Augmented Reality – Testimony

We love stories, especially the ones that allow us to peek at our past. What a better way to travel into our past by just putting our headphones on and hearing ourselves, our loved ones in the past as simply as possible. Sometimes we need a lift from our loved ones’ deaths. It can be a way to feel them in our past and evoke our pleasant memories with them. The question comes to mind “Is it possible now?” No, but our children have this chance to hear their childhood if we start creating ones and stick it into their scrapbooks. In this way, they always have us in their life.

Why Sound Memory?

In the fall of 2020, my instructor asked me to choose an immersive content for my final project. During the class, he introduced the audio journey by making a comparison with images and videos. “Audio happens off the frame, while you consciously choose to watch images and videos. You don’t think about sound that much. So, you can experience flow when you hear a sound.” he said. In designing an AR experience, you should keep this in mind that don’t try to make users forget where they are, You need to find a way that users think more about a place.

I started looking around myself how I can add value to the reality. While my niece was playing around me, I realized that I deeply want to have a look at my childhood again. So I selected an immersive content in “re-visualizing testimony”. As I’m fan of simplicity in the interactions with the digital world, I want users don’t think that much for interacting with my digital design. The idea of an audio journey was still in my mind. So, my project became creating sound memories for babies.

Choosing the best environment to attach sound memory

I have to choose what kind of environment I want to attach those sounds. Could it be a sound memory wall at home? Or in which people could sit there and close their eyes and fall to think of their past. At that time, I was at the library and again look around which this idea hits my mind to stick those sounds to a scrapbook. It perfectly packs everything. I augment a physical experience simply and powerfully. As reading memories which were written by their parents and also can hear childhood sounds.

Market Research

I did market research and I realised that adding audio to scrapbook is out there but there is a limitation in recording a sound (15 minutes) and they are using hardware scrapbook. So, my design is used AR and there are no limitations in recording sounds. Moreover, sounds will be attached to just a simple barcode sticker.

Implementation

I used A-frame for development which a sound is linked with a barcode. I printed barcodes in different sizes to realise that which one is more readable for the camera and could be fitted to a scrapbook.
Unfortunately, the audio stops, if the camera can’t detect a barcode which happens a lot. The sound stops which is an annoying experience for users. As, it took a lot of time to use A-frame, I turned to Zappar instead by same barcode size.

User Research

I asked my friends and families this question “If you were told you could hear the sound of your childhood (past), what you would like to hear?” Here is the result:

Experience Design process-Scenario

For the experience design process, I select my niece as a persona. Her name is Eva. She is around two years old. I started recording specific moments based on survey like: when Eva plays hide and seek with us and etc…

Final Demo

After the first demo, I added an interface to let users navigate through the AR experience. As my sister as a user wants to watch a video, I added a button to watch a video as well. Here is the final scenario: