[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-82530-en":3,"doc-seo-82530-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},82530,549758146520,"Patrick","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/80002397d8c0411e94?_k=1775819394049821470",8,"Research & Report","Draped Surfaces: A Contour-Adaptive Interface Overlaid on the Physical Environment for Mixed Reality Workspaces","Conventional mixed reality (MR) workspaces often use cockpit-like, multi-window layouts that help users access digital content but also cause background occlusion, reducing understanding of the real environment and limiting access to nearby physical objects. CAMEO (Contour-Adaptive Mixed Environment Overlays) presents a contour-adaptive interface that drapes virtual windows onto physical surfaces. The approach integrates digital content with surrounding items to improve visual access and support interaction with background objects, and is evaluated in two controlled studies.","arXiv :2607 .005 18v 1 [ cs .HC] 1 Jul 2026  \nDraped Surfaces: A Contour-Adaptive Interface Overlaid on the Physical Environment for Mixed Reality Workspaces  \nSoonUk Kwon  \nUniversity of British Columbia, Okanagan Kelowna, BC, Canada [kwonars@student.ubc.ca](kwonars@student.ubc.ca)  \nBarrett Ens  \nUniversity of British Columbia, Okanagan Kelowna, BC, Canada [barrett.ens@ubc.ca](barrett.ens@ubc.ca)  \nPourang Irani  \nUniversity of British Columbia, Okanagan Kelowna, BC, Canada [pourang.irani@ubc.ca](pourang.irani@ubc.ca)  \nFigure 1: A: The flat interface is represented. B: The interface is being “draped,” onto a nearby object, addressing the tradeoff between legibility and background occlusion. C: Mid-Air to On-Surface workspace continuum. In the Mid-Air region, the interface struggles to conform to the environment, which hinders immediate environment understanding and reduces placement flexibility. Conversely, as the workspace approaches the On-Surface region, the interface becomes less legible due to complex geometries. In the middle, our approach balances legibility with environmental understanding. D: An example interface setting using our Near-Surface approach. The red circles indicate the user’s interaction points around the interface, while the cyan traces represent hand movements. By placing the interface close to physical objects, users gain more foreground volume (in front of the interface) and improved view of their surroundings.  \nAbstract  \nConventional Mixed Reality (MR) workspaces are frequently organized in cockpit-like layouts, where multiple floating windows surround the user. While this configuration facilitates access to digital content, it often induces occlusion, reducing understanding of the physical environment and limiting access to real-world objects. To overcome this challenge, we present the Contour-Adaptive Mixed Environment Overlays (CAMEO), a contour-adaptive MR interface that drapes virtual windows onto physical surfaces. This design integrates digital content with nearby items, thereby improving users’ visual access to background objects and supporting interaction with them. We evaluate CAMEO in two controlled studies. The  \nThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialNoDerivatives 4 .0 International License.  \nCHI’26, April 13–17, 2026, Barcelona, Spain © 2026 Copyright held by the owner/author(s) .  \nACM ISBN 979-8-4007-2278-3/2026/04  \n[https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3791455](https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3791455)  \nfirst demonstrates that draping reduces hand-movement detours relative to flat mid-air surfaces, enabling more direct interaction with nearby items. The second shows that controlled window deformation does not significantly impair text legibility when compared to flat surfaces. Together, these findings contribute a novel design paradigm for MR workspaces that balances immersion, readability, and environmental understanding.  \nCCS Concepts  \n• Human-centered computing → Mixed / augmented reality; Virtual reality.  \nKeywords  \nText Legibility, Visual Clutter, Shape Perception, Spatial Awareness, Environmental Awareness, Contour-Adaptive Overlays, Motor Behavior (Motor Behaviour), Occlusion, Mixed Reality (MR), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Spatial Computing, Diffusion-Based Mesh Smoothing  \nACM Reference Format:  \nSoonUk Kwon, Barrett Ens, and Pourang Irani. 2026. Draped Surfaces: A Contour-Adaptive Interface Overlaid on the Physical Environment for Mixed Reality Workspaces. In Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’26), April 13–17, 2026, Barcelona, Spain. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 18 pages. [https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318](https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318) . 3791455  \n1 Introduction  \nMixed Reality (MR) mid-air windows, arranged in three-dimensional (3D) space much like traditional multi-monitor setups [15, 16, 68](Fig. 1(A)), extend desktop displays by offering increased workspace capacity, fl","cbCaijVh60B2Lncs","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaijVh60B2Lncs","pdf",14522009,3,1,18,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Motivation and limitations of conventional MR workspaces\n## Prior work: spatially augmented reality and floating window layouts\n## Related efforts in graphics smoothing and usability\n## Research gap and contribution of CAMEO","[{\"question\":\"What problem does the paper address in mixed reality workspaces?\",\"answer\":\"Cockpit-like MR layouts can occlude background objects, reducing users’ understanding of the physical environment and limiting interaction with nearby real-world items.\"},{\"question\":\"What is CAMEO and how does it work?\",\"answer\":\"CAMEO is a contour-adaptive MR interface that drapes virtual windows onto nearby physical surfaces, aligning the overlay shape with environmental contours.\"},{\"question\":\"How is CAMEO evaluated in the paper?\",\"answer\":\"The paper reports two controlled studies: one on hand-movement detours compared with flat mid-air surfaces, and another on whether controlled window deformation affects text 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problem does the paper address in mixed reality workspaces?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"Cockpit-like MR layouts can occlude background objects, reducing users’ understanding of the physical environment and limiting interaction with nearby real-world items.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"What is CAMEO and how does it work?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"CAMEO is a contour-adaptive MR interface that drapes virtual windows onto nearby physical surfaces, aligning the overlay shape with environmental contours.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"How is CAMEO evaluated in the paper?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"The paper reports two controlled studies: one on hand-movement detours compared with flat mid-air surfaces, and another on whether controlled window deformation affects text 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