Mobile Augmented Reality Elements for Museum Hearing Impaired Visitors’ Engagement

There is an increase attention on the provision of the ideal learning environment for museum visitors. This has made researchers to employ the concept of engagement in designing Mobile Augmented Reality application in order to attract museum visitors’ interest and ensure a more effective learning environment. However, most of the Mobile Augmented Reality applications for museum visitors are largely tailored to normal hearing visitors while the hearing-impaired visitors are not supported. This makes hearing-impaired visitors to go through unpalatable experiences and eventually dissatisfy with their visit to the museum. This experience is making learning impossible for hearing-impaired visitors at the museum sites. Therefore, this study explored engagement Mobile Augmented Reality elements that are needed for the design of an efficient museum Mobile Augmented Reality application for hearing impaired visitors’. The study employed both systematic literature review and expert opinion methods. The findings revealed that there are eleven major elements of engagement Mobile Augmented Reality needed for the design of an efficient museum Mobile Augmented Reality app for hearing impaired visitors’. These eleven elements include Aesthetics, Curiosity, Usability, Interaction, Motivation, Satisfaction, Self-Efficacy, Perceived Control, Enjoyment, Focused Attention and Interest. This paper argues that for an efficient and engaged Mobile Augmented Reality app for the hearing-impaired community most especially hearing-impaired visitors to museum sites these eleven elements are critical. This finding will help Mobile Augmented Reality designers and developers on how to design an efficient and engaged Mobile Augmented Reality app for the hearing-impaired community at large and museum hearing-impaired visitors’ specifically

Exploring the use of smart glasses, gesture control, and environmental data in augmented reality games

Abstract. In the last decade, augmented reality has become a popular trend. Big corporations like Microsoft, Facebook, and Google started to invest in augmented reality because they saw the potential that it has especially with the rising of the consumer version of the head mounted displays such as Microsoft’s HoloLens and the ODG’s R7. However, there is a gap in the knowledge about the interaction with such devices since they are fairly new and an average consumer cannot yet afford them due to their relatively high prices. In this thesis, the Ghost Hunters game is described. The game is a mobile augmented reality pervasive game that uses the environment light data to charge the in-game “goggles”. The game has two different versions, a smartphone and smart glasses version. The Ghost Hunters game was implemented for exploring the use of two different types of interactions methods, buttons and natural hand gestures for both smartphones and smart glasses. In addition to that, the thesis sought to explore the use of ambient light in augmented reality games. First, the thesis defines the essential concepts related to games and augmented reality based on the literature and then describes the current state of the art of pervasive games and smart glasses. Second, both the design and implementation of the Ghost Hunters game are described in detail. Afterwards, the three rounds of field trials that were conducted to investigate the suitability of the two previously mentioned interaction methods are described and discussed. The findings suggest that smart glasses are more immersive than smartphones in context of pervasive AR games. Moreover, prior AR experience has a significant positive impact on the immersion of smart glasses users. Similarly, males were more immersed in the game than females. Hand gestures were proven to be more usable than the buttons on both devices. However, the interaction method did not affect the game engagement at all, but surprisingly it did affect the way users perceive the UI with smart glasses. Users that used the physical buttons were more likely to notice the UI elements than the users who used the hand gestures

Outdoor Augmented Reality: State of the Art and Issues

International audienceThe goal of an outdoor augmented reality system is to allow the human operator to move freely without restraint in its environment, to view and interact in real time with geo-referenced data via mobile wireless devices. This requires proposing new techniques for 3D localization, visualization and 3D interaction, adapted to working conditions in outdoor environment (brightness variation, features of displays used, etc.). This paper surveys recent advances in outdoor augmented reality. It resumes a large retrospective of the work carried out in this field, especially on methodological aspects (localization methods, generation of 3D models, visualization and interaction approaches), technological aspects (sensors, visualization devices and architecture software) and industrial aspects

Extended Reality (XR) Hardware: One Size Doesn’t Fit All, Yet.

Extended Reality (XR) encompasses virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR). Virtual content continues to be incorporated into our real world as more devices become available to support it. It has been accepted into the entertainment space (games like Beat Saber and Pokémon GO), social media apps (SnapChat and TikTok filters), training, and education. Soon everyone will be able to put on a headset or pick up a phone and see virtual holograms in action. But, is XR built inclusively, for everyone? Inclusive design has been defined as, designing a diversity of ways for users to participate so that everyone has a sense of belonging” (Holmes, 2018). We evaluated the inclusivity of popular XR devices: head-mounted displays, smart glasses, and mobile devices – both the physical design and user interaction methods. Results demonstrate that the devices have room for improvement to be fully inclusive

Hand-Controlled User Interfacing for Head-Mounted Augmented Reality Learning Environments

With the rapid expansion of technology and hardware availability within the field of Augmented Reality, building and deploying Augmented Reality learning environments has become more logistically viable than ever before. In this paper, we focus on the development of a new mobile learning experience for a museum by combining multiple technologies to provide additional Human–computer interaction possibilities. This is both to reduce barriers to entry for end-users as well as provide natural interaction methods. Using our method, we implemented a new approach to gesture-based interactions for Augmented Reality interactions by combining two devices, a Leap Motion and a Microsoft HoloLens (1st Generation), via an intermediary device with the use of local-area networking. This was carried out with the intention of comparing this method against alternative forms of Augmented Reality to determine which implementation has the largest impact on adult learners’ ability to retain information. A control group has been used to establish data on memory retention without the use of Augmented Reality technology, along with three focus groups to explore the different methods and locations. Results found that adult learners retain the most overall information when being educated through a traditional lecture, with a statistically significant difference between the methods; however, the use of Augmented Reality resulted in a slower rate of knowledge decay between testing intervals. This contrasts with existing research as adult learners did not respond to the technology in the same way that child and teenage audiences previously have, which suggests that prior research may not be generalisable to all audiences