Enhancing Creative, Learning and Collaborative Experiences through Augmented Reality-compatible Internet-of-Things Devices

The "Maker Movement" is a cultural phenomena rooted in DIY culture, which stresses making devices and creations on your own rather than purchasing it ready-made. At the core of the Maker Movement, is the "Maker Mindset"; a collection of attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that emphasize the importance of creativity, experimentation and innovation in the learning process. Since the Maker Mindset embodies constructionist principles at its core that push makers to experiment and problem-solve by collaborating with fellow makers through hands-on activities, it can be said that these activities comprise of Creative, Learning and Collaborative experiences. While Internet-of-Things devices have long been used to enhance these activities, research pertaining to using Augmented Reality in tandem with IoT for the purpose of enhancing experiences core to the Maker Mindset is relatively unexplored. Three different systems were developed with the goal of addressing this -- MicrokARts, ShARed IoT and MechARspace. Each system focuses on enhancing one of the three core experiences through AR-compatible IoT devices, whilst ensuring that they do not require prerequisite knowledge in order to author AR experiences. These systems were evaluated through user studies and testing over a variety of age-groups, with each system successfully enhancing one core experience each through the use of AR-IoT interactions.