Evaluation of a campus navigation application using an AR character guide

In recent years, many studies have been conducted to realize easy route navigation for pedestrians using augmented reality (AR). Many of these studies use methods where the direction or sign is indicated using AR. However, only a few have focused on using AR for route navigation to follow. Our research aims to realize easy route navigation using an AR character agent. We develop a navigation application wherein the user follows an AR character agent. We evaluate it from the behavior of the user. For that purpose, we conduct an experiment at a university festival using the navigation application. We then analyze the experimental data and questionnaire responses. The results show that route navigation by the AR character agent makes route identification easy. However, problems involving many participants feeling uneasy or being lost are encountered. Problems in accuracy caused by errors in the positional information are also observed. In future, a method to indicate directions more accurately must be considered.