Sweetgrass AR

I worked as the technical design lead on this University of Alberta project to create a platform for indigenous storytelling in AR. The project was well underway before I joined the team, and my role was to research existing AR platforms and propose ways of meeting the project’s unique considerations, such as ensuring that indigenous storytellers retained full ownership and control over the digital content they created.

Our prototype was centered around the Sweetgrass Bear Treaty 6 marker carved by Stewart Steinhauer (Saddle Lake Cree), located in Edmonton’s old Hudson’s Bay building. Aspects of the carving serve as AR markers, allowing visitors to learn about indigenous teachings by viewing short videos in AR. The project’s dual needs for a user-friendly interface and a high degree of control over content were hard to meet with current AR platforms, and I designed a basic scheme for a custom app if the project were to receive additional funding in the future. The main prototype was created in HP Reveal (formerly Aurasma), and I also created a working web-based prototype that allowed for locative stories (but not AR ones).

Visit its website to learn more about this project.