The research area focuses on the design of interactive interfaces that help users interact digitally with physical architecture and the content of the urban environment. I have designed interfaces that integrate physical environments to transform the space digitally. For example, in my design of projection displays and installations, information is mapped onto physical architecture (Jung & Kum-Biocca et al., 2020; Kum-Biocca et al., 2015). 

I have designed urban environments that add history or narratives to a space. In my designs, the physical building, room, or larger space is changed to hold embedded and interactive information. In some cases, the environment and information change with the viewer's location or movement. 

Elsewhere, in a digital projection called Media Mind, we added a nostalgic narrative design of media history within an ample space exhibited in Syracuse, Long Beach, and Seoul. 

Similarly, in my recent project called NewARCH, historical architecture is part of the medium. In NewARCH, I designed two environments that merge the physical and the virtual. One brings the images of the older buildings at full scale into the museum via augmented reality glasses. The other allows a user present in front of the physical structure to have historical information overlayed directly on the physical architecture in situ. (Gervits, M., Kum-Biocca, H. H., & Kenzie, M., 2023) 

Research Plans and Funding for the Area of Augmented Reality Interactive Installations 

I intend to expand the design of games and interactive installations for experiential information presentation in various settings. For example, I recently received funding from the state. I would also like to extend this to the design of patient information systems in medical settings under funding from NIH. 

Funded: State of New Jersey Historical Commission 2023