Most of the content creation applications that are currently common in use are regular PC applications with simulated 3D visualisation on a 2D screen and indirect interaction through a mouse and keyboard. Augmented Reality (AR) is a medium that can provide actual 3D visualisation and more hands-on interaction for these applications. This thesis explores how AR can be used for story authoring, a specific type of content creation. Both types of existing AR interfaces, tangible and touch-less were explored and combined in a useful way. The Story ARtist application was developed to evaluate the designed interactions and AR visualisation for story authoring. Its interface combines tangible and touch-less interactions in the form of physical markers and hand tracking input. A tabletop environment is used to visualise the story authoring elements dynamically, using the 3D space that AR provides. Story authoring is kept simple for accessibility, with a plot point structure focused on core story elements like actions, characters and objects. A user study was done with the concept application to evaluate the designed AR interaction and visualisation for story authoring. The results show that AR has considerable potential for story authoring.

In public places such as malls, train stations, and airports, there is a constant flow of people either waiting or commuting. Even though people at these locations are surrounded by many other individuals, mostly there is little social interaction, which generally creates a gloomy atmosphere. Any applications promoting social interactions are a welcome addition. We present IMOVE, an interactive framework aimed at facilitating the development of such applications. It offers a combination of motion tracking and projection methods which makes it easier to create interactive experiences and games, tailored to motivate people to move around, explore, and, most importantly, interact with each other in a fun way. People moving around trigger events and effects, interacting with the applications using their body movements or even collaboratively working towards an outcome. IMOVE was validated by means of a variety of applications in a real scenario, the entrance hall of a busy public building: the classic Pong game, a collaborative and accessible casual game (Save the Turtles!), and a procedural visual art generator based on game mechanics (Light Trails). All applications have been successfully running for the past year. The IMOVE framework is freely available online and it has been shown to be particularly suited and accessible to novice game and interactive application developers for large public spaces.@en