Augmented Karuta: Interactive Playing Cards on the Floor for Learning Local Culture

This paper introduces Augmented Karuta, an interactive floor projection experience inspired by traditional Japanese playing cards, known as ‘Karuta’. Designed to engage users and stimulate interest in local cultures, history, and traditions, the system utilizes three projectors. Two projectors project 46 “grabbing” cards onto the floor screen of 4.1 x 3.7 (m), while the third displays a corresponding “reading” card on a wall screen. Each matching pair of cards shares a poem or sentence that begins with one of the Japanese phonograms. During a session, users actively engage by stepping onto the projected ‘grabbing’ card that matches the ‘reading’ card displayed on the wall, effectively blending physical movement with cognitive skills to find the correct match. By integrating a two-dimensional LiDAR sensor, the system tracks the user's position on the interactive floor. This tracking is vital for the proposed system to immediately respond to the user's actions, ensuring an immersive and seamless interaction with the digital karutas on the floor. We conducted evaluation experiments at two museums, gathering positive feedback from 57 participants. Future work will focus on quantitatively evaluating the system's impact on learning effectiveness.