A Desktop-Centric Design Space for Direct Object Examination and Visualization in Mixed-Reality Environments

Mixed reality (MR) environments are bound to become ubiquitous as MR technology becomes lighter, higher resolution, more affordable, and overall becomes a seamless extension of our current work and living spaces. For research scientists and clinicians focused on understanding 3D phenomena or patient pathologies within the context of the larger human anatomy, that means a necessary evolution of their workstations currently only utilizing 2D interfaces for everyday communication, logistics and data analysis. MR technologies bring forth immersive 3D representations coexisting in our natural spaces, while allowing for richer interconnected information displays, where 3D representations greatly aid in the detailed understanding of physical structures, spatial relationships, and 3D contextualization of 2D measurements, projections, abstractions, and other data details. We present a breakdown of the different interaction zones and modalities into a design space that best accommodates the creation of applications for users engaged through MR technologies in precise object-centric data analysis within the ergonomic confines of their desktop physical spaces.