Augmented Reality and Social Interaction

This multidisciplinary project investigates using augmented reality in public social environment. It utilizes experimental design to examine the behavioral and social psychological changes using augmented reality has on various outcomes, including sociability, social interaction, entertainment, learning performance. The project conducted a field experiment (N = 372) in the Finnish Science Centre Heureka in a collaboration with the Aalto University and the University of Helsinki and combines the expertise of social psychology and computer science.

Augmented reality (AR) applications have recently emerged for entertainment and educational purposes and have been proposed to have positive effects on social interaction. Augmented reality (AR) applications enable people to interact with virtual objects overlaid in the physical environment and visible through digital screens. As new technology has the potential to permanently change the way we behave, as social media has done, cutting-edge technology should be examined with regard to its implications on social interaction, sociability, entertainment, and learning. Our interest lies not only in the perceived benefits and motivations to use but in how the new AR technology is actually able to affect our society.

Peer-reviewed publications

Noreikis, M., Savela, N., Kaakinen, M., Xiao, Y., & Oksanen, A. (2019). Effects of Gamified Augmented Reality in Public Spaces. IEEE Access, 7, 148108–148118. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2945819

Savela, N., Oksanen, A., Kaakinen, M., Noreikis, M., & Xiao, Y. (2020). Does Augmented Reality Affect Sociability, Entertainment, and Learning? A Field Experiment. Applied Sciences, 10(4), 1392. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10041392

Theses

Kari, H. (2020). The impact of augmented reality on motivation and the role of self-efficacy (Master's thesis, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland). https://trepo.tuni.fi/handle/10024/122374

Saari, S. (2020). Digitaalisen ja fyysisen tilan rajoilla: Monimenetelmällinen tutkielma lisätyn todellisuuden psykososiaalisista vaikutuksista (Master's thesis, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland). https://trepo.tuni.fi/handle/10024/124121