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Keywords

Maker Culture, Augmented Reality, Shared AR, Internet of Things

CCS Concepts

• Human-centered computing → Open source software; User interface toolkits.

Abstract

Augmented Reality (AR) presents opportunities for shared experiences between users, leading to more engagement among them. Internet of Things (IoT) devices can communicate with one another, delivering/receiving instructions for executing their various functions. Such shared experiences create opportunities for interaction, ideation, and creativity. However, it is still difficult for novice makers to create unique experiences with dynamic, interactive, and engaging AR content that communicate effectively with other devices on a network. We present our solution to designing Shared Experiences with AR and IoT (ShARed IoT) devices. Our system enables users to interact with each other and their electro-mechanical prototypes through AR. A Projective Interview study with 8 UX experts and a field study with 13 users were conducted. Our results show ShARed IoT as a system enables unique shared AR-IoT experiences for both novices and expert users. This work contributes to efforts in enabling complex AR-IoT interactions for novices.

This work is currently under review for the CHI 2022 submission cycle. For further details, please feel free to contact me directly!

Teaser figure from the ShARed IoT Paper that shows how the system works.
ShARed IoT is a mobile augmented reality system that wirelessly communicates with custom built electro-mechanical IoT devices. IoT devices are crafted from low-fidelity materials and electronics from our Electronics Repository, and then programmed with our block-based programming tool called IoT Maker. Cloud Anchors enable the sharing and control of AR content across multiple smartphones, and our wireless communication protocol enables control of a users customized ShARed IoT device across those smartphones.