Exploring Opportunities for Augmenting Homes to Support Exercising

Abstract

Although exercising at home has benefits, it is not always engaging or motivating. Augmented Reality (AR) head-mounted displays (HMDs) offer the potential to make in-home exercising and exergaming more inclusive and immersive, but there is limited research investigating how such systems can be designed. We employed a participatory design approach involving semi-structured interviews to investigate how homes can be augmented to facilitate exercising experiences. We developed 10 recommendations for developing home-based exercising experiences using AR HMDs. Our results further contribute to the existing body of research on the use of AR for exercising, home applications, and everyday objects by presenting the first foundational study investigating the wide range of exercises that can be supported through AR HMDs in home environments and the different ways home elements may support these exercises, and laying the groundwork for future work developing home-based exergaming through AR HMDs to increase people’s physical activity levels.