Augmenting Urban Green Awareness

AUGMENTING URBAN GREEN AWARENESS Despoina Sapountzi Konstantinos-Alketas Oungrinis Technical University of Crete, School of Architectural Engineering, Transformable Intelligent Environments Laboratory Despoina Sapountzi, TIE LAB, TU Crete, K4 Building, University Campus, Kounoupidiana, Chania, Greece, 73133, [email protected]

ABSTRACT Contemporary urban living is associated with a rather stressful environment responsible for an

increased risk regarding stress-related psychological conditions, such as non-pathological depression.

Diverse theoretical approaches converge to predict that most unthreatening natural environments have a restorative influence upon individuals under stress. Regardless, humanity is moving away from

nature with a rapid pace, affecting negatively both themselves and the environment. The paper presents a project that aims to change the way people interact with urban green places, using

technology as a tool to affect human disposition in relation to the environment. It merges real and

virtual environments in order to enhance the way natural terrains are experienced. The encounter with nature is motivated by the combination of an augmented reality game and architectural

interventions that create a hybrid space. The players move through the real world, using a mobile app. There are two driving forces guiding the app. Firstly it is the augmentation of space and the

“communication” between player-environment. The environment is augmented with text, GPS data, effects, digital objects. Players have the opportunity to interact with the natural environment,

exchange information, and play an active role, transforming it digitally. The second impetus driving

this app is the communication and cooperation between the players. It is actually a social networking app, motivating and feeding further the play activity. The architectural interventions are structures in

the real environment that enhance play and improve the space conditions. The objective of this hybrid space is to create new spatial experiences and help people reconnect with the natural world.

Keywords: Natural environment; hybrid space; mobile application; augmented reality, social networks;

AUGMENTING URBAN GREEN AWARENESS Despoina Sapountzi Konstantinos-Alketas Oungrinis Technical University of Crete, School of Architectural Engineering, Transformable Intelligent Environments Laboratory

INTRODUCTION

The paper presents an ongoing project that involves the merging of real and digital environment, in

order to help people reappropriate green places and raise awareness about nature. The impetus driving this project is the alarming environmental and human health consequences caused by the

rapid pace of urbanization and the human’s disassociation from nature.

The main goal of this project is to change how individuals experience and interact with the surrounding environment, and particularly green places, through the use of technological and spatial

interventions. It consists of an augmented reality mobile app and architectural structures that together create hybrid spaces, in diverse urban green places, where individuals can play, cooperate

with each other, transform the environment, and get relieved from the daily stress. The design of this hybrid space aims to augment digitally the actual reality, amplify the natural elements of the selected

places and support active interaction between humans-environment, creating an immersive

experience. This research project is being developed at the Transformable Intelligent Environments Laboratory

(TIE Lab) in the School of Architectural Engineering at the Technical University of Crete (TU Crete).

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH AS IMPETUS DRIVING THE PROJECT

Before the conceptualization of this project, there has been a research on how outdoor environment, urban and natural, affect human health. Society is facing increasing challenges with stress related

diseases and knowledge about the way environmental qualities affect health and well being can help mitigate stress and increase restoration.

Cities occupy 4% or less of the world’s terrestrial surface, yet they are home to half the global population and by 2050 it is predicted that 80% of population will live in urban areas. Cities are

becoming the dominant form of human habitation, but it seems that living in urban environment is a

risk factor for health problems and stress related diseases, such as depression and even schizophrenia. The World Health Organization (WHO) has highlighted stress as one of the major

health challenges of the twenty first century and urban living is quickly developing as a major contributor to this. Noise, crowding, heat and air pollution are main environmental stressors in cities

that affect negatively human behavior, mood, cognitive function, physical health, psychological well-

being [1]. Social stress and daily pressure may be the most important factor for the increased risk of mental disorders in urban areas. City living is even associated with increased amygdala activity, a

brain region that regulates emotions such as anxiety and fear, whereas urban upbringing affected the perigenual anterior cingulate cortex, a key region for regulation of amygdala activity, negative affect

and stress [2].

