Augmenting public bookcases to support book sharing

Abstract

Public bookcases offer the opportunity to serendipitously discover books and to anonymously share books with others. The set of available books as well as the sharing patterns are highly dynamic, as anybody can freely take or donate books. This makes it difficult for users to see what is available or of interest to them. To support book sharing via public bookcases we developed a mobile AR application that highlights relevant books in the camera viewfinder and that facilitates searching for specific books. The application recognizes books via text and color features on the spine. In a lab study with 15 participants we evaluated our book recognition algorithm and found that it outperforms unaided visual search. We interviewed users of public bookcases and analyzed the bookcases' setup and rate of change. A subsequent field evaluation of the AR application on nine public bookcases found a recognition accuracy of 80 % for 450 books under different conditions. The proposed approach provides the basis for effectively sharing books via public bookcases.