Educational Augmented Reality Serious Games for People with Developmental Disabilities: A Brief Review of the Research Literature

Many serious games have been developed over time to serve as support in the education of children with developmental disabilities. Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology whose popularity has been increasing, and many games are currently adopting it. Such innovation shows great potential to be applied in serious games. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the trends in the application of AR in serious games that enhance the education process of a child with a developmental disability. The objective is to supply the researcher with a structured table that incorporates key factors related to serious games. Multiple studies from 2016 to 2021 have been collected, and 15 were selected to be reviewed. Finally, it concludes that the results were positive regarding the effectiveness of the projects developed in the reviewed material, and there is still a lot of room for improvement and future work.

I. Introduction

Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology that brings computer-generated graphics to the real world. Unlike Virtual Reality (VR), which involves a complete immersion into a 3D environment and the feeling of being in a remote location, AR combines virtual objects with a real-world scenario, creating a sense of the real world being digitally augmented. AR brings new applications to a variety of sectors, such as medicine, robotics, engineering, and entertainment. Concerning the last one mentioned, in 2016, Pokémon Go, an AR-based video game, was released, and it established new revolutionary trends in AR and the game industry in general. This event left the gate open for the creation of new similar games not only to entertain but to educate as well.