On the contrary, researches from diverse fields have indicated that if individuals are stressed an encounter with natural environment will have restorative influences, involving a shift towards a more

positively-toned emotional state and positive changes in physiological activity levels [3]. A range of theories and approaches have been forwarded in order to assess the influence of nature on human

health, such as evolutionary theories that explain the benefits of natural scenes as reflecting

landscape qualities that satisfy human biological needs. According to these evolutionary perspectives humans possess an unlearned predisposition/evolutionary driven mechanism to respond positively to

natural content (e.g vegetation, water) and to configurations characteristic of setting that were favorable to survival or ongoing well-being during evolution [4]. Although little empirical work has

been done to test beliefs in the physical mental health benefits of exposure to nature, the leitmotif

that connect various areas of research on environmental health is that an encounter with natural environment is beneficial, particularly for harried urbanities. Nevertheless the gap between humanity

and the natural environment has steadily widened and people have stayed too far for their own good. This gap has also lead to human’s unconsciously activity on earth, causing environmental problems,

like resource depletion, environmental pollutions, climate change, that hampers increasingly planetary sustainability and well-being.

TECHNOLOGICAL TOOLS TO AFFECT BEHAVIOR IN RELATION TO ENVIRONMENT Throughout human evolution, technology provides means by which people can solve real-world

problems and improve their lives. In contemporary age, the layer of actual reality has been enriched with a digitalized layer that absorbs functions of real world and creates new unexpected possibilities.

In the proposed project, technology is used as a tool to affect disposition and behaviour in relation to

the environment and eventually lead to a more harmonic with nature lifestyle. Social influence is found to be fundamental for the adoption of various behaviours. People are more successful in

complying with a healthy lifestyle when they receive positive social support, which can serve as a leveraging mechanism for achieving and maintaining a level of commitment and motivation for

performing certain behaviour [5]. Technologies that enable sharing information about activities at natural environments can provide powerful support for healthy habits and motivate exposure to

nature. Online social media, such as Facebook or Twitter, allow people to give short real-time update

messages concerning their current activities and emotions. This direct visibility makes these platforms suitable for seeking social support and influence. Individuals are influenced by the actions taken by

others and behave in a similar way with them, triggering the phenomenon of herd behavior [6]. Social media decreases the time it takes for information to spread and widening the audience to which

information is accessible, influencing largely crowd’s behavior. They provided the tools for creating

interactive communication networks, boosting the possibilities for self-organized processes. Online social networks allow Internet users worldwide to produce and consume content. They play a major

role in the diffusion of information and have proved to be very powerful in many situations, generating effective social self-organized movements, like Spanish 15M movement or the movement

during the 2011 Arab spring.

The evolution of technology in daily life has allowed rapid global communications and networking to shape modern society, in which the creation, distribution, and manipulation of information has

become the most significant economic and cultural activity [7]. Gradually the way people receive and exchange information is changing, influencing the real world. In last decades, new interfaces have

developed that allow the interweaving of digital and actual reality. Augmented reality is an intermediate environment between virtual and real space. The basic definition is a layering of digital

data atop the real world. While virtual reality replaces the real space with a simulated one, in

augmented reality people are in physical world, however they have additional information such as text, graphics, and multimedia that is layered on top of, and integrated into, how they experience

actual environment. Today, AR isn’t just for complex technical tasks. It’s something within reach to the masses thanks to various smart phone apps. Video games, medicine, education, socialization and

marketing are just some of the areas which have already begun to be influenced by AR. In near

future, augmented reality will allow people to gather instantly informations about the surroundings and help them customize their experience based on their wills. It will be an entirely new way of

experiencing reality [8]. Considering the above, with the use of contemporary technology, it is possible to create a hybrid

system, allowing interactions between human-computer-real environments, which will change the way people perceive the natural world and pursue a healthier lifestyle.

THE CONTEXT

The project was conceptualized to create outdoor places that have a beneficial effect on city dwellers’ psychological health, green “shelters” from daily stress. Main scope is to develop appropriate

environmental conditions and tools that would help people experience the distinctive atmosphere of a

natural place, motivate encounter with colors, textures, scents of nature, feel place’s “genius loci” and connect with it. In order to achieve the creation of an immersive experience and change the behavior

in relation to natural environment, existing public green places were augmented digitally and spatially. Important issue of the project is the communication with the environment, and between the users.

