Using Mobile Augmented Reality to Facilitate Public Engagement

This paper presents our initial efforts towards the development of a framework for facilitating public engagement through the use of mobile Augmented Reality (mAR), that fall under the overall project title "Augmented Reality for Public Engagement" (PEAR). We present the concept, implementation, and discuss the results from the deployment of a mobile phone app (PEAR 4 VXO). The mobile app was used for a user study in conjunction with a campaign carried out by Växjö municipality (Sweden) while exploring how to get citizens more engaged in urban planning actions and decisions. These particular activities took place during spring 2016.One of the salient features of our approach is that it combines novel ways of using mAR together with social media, online databases, and sensors, to support public engagement. In addition, the data collection process and audience engagement were tested in a follow-up limited deployment.The analysis and outcomes of our initial results validate the overall concept and indicate the potential usefulness of the app as a tool, but also highlight the need for an active campaign from the part of the stakeholders.Our future efforts will focus on addressing some of the problems and challenges that we have identified during the different phases of this user study.Augmented Reality for Public Engagement (PEAR