AR Book-Finding Behavior of Users in Library Venue

ARKit and ARCore, key technologies in recent augmented reality (AR) development, have allowed AR to become more integrated in our lives. However, how effective AR is in an auxiliary role in venue guidance and how to collect the actual behaviors of users in physical venues are worth exploring. This study used navAR, a spatial behavior analysis system app that our research team developed, to collect the actual behaviors of participants in physical space via a smartphone, such as time, distance travelled, and trajectory, and compared their book-finding behaviors in a library venue in a text scenario and an AR scenario without any additional sensors or cameras. The experiment results revealed that (1) AR targets made a significant difference in book search time, and the participants found some of the books significantly faster; (2) the participants presented no significant differences in distance travelled; (3) with an AR target, the book-finding trajectories of the participants were significantly more regular; (4) the AR guidance system had good usability. The results of this study can facilitate planning with AR in indoor venue routes, improve venue and exhibition tour experiences, and enable AR to be used for crowd flow diversion. Furthermore, this study provides a methodology for future analyses on user behavior in physical spaces.