Designing Augmented Reality Based Interventions to Encourage Physical Activity During Virtual Classes

Abstract

This paper presents an exploratory study of designing augmented reality (AR) based interventions to encourage physical activity among students attending virtual classes. We conducted a focus group study with four HCI students to understand the current behaviour of students during breaks between classes. Based on these insights we designed two AR interventions: AR Exergame, an interactive game that requires the user to move their hands to grab virtual apples; AR micro-movements, a method that requires the user to switch to a different physical space when starting a new virtual class. These AR interventions were aimed at encouraging students to perform micro-activities in between virtual classes, i.e. small non-strenuous activities. The effectiveness of these methods to reduce video conferencing fatigue, a.k.a Zoom fatigue, and also to compare it with the students current methods was tested through a user study with six participants.