Mobile Application Design of Augmented Reality – Digital Pet

Recently, thanks to the rapid development of smart phones, augmented reality has extended from personal computers to mobile phones. The highly interactive nature of augmented reality with its user has given rise to various augmented reality applications for mobile phones, ranging from mere interaction to marketing, games, navigation, and so on. As such, augmented reality has for years been one of the focuses in mobile phone application development. While users always expect something more of augmented reality, the latter has its inherent limitations. For example, augmented reality typically requires the use of markers, which, however, are not always available, or cannot be carried around with ease, or are not user-firendly in design. In this study, a human-computer interactive interface between a user and a virtual pet was designed with the aim of incorporating augmented reality, and the function of markers was studied by a scenario-oriented approach. A virtual pet application was then developed for a smart phone as the platform, so that intimacy and interaction between the user and the virtual pet can be enhanced with augmented reality. The marker in this study is an easy-to-use and highly portable ID card holder, thus allowing the user to interact with the virtual pet anytime, anywhere. In addition, a questionaire survey was conducted, the result of which serves as a reference for future development of augmented reality and virtual pets.