AR-Loupe: Magnified Augmented Reality by Combining an Optical See-Through Head-Mounted Display and a Loupe

Head-mounted loupes can increase the user's visual acuity to observe the details of an object. On the other hand, optical see-through head-mounted displays (OST-HMD) are able to provide virtual augmentations registered with real objects. In this article, we propose AR-Loupe, combining the advantages of loupes and OST-HMDs, to offer augmented reality in the user's magnified field-of-vision. Specifically, AR-Loupe integrates a commercial OST-HMD, Magic Leap One, and binocular Galilean magnifying loupes, with customized 3D-printed attachments. We model the combination of user's eye, screen of OST-HMD, and the optical loupe as a pinhole camera. The calibration of AR-Loupe involves interactive view segmentation and an adapted version of stereo single point active alignment method (Stereo-SPAAM). We conducted a two-phase multi-user study to evaluate AR-Loupe. The users were able to achieve sub-millimeter accuracy (0'82 mm) on average, which is significantly (p < 0.001) smaller compared to normal AR guidance (1.49 mm). The mean calibration time was 268.46 s. With the increased size of real objects through optical magnification and the registered augmentation, AR-Loupe can aid users in high-precision tasks with better visual acuity and higher accuracy.