety of interaction techniques to choose from, each with individual strengths and limitations in terms of the considered task, context, and users. While there are taxonomies for desktop, mobile, and virtual reality applications, augmented reality (AR) taxonomies have not been established yet. However, recent advances in immersive AR technology (i.e., head-worn or projection-based AR), such as the emergence of untethered headsets with integrated gesture and speech sensors, have enabled the inclusion of additional input modalities and, therefore, novel multimodal interaction methods have been introduced. To provide an overview of interaction techniques for current immersive AR systems, we conducted a literature review of publications between 2016 and 2021. Based on 44 relevant papers, we developed a comprehensive taxonomy focusing on two identified dimensions – task and modality. We further present an adaptation of an iterative taxonomy development method to the field of human-computer interaction. Finally, we discuss observed trends and implications for future work.