Exploring Expressive Augmented Reality: The FingAR Puppet System for Social Pretend Play
PubDate: April 2015
Teams: University of Cambridge
Writers: Zhen Bai;Alan F. Blackwell;George Coulouris
PDF: Exploring Expressive Augmented Reality: The FingAR Puppet System for Social Pretend Play
Abstract
We present “FingAR Puppet”, an Augmented Reality (AR) system enhancing social pretend play by young children. Unlike goal-oriented AR systems that augment reality with informative instructions, FingAR Puppet helps children associate expressive interpretations with immediate reality. Empirical results show that FingAR Puppet promotes reasoning about emotional states, communication and divergent thinking during social pretend play for children 4-6 years old. We suggest that this study opens an interesting space for future AR systems to support complex cognitive and social development in early childhood. We also identify broader implications from using theories of cognitive development to guide the design of tangible and augmented interactions.