Arpet: Using Virtual Pets to Facilitate F2F Social Communication in PAR
Haotian Ying, Xinqi Feng, Qianya Lou, Lei Cai, Xusheng Zhang · 2024
Pervasive Augmented Reality (PAR) brings new opportunities to enhance face-to-face (F2F) social communication by seamlessly and ubiquitously integrating virtual content into real-world settings. While PAR has been applied across various fields, it remains to be seen how virtual experience in AR will affect social behavior. To facilitate F2F social communication among strangers, we proposed a design factor, virtual pets, and developed the corresponding system, Arpet. Results of the user study indicate that virtual pets and their interactions facilitate F2F interactions significantly. Our findings is expected to provide an effective solution for enhancing social engagement in public spaces.