Engaging Users with an AR Pervasive Game for Personal Urban Awareness

Abstract

The combination of Augmented Reality (AR) and pervasive games in urban environments offers a great opportunity for learning about a specific urban environment. Since pervasive games are played in a physical space, the user familiarity with such environment might play a key role in the user motivation and in the whole user experience. In this paper, we analyse how an augmented reality pervasive game is experienced in an urban game. The aim of the game is to engage people in informal learning activities increasing their knowledge about a specific area. We also introduce the concept of Personal Urban Awareness (PUA) as a way to represent the level at which a person feels connected and knows about a specific environment. Thus, we try to find out whether the user engagement and PUA are related. In order to research this, we run an experiment where two groups of users, familiar with the environment and not familiar with it, play the augmented reality game in an urban space. The results suggest that AR pervasive games might be a good approach to engage citizens and improve their awareness about a specific area.

Connecting citizens with urban environments through an augmented reality pervasive game

“…Tiene sentido que la categoría de Atención Focalizada tenga una puntuación más baja que las demás, ya que los LBG se utilizan en la calle y se requieren atención a los eventos que suceden al alrededor, por razones de seguridad. Los resultados se encuentran publicados en el estudio [37].…”

“…• Diseño de un LBG con temática histórica, para incentivar en los ciudadanos/usuarios el interés en un entorno concreto publicado en [37].…”

“…a identificar qué elementos dentro de la experiencia de usuario son más significativos para implementar un LBG. Publicaciones [35], [37], [81], [82].…”

Iterative Prototyping of Urban CoBuilder: Tracking Methods and User Interface of an Outdoor Mobile Augmented Reality Tool for Co-Designing

“…Sensor-based outdoor tracking relies on the combination of GPS or Wi-Fi with smart devices' inertial sensors [22,43], such as gyroscopes, accelerometers, and compasses. In these applications, only a smartphone is usually required, and typical applications are outdoor AR games [44], such as Pokemon Go [45]. Although such sensor-based tracking could work for general public participation, the general lack of accuracy of GPS coupled with an eventual drift of the inertial sensors [21,23,24] is a problem for outdoor AR functions that require stable tracking [25].…”

Hybrid Cognitive-Affective Strategies for AI Safety

“…Moreover, VR frameworks facilitate transformative affective experiences which could contribute to empower social skills and especially environmental awareness [104,295]. Besides that, first prosocial AR games were used to increase urban and ethical awareness [439,368]. However, AR studies for improving on social cognition are currently less widespread than corresponding VR experiments.…”