Pick Drag Drop: Augmented Reality for Multiple File Sharing

Many users nowadays work with multiple heterogeneous computing devices, such as desktop computers, tablets, laptops and mobile phones. Transferring files between devices is cumbersome and usually done through the internet (e.g. email or cloud computing services) or physical devices such as flash drives. Some solutions for this problem have been proposed, however, they do not allow efficient and easy transferring of several files over medium distances. To facilitate file transfer between different devices, we implemented an augmented-reality based smartphone application that uses “pick-and-drop” and “drag-and-drop” mechanisms to transfer files between devices. This paper presents the implementation and evaluation of the interaction technique, called pick and drag and drop. This technique has two central contributions: it allows transferring several files at once, and it allows file transfer over greater distances than existing alternatives. The technique was tested in two laboratory experiments with promising results: time taken to transfer files was similar to other options, and 78% of users declared preferring PDD to alternative methods.