Augmented Creativity: Bridging the real and virtual worlds to enhance creative play

Augmented Reality (AR) holds unique and promising potential to bridge between real-world activities and digital experiences, al-lowing users to engage their imagination and boost their creativ-ity. We propose the concept of Augmented Creativity as employ-ing AR on modern mobile devices to enhance real-world creative activities, support education, and open new interaction possibili-ties. We present six prototype applications that explore and de-velop Augmented Creativity in different ways, cultivating creativity through AR interactivity. Our coloring book app bridges coloring and computer-generated animation by allowing children to create their own character design in an AR setting. Our music apps pro-vide a tangible way for children to explore different music styles and instruments in order to arrange their own version of popular songs. In the gaming domain, we show how to transform passive game interaction into active real-world movement that requires co-ordination and cooperation between players, and how AR can be applied to city-wide gaming concepts. We employ the concept of Augmented Creativity to authoring interactive narratives with an interactive storytelling framework. Finally, we examine how Aug-mented Creativity can provide a more compelling way to under-stand complex concepts, such as computer programming