Let the play set come alive: Supporting playful learning through the digital augmentation of a traditional toy environment

The Augmented Knight's Castle (AKC) comprises traditional play figures and scenery embedded with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to enhance user experience by triggering various forms of audio output. In this paper we present the results of a user study with over 100 children to evaluate the AKC in terms of playful learning, compared with an identical, non-augmented version. Findings suggest that children who played with the AKC remembered facts about the Middle Ages that were presented to them in the form of verbal commentaries, both immediately after the play session as well as in a post-test two months later.