Lost lab of professor millennium: creating a pervasive adventure with augmented reality-based guidance

This paper presents a pervasive adventure production called Lost Lab of Professor Millennium that experimented with different kinds of interaction techniques evaluating how they affected the adventure experience. The paper further reflects on the practical organization of the production targeted for schools and students between 12 and 15 years of age. Groups of up to four teenagers navigated through thirteen different kinds of pervasive computing experiences in checkpoints sharing a device providing augmented reality (AR) (MapLens) on a physical map and an adaptive marker-based AR guidance. Based on a Professor who lost her technologies, the story of the adventure provided a unifying narrative also through her fish Linus guiding groups through a variety of tasks in the checkpoints. The production was evaluated with direct observations, different kinds of video recordings, interviews and questionnaires. The evaluation revealed how groups shared the devices and performed collaborative interactions with the devices. The production received positive feedback from all stakeholders, but in terms of feasibility had some drawbacks. The evaluation indicated that the marker-based AR guidance techniques is practical, reliable and easy-to-use, and can be also used as a storytelling or story enhancing technique.