Capybara is a social AR app that aims to democratize AR
by empowering young people to express themselves through
creating AR content with others while learning
programming. Inspired by Scratch and Pokémon GO,
Capybara will enable people of all ages can used
block-based programming to build AR experiences with 3D
characters that they can place at physical locations,
which others can interact with and remix into their own
creations.
Despite the potential for connecting strangers in the
digital realm, current research has not explored
location-based augmented reality experiences that enable
strangers to connect by building artifacts
collaboratively. With Dream Garden, anyone can see 3D
flowers planted by strangers, and plant their own
flowers to grow the garden. Dream Garden gives us
insights on how we can use augmented reality as a tool
to bring people together in real life, creating
technologies that bring us together instead of driving
us apart.
While physical escape rooms provide groups with fun,
social experiences, they require a gameplay venue,
props, and a game master, all of which detract from
their ease of access. We present ARctic Escape, a
co-located augmented reality two-person escape room
designed to promote collaboration through play.
Participants found that the ARctic Escape experience was
fun, collaborative, promoted discussion, and inspired
new social dynamics.
PokAR aims to alleviate the following three difficulties
of traditional poker by leveraging AR technology: (1)
the need to have physical poker chips, (2) complex rules
of poker, and (3) slow game pace caused by laborious
tasks. With PokAR, two players engage in heads-up Texas
hold’em poker, utilizing AR on their mobile devices to
facilitate gameplay. We found that PokAR slightly
increased the game pace, and participants had an overall
enjoyable experience, suggesting that AR has the
potential to augment and simplify traditional table
games.