Using augmented reality to create a more playful daily routine

Research by a USW academic is exploring the use of augmented reality – an interactive experience that combines the real world and computer-generated 3D content – in making our everyday lives more playful.

Dr Ben Gwalchmai, lecturer in Digital Innovation at USW’s Intensive Learning Academy, has contributed a chapter to the book Ambient Stories, which has recently been published by Bloomsbury.

The chapter, entitled Here. Now. Ours: Interrogating the use of situated augmented reality, explores ambient play – a more ‘in the moment’ form of interaction – and how we make our daily routine playful in a non-structured way.

Ben’s research looks at the idea of playable cities; connecting the field of extended reality with the open data that is already available, to create playful, poetic interactions for their communities.

His chapter includes ways in which we can make our commute, for example, more fun and engaging, while setting out recommendations for public organisations on how to engage their service users and citizens in more playful, ambient interactions, allowing them to feed back their thoughts and suggestions.

He said: “Essentially, my contribution to the book shows that if you give people the opportunity to understand something – and in my case, that was through play – they will engage more and they will feed back more.

“My PhD was specifically focused on using this kind of ambient play; seeing if it would engage people more in challenging planning applications that might remove their green spaces and parks. And I found that the more that people did it, the more that they were a thorn in the sides of the City Council to stop them building car parks over green spaces. So it really does make a difference to people and hopefully shows public sector organisations that if you give people a playful, interactive opportunity to engage, they will do so.”

Ben has had a varied career, starting off as a farmhand in the Welsh countryside alongside working as a web designer, to writing novels and poetry books, and producing immersive experiences – all building into his decision to embark on a PhD.

Thanks to a fully-funded scholarship with Google and IBM, Ben started his PhD in 2016 at the University of Galway (then known as the National University of Ireland Galway), and completed it in 2021.

Having always had an interest in politics, Ben’s passion for democracy grew during his PhD as he got to grips with the decision-making structures of public sector organisations, and he made the decision to apply for candidacy in the Senedd in 2020.

He became a candidate for Welsh Labour in 2021, and found that his research became more politically practice-based as he saw the necessity and impact of political work on people’s lives.

In 2024 he was named Smart Towns Digital Champion for his hometown of Welshpool, and has successfully led a project to install its first ever free, town-wide WiFi service.

“This was something I felt really strongly that Welshpool needed,” said Ben. “It now means that anyone suffering from data poverty can go into the town and get done what they need to.

“That sort of impact is important, but it also relates to my work as a lecturer at USW’s Intensive Learning Academy, on the MSc Leading Digital Transformation. I’m lecturing on design thinking and user experience design, so I’m involving people at the forefront of it, but I’m also evaluating the impact of the first three cohorts of the MSc on a data led, mostly quantitative, level. This research is due to be completed early in 2025.”