Augmented Reality of the Natural World and its Psychological Effects: A Value-Sensitive Design Approach

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Research shows that direct experiences with nature have beneficial effects on people's physical, cognitive, and emotional well-being. Yet what happens psychologically when advanced technologies augment human/nature interactions? Grounded in Value-Sensitive Design, this project represents an early, cohesive, and rigorous effort to answer this question. At the heart of this project lies five empirical studies. Study 1 involves a room with an augmented "window" view (a video plasma display of a real-time local nature scene). Study 2 involves whether it matters psychologically that an augmentation of a natural scene occurs in real-time. Study 3 involves robot "pets" in the lives of children and adolescents. Study 4 involves robot "pets" as possible companions for the elderly. Study 5 involves a "telegarden" (a telerobotic installation that allows Web users to garden by controlling a remote industrial robot arm). A diverse range of physiological, behavioral, and social-cognitive data are collected over short-term and longer-term conditions. In the coming years, augmented reality will become part of our everyday lives, and pervasive across diverse fields, such as architecture, education, gerontology, recreation, and ecommerce. This project contributes proactively to the design and use - from an ethical stance - of this emerging technology.