Augmented Reality and Maps: New Possibilities for Engaging with Geographic Data

Among the systems that aim to help users to perform map reading tasks, augmented reality (AR) is one of the most promising. However, the impact of this new technology in terms of acceptance, motivation and improvement of the learning process has still not been sufficiently explored. This study aims to assess the contribution of an AR system for map reading and for improving users’ understanding of geographic data. Landscape and census data from New Zealand were used to evaluate the performance of an AR system in an experiment involving 60 participants. Differences in the participants’ backgrounds were reflected in the way they completed the task for both printed maps and the AR system and 90% of the participants preferred to work with the AR system rather than with traditional printed maps. Users that had previous experience of the geographical dataset provided performed the task better using only the printed maps, while those without that experience performed better with the AR system.