The implement of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) systems in the design of the

system was needed to support the desired active interaction between man-environment and influence on how people perceive the surrounding environment. Key element is a mobile application, a digital

platform that supports the use of crucial virtual tools, the use of augmented reality and social media, while users walk through the city. The mobile interface allows users to be constantly connected to the

Internet and to other users while walking through urban spaces. This possibility of an “always on” connection when one moves through a city can transform the experience and create new ways of

interaction with places, blurring the traditional borders between physical and digital space [9].

Overall, the proposed project aims to: Support active interaction, giving people the possibility to transform the environment

digitally, receive and exchange information, communicate with the surroundings.

Change the sense of a place and enhance specific characteristics of it, by augmented it with

effects, graphics, text, digital objects. Promote social interaction in physical and digital spaces, creation of self-organized

communities.

Promote physical activity, by motivating people to go outdoors and explore surrounding

environment.

Provide appropriate outdoor infrastructure, which create favorable condition for spending

time and relaxing at green places. Promote environmental learning, by motivating individuals to search and learn informations

about elements of nature.

THE DEVELOPMENT

The components of the project are parts of a play activity [10]. Individuals move through physical places, using the mobile app to play. Initially, the activity begins in the social media platform,

embedded in the mobile application, where users create their own communities and groups. Social

media constitutes the instrument of motivation for participation and action in the play activity. Equipped with their mobile devices and divided into groups, players then have to look for hidden

information about nature spread around physical places. During the play activity, they stay connected to web and are able to communicate, share pictures, ideas, emotions. At the same time they have the

possibility to find places and other players through location awareness. A series of task motivates the

encounter and interaction with natural environment. Players are requested to select and transform digital 3D object that are laid at the physical environment, solve riddle about natural elements in

specific time, “hack” green places and take part at events. Basic requirement to continue playing is the cooperation between players, since some quests require more than one individual to be solved. As

the play activity progresses, users are driven gradually from city to wildlife and immersed in natural environment. In this route there are landmarks, architectural interventions that act as reference

points, where people can stay longer and experience natural elements from various perspectives. At

these points, digital media enhance communication with nature and augment the environment with effects, graphics, text and objects, changing the way users perceive and interact with the surrounding

area. Gradually, the interaction between new information technology and groups’ activity has an impact on the space and players are able to customize their experience, constructing their own world.

The generated hybrid space, constituted by a network of people, mobile technologies and a grid of

landmarks, has the ability to strengthen individual’s connections to physical green places and transform them into multiuser environments. This connection and interaction with places could then

raise ecological awareness, while the encounter with nature, through this play activity, would have positive effect on humans' psychological and physiological health (Photo 1).

Photo 1. A diagram of the stages of play activity.

PROGRESS SO FAR The project was developed in two parts, the architectural and the technological. The latter involved

the development and implementation of the mobile application, which extends user’s ability while

walking through physical spaces. The architectural part included the design of the overall setting, actual-virtual-interaction, and the fabrication of the spatial structures at specific places, acting as

reference points in a route from urban to natural terrains. The combination of these digital and actual parts transmutes the actual environments into a network of hybrid spaces.

In the current phase, the chosen place for the implementation of this whole project was Chania, city

of Crete at Greece. Following a field research, various green places were chosen, from small urban green spaces to Chania’s public garden, to act as target areas where the play activity takes place. In

majority, these spots are “hidden” in the fabric of the city; they are places that are not popular and widely known. The objective of this option is to motivate participants to (re)discover their city while

playing, get away from crowded noisy places and encounter with nature. Regarding the technological part, the mobile application was conceptualized as an augmented reality

massively multiplayer online role playing GPS-dependent game. The city space is transformed into a

game board and players become protagonists of a live adventure, generating a new and unexpected environment. It is as if the game creates an imaginary playful layer that merges with city, connecting

people via mobile technologies, according to their movement in real world, and motivating them to visit distinct urban green places. The design of the mobile application involved graphic, technical and

gameplay issues.

