Mobile Augmented Reality Interface for Instruction-based Disaster Preparedness Guidelines

Disaster preparedness guidelines help citizens protect themselves against disasters. Nonetheless, the general public has been found not to read them. Augmented reality (AR) interfaces are known to improve knowledge transfer in studies of education, industry, and elderly assistance. However, this is achieved this by creating specific interfaces for users, not the general public. To test the performance of these interfaces for general public guidance, we designed and implemented a novel AR-assisted disaster prevention guideline that leverages object detection models to identify targets of disaster preparedness advice. We then had a diverse-age audience compare our design against a real traditional paper-based preparedness guide in a room arranged as a common remote work bedroom. By testing their usability, task load, and capacity to make users aware of their environmental hazards, we gained important insights into the performance of different age groups following media developed for the general public. Regardless of different age groups achieving similar usability scores, we found minors improving their performance scores with our novel interface and adults from 20 to 49 years old seemingly performing better than other age groups. In this study, we highlight the importance of guidance alternatives for the young and the less-technology-aware population, contributing to the under-explored area of AR interfaces for the general public.