Virtual and Augmented Reality Animals in Smart and Playful Cities: Invited Paper

Our future urban environments are smart. Sensors and actuators are embedded in these environments and their inhabitants. We have an Internet of Things, where the ‘Things’ include objects, cars, tools, buildings, street furniture, and whatever can be equipped with sensors and actuators, including human and non-human animals. Augmented humans and augmented animals have their senses extended with digital technology. Their smart wearables connected with the smart environment make humans and animals smarter. Rather than on living animals, in this survey paper we focus on non-living virtual and augmented reality non-human animals that will inhabit our smart and playable urban environments. They will co-exist with robotic animals and (digitally augmented) humans and non-human animals. We include observations on augmented humans interacting with virtual and augmented reality animals. The paper is meant to raise awareness for the possibilities of augmented reality to introduce virtual animals for social, entertainment, and educational reasons.