AR Navigation for Improving Social Networking

Augmented Reality (AR) has an enormous potential of changing the way we interact with our surroundings. It enhances our perception and helps us to see, hear, and feel our environments in new and enriched ways. Modern mobile devices, such as smartphones, are far more than a communication device. Technologies such as GPS, inertial sensors, and cameras, allow to track the location of the user and the orientation of the device itself. This can be further used to develop mobile navigation systems coupled with an AR view. In the context of this study and the CRUMBS project, we developed an AR based pedestrian navigation system. This system shows nearby social events and facilities created by users. This paper presents the results of our user-centered study of improving social networking using this system. It also presents the result of a comparison between AR and maps based navigation.