Geographical Visualization Within Augmented Reality : Using visualization of geographical data through augmented reality to locate nearby city services

Abstract: Augmented Reality is today one of the most popular upcoming technologies most commonly known for its use within games and advertising. The technology is also used in other less known fields such as task support, navigation and sightseeing but still has additional usages to be discovered. This thesis investigates how Augmented Reality can be used to improve locating city services such as public toilets by visualizing data with the technology instead of more traditional 2D means. To establish a basis on how known Augmented Reality is compared to other visualization methods, a quantitative form was set up and answered by 105 persons. A qualitative study was also conducted that included an experiment with ten users, they were interviewed separately and their answers were recorded when they interacted with the Augmented Reality prototype using a think-aloud approach. The experiment was set up to gain more in-depth knowledge about how users experience using an Augmented Reality product to find nearby objects. The experiment was designed based on information content, functionality and performance, presentation and interaction. The experiment ended with a semistructured interview to gather additional results from what the users had experienced during the interaction with the prototype. The participants of the experiment were people that had used a smartphone before and were selected to create diversity for the study based on gender, age and occupation. The results were negative based on the prototype performance but positive towards a functional product according to both the quantitative and qualitative interview results. The conclusion formed was therefore that Augmented Reality has potential to replace conventional 2D means of finding nearby city services but not in its current state.