Story Authoring in Augmented Reality

Abstract

Most content creation applications currently in use are conventional PC tools with visualisation on a 2D screen and indirect interaction, e.g. through mouse and keyboard. Augmented Reality (AR) is a medium that can provide actual 3D visualisation and more hands-on interaction for these purposes. This paper explores how AR can be used for story authoring, a peculiar type of content creation, and investigates how both types of existing AR interfaces, tangible and touch-less, can be combined in a useful way in that context. The Story ARtist application was developed to evaluate the designed interactions and AR visualisation for story authoring. It features a tabletop environment to dynamically visualise the story authoring elements, augmented by the 3D space that AR provides. Story authoring is kept simple, with a plot point structure focused on core story elements like actions, characters and objects. A user study was done with the concept application to evaluate the integration of AR interaction and visualisation for story authoring. The results indicate that an AR interface combining tangible and touch-less interactions is feasible and advantageous, and show that AR has considerable potential for story authoring.