Augmented Reality (AR) devices and applications are gaining in popularity, and - with recent trends such as Pokemon Go - are venturing into public spaces where they become more and more pervasive. In consequence, public AR displays might soon be part of our cityscapes and may impact on our everyday view of the world. In this work, we present ChalkboARd, a prototype of an AR-enabled public display that seamlessly integrates into its environment. We investigate the influence of our system on the attention of bystanders in a field study (N=20). The field deployment of ChalkboARd provides evidence that AR for public displays needs to be interactive and adaptive to their surroundings, while at the same time taking privacy issues into account. Nevertheless, ChalkboARd was received positively by the participants, which points out the (hidden) potential of public AR displays.
The ChalkboARd system consists of a self-constructed wooden frame, a 24-inch LCD monitor, and a Samsung Galaxy S8 Android smartphone that is connected to the monitor via USB-C. We developed our software with Unity3D, a game engine that supports different platforms (including Android and iOS).
The wooden frame can be constructed using squared timber, screws, iron chain and two hinges. As a first step, measure the size of the display and cut off the squared timber accordingly. Next, connect the pieces of squared timber using screws - at the end you should get one side of the wooden part of the chalkboard. Then, repeat the two steps to produce the same wooden frame again. Afterwards, connect both wooden frames using the two hinges. Use the chain to determine the opening angle of the chalkboard. As a last step, add the display to the chalkboard and create a smartphone holder behind the display.
- Unity Unity implementation of AR scene - to deploy on an Android Smartphone
- Pictures Contains pictures showing the setup and environment of the user study
- Models Blender-Model of the chalk figure used in the AR scene