The Unexplored Potential of Playful Ambient Projection-Based AR to Improve Well-Being

This chapter explores how projection-based AR can be used in built environments to improve well-being of occupants. Stress, discomfort or sedentary behaviour are factors that have a negative impact on people’s well-being and efficiency. A number of ambient prototypes have been developed to help people address these issues. In parallel, gamification techniques have been successfully used in applications that aim to improve people’s health by encouraging them to change their behaviour. In this chapter, we first describe several ambient and augmented reality (AR) prototypes that aim to improve people’s well-being. Next, we discuss the idea of ambient projection-based AR providing situated interaction “in motion” in users’ environment, coupled with the concepts of playfulness, gamification, peripheral and calm technologies, in order to incite users’ behaviours towards improving well-being. We continue by describing a scenario and discussing technical considerations for its implementation. While different concepts encompassing the proposed idea have been explored individually, the whole idea presents an untapped potential that has yet to be explored.