Spatial knowledge acquisition for pedestrian navigation: A comparative study between smartphones and AR glasses

Smartphone map-based pedestrian navigation is known to have a negative effect on the long-term acquisition of spatial knowledge and memorisation of landmarks. Landmark-based navigation has been proposed as an approach that can overcome such limitations. In this work, we investigate how different interaction technologies, namely smartphones and augmented reality (AR) glasses, can affect the acquisition of spatial knowledge when used to support landmark-based pedestrian navigation. We conducted a study involving 20 participants, using smartphones or augmented reality glasses for pedestrian navigation. We studied the effects of these systems on landmark memorisation and spatial knowledge acquisition over a period of time. Our results show statistically significant differences in spatial knowledge acquisition between the two technologies, with the augmented reality glasses enabling better memorisation of landmarks and paths.