Through the game, individuals enter a hidden parallel world, which is ruled by trees. There, elements of nature are able to communicate with people. Players’ main mission is to “ally” with living trees and

other plants in order to bring “balance” in this planet that is being under threat by humanity’s activity. It is an item/information adventure game. Users of the application have to solve riddles spread around

physical green places with trees, revealing hidden informations and digital “weapons” that they are called then to use to strengthen green elements and help nature survive. The purpose behind this

game's plot is to raise ecological awareness and make participants feel as an integral part of nature.

The mobile application is a tool that enhances communication and active interaction. The platform was designed to support the use of social media and augmented reality, so that users are able to

exchange information with others and the surrounding environment. In the current phase, the application is developed for mobile cell phones and tablets. Equipped with their mobile device, users

are able to see in their mobile screens a map of the city and the positions of nearby riddle areas and

of other players. Once they are close to their targets, the device’s camera opens and each user is able to intervene in surrounding environment, select informations and solve riddles through cooperation

(Photo 2).

Photo 2. Examples of solving riddles.

Τhe first step toward the development of the app was the determination of the interface, the essential

functions and the steps that users need to follow to join the game. Following the creation of their personal accounts or using existed one at social media (Facebook, Twitter etc), participants enter the

main menu of game's interface, where they have multiple different options to use, depending on the requirement of each occasion: Home, Map, Team.

“Home” is user’s personal digital space. Here the posts and the activity of the player, as

well as of other users, are published. It is the social network, the place where the game is

continuously fed through the exchange of images, informations, conversations between the self-organized groups. The social network turns attention to green places at the city and,

since it can affect individual's behavior, motivates players to start taking trips to these places that they wouldn’t know or go to otherwise.

Through the “Map” command, players are able to locate their position on a map of the city,

while the target areas, which they should go to, are disclosed gradually.

The “Team” interface shows the members and the scores of each group as well as their

activity depicted on a map. It is as if the game connects users depending on their relative position in real space.

When players are within 20 meters of the target area, the camera of their mobile device opens automatically so they are able to see the environment augmented with effects, text, 3D objects that

amplify the natural elements of it. At this point, users have to look for hidden information laid upon

actual space and transform digitally the surroundings. The digital interventions that augment reality were designed to change the sense of each selected place and enhance communication and

interaction with the elements of the urban natural environment. At every spot, which is part of the game's route, a specific scenario is determined, so a player should

follow specific actions under a different theme, related to the general topic of nature. When a riddle is solved, the player rises to the next level and continues to the next physical spot until he reaches the

end of the route. The winning team is the one that gathers higher score in a shorter time.

After designing the game context and gameplay, came the next step; the design of the screens and graphics of the application. The desired outcome was the user interfaces to be minimal and easy to

use but at the same time to have a distinctive style and create a mystery atmosphere that would fit the theme of the game (Photo 3). The application’s interface was designed to integrate the function of

alternative tricks for the implement of various commands, avoiding the use of buttons. Thus, players

are able to enter main menu options by using voice command, by changing the device's orientation or by blowing at microphone. This integration of alternative tricks and moves that one makes in daily

routine (voice, blowing etc.) was necessary to enhance the augmented reality so the use of the application would become effortlessly and in a more natural way than pushing buttons on a screen.

The design of user interfaces is developed considering the principles proposed by Nielsen [11].

Photo 3. A sample of screens.

The implementation of this mobile application was a challenge which required the inclusion of

computer engineers into the project in order to be accomplished. Dimitrios Kiriakakis has undertaken the development of a demo version of the game in Java-enabled Android Smartphone and Tablet.

Through this demo version, it is possible to explore actually the prospects and the restrictions of

contemporary technology on mobile devices. In the current phase, experiments are being conducted on issues that involve the augmentation of the environment. The desired outcome is the visual effects

and the 3D object, which augment reality, to seem harmonized with the surrounding outdoor environment. Due to restrictions users are able to see and interact with the digital interventions

through certain perspectives. Particularly, these digital elements are loaded when the device's camera detects a certain view or a conspicuous “marker” in the surrounding space (Photo 4).

Up to this point, the game’s platform has already reached a level that allows users to:

log in with their Facebook accounts,

upload pictures and videos, exchange informations, wherever they are,

locate their positions and the target areas,

move, rotate, scale 3D objects that are superimposed into a real time outdoor environment.

Photo 4. Markers that detects AR device in existing space.

