Development of an Acoustic AR Gamification System to Support Physical Exercise

In recent years, running has become increasingly popular as an effective exercise activity which could help improve and maintain one's physical health. However, it is generally difficult to motivate people to adhere to their fitness regimens and persist in such activities. To help address this problem, we developed a Gamified Acoustic AR running support system where we use the previous running records of a user to project a "Virtual runner" into an augmented reality space for runners to compete against. The presence of the virtual runner is conveyed through the sound of running footsteps and breathing: users hear the sound of the virtual runner while they are running and are able to virtually compete against themselves in real time. In this paper, we describe how such a system could be implemented and discuss the results of an experiment study which highlights the effectiveness of our Gamified AR system.