This thesis presents a location-aware augmented reality (AR) application, which involves audio-based stories and interviews geo-tagged to locations in a cityscape. The project is partly a collaboration with New Zealand Historic Places Trust in Christchurch, NZ, where earthquakes have left the city in ruins, and created an interesting potential for urban stories.
An Android application is developed, which uses AR and spatial audio techniques to let users explore city stories and related multimedia directly from the urban environment.
Two experiments are conducted: a comparative usability test of AR interaction methods, as well as an empirical field observation of the final application in use.
Results show that users are positive towards the usability of the application, overall and at a task-level.
Further tests are planned in order to address and evaluate the user experience of the spatial audio sources.