Thesis Project
Carppet: An AR Tour Guide in AVs
Carppet is an AR tour guide system that combines AI recognition with Augmented Reality Heads Up Display and applies them to autonomous cars. The main goal for Carppet is to help travelers having a meaningful travel experienece.
Committee /
Adam Smith, Mike Strobert
Timeline /
Sep 2020 - Mar, 2021
Tool Used /
Figma
After Effect
Illustrator
Cinema 4D
Contributions /
User Research
Wireframing
User Interface Design
Prototyping
Usability Testing
📽 Concept Video
0️⃣ Prompt
As someone who personally loves to go on a road trip once a year, I would never forget how tiring it is to be a driver and a tour guide at the same time.
Expectation: I always like to travel with somebody who love to plan travel schedule ahead so that I don't need to worry about where to go and how to get there. If there is someone who personally love to drive that would even better!
1️⃣ Problem
People want their trip to be unforgettable, but…
🗺
Planning is frustrated.
🚗
I don’t want to be the driver.
🤯
I also don’t want to join a tour group.
⏳
Because schedule isn’t flexible.
Hypothesis
Today, autonomous technology has been more mature than it was in the past decade. Companies are utilizing this space as a third place and thinking what can offer to drivers when they no longer need to drive.
In this project, I was imagining the time when automobile can totally driveless and able to help drivers tackle the fundamental problem — long driving hours on a trip.
What else can we offer passengers to create a meaningful travel experience?
Solution Overview
Create a built-in AR tour guide system for autonomous cars so people don’t have to worry about their transportation from point A to point B. Furthermore, the in-car tour guide system would allow travelers to travel like having a tour guide with them but with more flexibility to adjust their own trips to their liking.
(Augmented Reality Windshield and side windows)
2️⃣ Research
Who are our users?
45 surveys - learn about current travel trend
First, I started with online/secondary research to understand the travel planning process and what the pain points are. I wanted to gain insight into what the current end-to-end travel looks like.
Insights:
In the survey, 85% of respondents fell within the age range of 25 to 35 years old, with over 90% of them expressing a preference for self-guided tools and emphasizing the significance of gaining knowledge while traveling. However, a majority of these respondents found the task of creating an itinerary to be overwhelming
🗺
93.9%
people usually go on self-guided tours.
🚘
81.3%
people think gaining knowledge is important during travel.
🤯
41.8%
people think making an itinerary is overwhelming.
4 Interviews - learn about expectations and concerns
INITIAL SCOOPING
With insights obtained from survey responses, I was curious about -
1. Why travelers stick to certain types of travel? What are the pros and cons?
2. Details of how they plan a trip.
3. What travelers are looking for and concerns during a trip.
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Insight:
-
Understand pain points, sweet spots, and expectations from three types of travel style: group tour, planned self-guided tour, and unplanned self-guided tour.
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Knowledge acquisition, schedule flexibility, and transportation are 3 major elements people concern about.
DIMENSIAONAL
ANALYSIS
Additional thoughts from travelers
AR, siri, i can view the information without a phone, whenever i want, no need to type or speak
By taking auto self-driving car, we can take advantage of flexible, personal transportation. The system can auto suggest me the ideal itinerary based on the place I love to visit, weather, budget. It can also give me more introduction about local culture during trip(we then taking self-driving car)
‟
”
Give local travel advice and detailed introduction about food, and have the function can combine those options, finally generate the best route suggestions
”
Google rates are important. But some of them might not be as good as they rated. More and more self-planned travel.
The self-driving car will be not only a driver also a tour guide, and also we people don’t need to find a parking space to waste time. The car will be able to find a parking area itself and catch we up in any place.
”
‟
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👤 User Group
With the information extracted from these conversations, I used personas to list out each type of people to help me organize their frustrations and goals.
✍🏻 Synthesize
To summarize all my findings, I synthesized through key findings and identified critical issues. This session helped me brainstorming and iterate my designs.
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Defining the problem
with "HMW..."
Taking all my research and product goals, I developed "how might we?" statements to articulate the problems I am solving. These statements prepared me for ideation.
💻
How might we simplify online resources into useful information that people want to know?
❤️
How might we provide users with travel plans based on their interests?
👨🏻🏫
How might we provide and present educational knowledge during the trip?
