In the past week I’ve entered the initial development stages of my project. I’ve decided to produce a prototype for an AR mobile application that attempted to resolve and scalability challenge in the Multimedia Centre at the University of Winchester. As courses continue to grow around the University, demand for training on different cameras is increasing. At points during each semester, training demands are so intensive that cameras are kept within the confines of the Multimedia Centre for training, rather than being taken out into the field by students. This hold on cameras is not something that staff intend to do, but is a natural result of cameras being booked in advance for training sessions. By creating an AR mobile application with virtual cameras, which allows students to receive some form of camera training, I’ve hypothesised that some pressures on physical camera training could be relieved.
Being relatively new to AR, and only understanding it from gaming and sports experiences, I’ve carried out some initial research into it. From this, I’ve ascertained that AR systems follow three characteristics:
“1) Combines real and virtual
2) Interactive in real time
3) Registered in 3-D” (Azuma, 1997)
Augmented Reality experiences also tend to come in a variety of forms, commonly involving a user’s handheld device such as a mobile phone or tablet, but can also involve kiosks or head-mounted displays (HMDs); they aren’t limited to particular types of devices. I feel that I’ve noticed that the form factor of these experiences is often dictated by the purpose, however; so for an AR app like Pokemon Go, smartphones might have been chosen as the distribution device because users often already have one in their pocket, and the device itself features a camera and navigational functionality already.
Benefits of AR
Mobile Augmented Reality appears to be most accessible for my end users, who are likely to be University students, although other benefits include:
- “Mobile augmented reality is especially well suited to ideas such as ‘ubiquitous learning’ in which the plan is that every person learns all the time, wherever they are, when they need to.” (Craig, 2013)
- AR experiences can be relatively low cost when developed for smartphones or tablets (not for permanent, purpose-built devices however) (Craig, 2013)
- Users may already own the necessary hardware (smartphones and tablets), and even be willing to keep it up-to-date by completing software updates, or replace it by upgrading on an annual (or less frequent) basis
Constraints of AR
- Depending on the use case, augmented reality may require a specialist kiosk with sensors etc rather than using users own hardware (Craig, 2013)
- Mobile devices can offer a limited screen real estate, which can negatively impact user experience and the user interface (Craig, 2013)
- Mobile devices have other performance limitations such as their memory (Craig, 2013)
- Augmented reality experiences are at the mercy of environmental constraints such as lighting, humidity, and noise, as well as interference (Craig, 2013)
- Standardised interaction schemes are required to overcome any limitation in user understanding of augmented reality experiences, (how to launch the experience, how to place an object etc)
Having settled on creating a prototype for an AR mobile application, I’ve began my initial development with some ideas generation. Below, I’ve included a copy of my mind map, which includes thoughts on your mental reality experiences purpose, accessibility considerations, thoughts on distribution, and software opportunities. At this stage, I’ve made an assumption that my end users will be students, so I’ve also made some consideration for the educational benefit of an augmented reality experience.
A final thought for this week comes from a discussion I had with my lecturer around the outcome for this project. When asked about suitable outcomes for submission, my lecturer informed me that a proof of concept would be a good option. I don’t yet know what one of these is, although for now I assume it is along the lines of a high fidelity prototype. Although I’ve produced one of these for my recent project, focused on mobile application development, I imagine that producing one for an augmented reality experience will involve using different software applications.
References
Azuma, R.T. (1997). A Survey of Augmented Reality. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, [online] 6(4), pp.355–385. Available at: http://www.cs.unc.edu/~azuma/ARpresence.pdf [Accessed 28 Sep. 2021].
Craig, A.B. (2013). Understanding Augmented Reality: Concepts and Applications. San Diego: Elsevier Science & Technology Books.