Virtual humans for temperature visualization in a tangible augmented reality educational game

Our primary objective is to enable effective game based learning approaches in tangible augmented reality. In game based learning there is often a tradeoff in motivation between the educational aspects and game aspects. For example, consider our previous work - a tangible augmented reality application for passive solar energy education (AR-SEE), in which users learn about the science behind architectural design by interacting with a tangible model house and an augmented reality-based visualization of energy transfer within the house. This research extends AR-SEE to begin to convert this educational simulation into an effective educational game by introducing gaming elements, such as interactive virtual humans. Although it is known that AR-SEE does enable learning, it is unknown how the addition of interactive virtual humans will affect user perception of temperature data and learning. In this paper, the goal was to compare user perception of two approaches to temperature data visualization in in tangible augmented reality on mobile phones: 1) the current particle-based visualization (i.e., based on the science of energy transfer) and 2) novel virtual human-based visualizations. The game was intended for high school students. However, as a preliminary study, we conducted a user study with 27 3rd and 4th year architecture students that compared these two visualization approaches and their impact on temperature estimation, motivation, and perceived learning effectiveness. In the future, we plan to integrate this game into high school curricula.