Color blending in outdoor optical see-through AR: The effect of real-world backgrounds on user interface color

When viewing augmented reality (AR) through an optical see-through head-mounted display (oHMD), the colors of AR elements become washed out as the luminance of the background increases. In addition, the colors of AR elements can shift and change depending on the color of the background that the AR elements are seen against. Both of these phenomena result from the way the color of an AR element blends with the color of the real-world background that the AR element is seen against. Although the fact that this color blending occurs is generally known, to date it has not been systematically studied or quantified. In this work, we sought to quantify this color blending by building an apparatus that allows precise and repeatable color measurements, and then conducting an empirical engineering study.