In a parallel direction, physical interventions are designed to improve existing space conditions of the selected points, where the play takes place. These interventions enhance the play activity and

constitute the reference points in this route around the Chania City. The design of them is developed considering the distinctive characteristics of each selected place and highlighting specific space

qualities. The objective is to create the favorable conditions that would extend people’s staying to

these places and help them experience the positive feelings caused by the exposure to nature. The spatial interventions act as staging points, “nests” that would help people appropriate the surrounding

space. The designed structures vary from small equipment that enhances existing space, like public seating systems, to physical “shelters”, like tree houses. The primary used material is wood.

Significant issue is that the physical interventions are key elements of the playing experience. During the play, users interact both physically and virtually with the environment. The existing physical places

are enhanced appropriately to support the game’s activity that occurs through the mobile application.

Physical and digital space is interwoven. Thus if players have to push a virtual surface, the physical representation of that surface exist in the real world or if they are requested to reach a digital lever,

they have to climb to a physical object to accomplish that request. Through this physical element of the playing activity people are motivated to encounter with textures, colors, scents and qualities of the

natural environment and experience stimuli to all senses. Physical interventions also guide users to

take the right positions in space in order to view the surroundings from certain angles, so the AR operation can easily detect the existed conspicuous “marker”. Using the mobile application, the

structures are augmented in a way to fit the theme of the gameplay and create the illusion of physical

interaction with the elements of this digital parallel world. For example, a seating system around a tree would be transformed, through the AR operation, into roots that enfold the players. The

produced hybrid space bridges the gap between physical and virtual worlds, by building physical stages which match the virtual environment, and help people connect physically and mentally with it.

In the next phase, it is intended to fabricate some of the small construction and implement them in

the actual space. In the final phase, the main scope is to apply an integrated sample of the proposed hybrid place and

to test in practice how people interact with it.

CONCLUSIONS In the contemporary digital age, new possibilities have opened up in relation to human-environment

interaction. In the proposed project, ICT technology is used as a tool to affect human disposition and

perception concerning green places. With a steady increase in the amount of people diagnosed with stress-related disorders, the influence of the surrounding outdoor environment on human health was

the first issue that was investigated. The restorative influences of exposure to nature and the adverse urban environmental conditions that hamper well being and planetary sustainability led to the

conceptualization of this project that aims to augment physically and digitally existing urban places, in

order to create new experiences and help people reappropriate natural world. Digital tools that support the creation, exchange and diffusion of information, which holds the most significant role in

the contemporary network society, were implemented into a mobile application while physical interventions were designed to support the activity in real space. Physical and digital world were

merged to create hybrid spaces that allow interactions between people-real environment- mobile devices.

Contemporary mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets, have already reached a level that can

support the designed digital platform, which includes both the use of social media and augmented reality, providing the tools for active interaction between users and user-environment. Nevertheless,

regarding the augmented reality aspects, the capabilities of current toolsets provide limited ability to handle complex objects and the computational power of mobile devices is barely enough to support it.

Through experimentations, it was found that there are restrictions that allow the layering of the real

world with triangulated 3d objects and visual effects with reduced complexity, only when the device’s camera align on certain views and/or detects markers. In the near future, with the rapid evolution of

technology on mobile devices, more complex digital data will be possible to be loaded in continuous views. Furthermore, wearable technology is on the rise, offering promising computing capabilities and

new ways of interaction. If the proposed application is embedded into a wearable device, like AR

glasses, people will use it in a more effortless way and walk through city without necessarily holding cell phones. They will be able to immerse in a holistic experience.

At the current phase, the project is being under development and has entered its experimental phase on how the physical and the digital interventions can work together. As the concept lies upon the

interactions between people and the surrounding environment, the evaluation of the project by a sample of users is a key part that will be incorporated in the development process. The feedback from

the evaluation will further lead to improvements in designing procedure. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The technological part of the project was developed with the help of Dimitrios Kiriakakis, mobile developer and student in the Department of Electronic and Computer at the Technical University of Crete, Greece. The latter was in charge for the evaluation of the application’s screens and the implementation of application in Java programming language for Android mobile devices, as part of his diploma project at the School of ECE TU Crete, with the contribution of his supervisor, Katerina Mania, Assoc. Professor.

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