From Invisible to Actionable: Augmented Reality Interactions with Indoor CO2

TL;DR

This paper presents a portable CO2 sensor integrated with an AR game to visualize indoor pollution hotspots, aiming to improve user awareness and ventilation habits through real-time detection and engaging visualization.

Contribution

It introduces a novel portable CO2 sensor combined with an AR application for real-time visualization and user engagement in indoor pollution management.

Findings

Participants showed increased awareness of CO2 hotspots.

The system achieved a median usability score of 1.88.

The AR game effectively promoted ventilation habits.

Abstract

Indoor carbon dioxide (CO2) can rapidly accumulate to form invisible pollution hotspots, posing significant health risks due to its odorless and colorless nature. Despite growing interest in wearable or stationary sensors for pollutant detection, effectively visualizing CO2 levels and engaging individuals remains an ongoing challenge. In this paper, we develop a portable wrist-sized pollution sensor that detects CO2 in real time at any indoor location and reveals CO2 bubbles by highlighting sudden spikes. In order to promote better ventilation habits and user awareness, we also develop a smartphone-based augmented reality (AR) game for users to locate and disperse these high-CO2 zones. A user study with 35 participants demonstrated increased engagement and heightened understanding of CO2's health impacts. Our system's usability evaluations yielded a median score of 1.88, indicating its strong practicality.