Development of an Interaction Concept to Illustrate the Energy Transformation on an AR-Surface

Augmented Reality (AR) enables new forms of interaction and knowledge transfer for users. This paper describes a novel approach to visualize information of energy transformation on an AR-Surface. Aiming to provide a playful tangible interaction method with real data for citizens, especially for those locally effected by the changes in future energy production facilities; we analyzed which bifacial aspects can be drawn from the two novel interaction and visualization methods. Therefore, we projected databased information on the AR-Surface so that users were able to interact with the displayed information by placing or moving our own designed tangibles on the surface. In our user study, the participants interacted with a data set on renewable energy production. Through the tangible interaction, the user receives important information, e.g. about renewable energies and their performance. As an outcome of the study, we showed that the use of tangibles offers many advantages, such as fast and easy interaction on an AR-Surface as well as an improved user understanding. The gained insights will help for further implementations and visualizations in the field of AR combined with simple communication of energy topics.