Design Principles
01
Resourceful
Simplify massive information from Google, TripAdvisor, or social media that travelers might want to know during the trip.
02
Personalized
The system is able to give travelers multiple travel options based on their interests and feedback.
03
Edcational
AR side windows and voice assistance provide educational background information about places during commute.
🧠 Brainstorm
An AR tour guide built-in autonomous cars
When I started this idea it was fresh and new to the market. I first tried to use a conventional way to tackle this problem but after talking to my professor, we believe we could think outside the box to make traveling more engaging.
Creating a tour guide that is resourceful, personalized, and educational is crucial. The concept I came up with is an AR windshield and side windows where travelers can can immediately get background knowledge of what’s appealing to them.
Early exploration of end to end process
Support Technologies
Incorporate technology that could help travelers gain knowledge painless during the trip.
Since the purpose of this project is to give travelers a completely relaxing experience without worried about not having a real tour guide around. I wondered what kind of technology could be also include in the system to help travelers travel painless.
Ultimately, Carppet aims to provide a comprehensive travel experience whether the travelers want to have a tour guide or want to travel spontaneously.
Augmented Reality
Voice Assistance
Image Recognition
GPS System
Hand Gesture Recognition
Autonomous Technology
Eye Tracking
4DX
🎨 Design Iteration
Car Dashboard Screen
I started with car dashboard design because it is the easiest way to put all the content onto a screen. However, when interviewing with several travelers, they mentioned that if they still need to move their eyes between windshield and dashboard it isn't any different from browsing information on their phone.
2D Style UI
I then tried applying 2D style UI on the windshield and side windows. But again, since I am designing a Heads Up Display there are plenty more style other than mobile that I could play with.
Final Design
*The following images are from the perspective of a traveler sitting in an autonomous car.
01.
Pick what to see
Travelers are able to pick what to see from one of the categories. The categories include education, navigation, utilities, and activities. This could avoid too much information at a time and also filter to information travelers are really looking for.
Pick a category
We provide 4 categories for travelers to choose from: Education, activities, navigation, and utilities. Travelers are able to switch to one another based on their interests and needs anytime.
Detail Choice
If travelers want to have more specific needs, we also offer plenty of sub categories for users to choose from.
02.
Navigation
For security reasons, current autonomous cars still provide navigation features for users to understand the decisions autonomous cars are making.
Arrival Welcome
Surrounding Traffic
It is hard to tell what the animal is while there is nobody around you that knows the answer. Carppet is able to recognize animals and provide corresponding introduction of those animals.
If travelers want to have more specific needs, we also offer plenty of sub categories for users to choose from.
03.
Education
Learning through travel is one of the best means of education outside the classroom. Carppet introduces a new way to explore world efficiently and easily obtain knowledge for a successful trip.
Animals
Plants
It is hard to tell what the animal is while there is nobody around you that knows the answer. Carppet is able to recognize animals and provide corresponding introduction of those animals.
Unlike animals, since some plants only bloom in particular time of the year, it is even harder to identify them when there isn't an expert around. Carppet can recognize characteristics like size, form, leaf shape, and flower color to help you identify them even it's not in the blossom season.
Building
Geology
We usually have to go inside the building to know its name and history. But now through Carppet, travelers are able to gain those information while stopping at a red light.
We usually go to visitor centers to obtain knowledge on geology. But what if visitor centers are closed? Carppet provides real-time information for users to learn anytime during the trip.
04.
Utilities
No matter how well you plan your travel ahead, there will always be all sorts of emergency situations that you might run into. For example, finding restrooms, gas stations, or a plan B for a restaurant.
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Highlight Places
AR Billboard
Highlight special services above the attractions. Increase visibility for people who might be interested in those services that is not in the plan.
AR billboard decreases the traditional billboard that was not able to see when drive passing by in the car. AR allows stores to add dynamic advertisement to catch passenger's eyes.
05.
Activities
Although you might go through all the travel information, there will always be something you missed. Carppet indicates activities that are popular online, so travelers are able to always change their schedule according to their current mood.
Hiking Trail
Visit Museum
Carppet not only shows current activities but also available activities that are near you so that travelers can make a most informed decision on where to go next.
It is always a pain to visit a museum only to find that the exhibition doesn't match our interests or don't know what to look at. We use AR to showcase exhibits that only relate to travelers' interests.