Real-Time Magnification in Augmented Reality

With recent advances in augmented reality (AR) and computer vision it has become possible to magnify objects in real time in a user’s field of view. AR object magnification can have different purposes, such as enhancing human visual capabilities with the BigHead technique, which works by up-scaling human heads to communicate important facial cues over longer distances. For this purpose, we created a prototype with a 4K camera mounted on a HoloLens 2. In this demo, we present the BigHead technique and proof of concept AR testbed to magnify heads in real-time. Further, we describe how hand gestures are detected to control the scale and position of the magnified head. We discuss the technique and implementation, and propose future research directions.