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Japanese Tea Gardens Augmented Reality Experience

Entertainment | Museum

The San Antonio Parks Foundation, which operates the Japanese Tea Garden, was searching for an innovative way to entertain and inform the thousands who visit the gardens each year. The site features a lush year-round garden and a floral display with shaded walkways, stone bridges, a 60-foot waterfall and ponds filled with Koi. Traditional outdoor signage solutions were considered, but the team felt that additional signage could distract from the beautiful and tranquil atmosphere of the garden. Instead, they decided to develop a mobile application to tell the story of the gardens.

Texas media firm Geomedia, working with the San Antonio Parks Foundation, came to Balance Studios to develop an immersive mobile application to help visitors explore this popular attraction. Our team created a fun, easy to use mobile app, driven by Augmented Reality (AR) technology that give visitors an opportunity to explore the past and present of the historic gardens, and create 3D AR koi, a flying dragon, and water lilies they can drop into the virtual environment, all with a touch of their smartphone!

Our team collaborated with Geomedia and the San Antonio Parks Foundation, to develop the mobile application. Working from text, image and video assets provided by Geomedia, Balance Studios developed a fun and entertaining mobile application that utilizes Augmented Reality to enhance the visitor’s experience of key areas throughout the garden.

The fun begins after visitors download the application from iTunes or the Google Play store. Augmented Reality (AR) activities are arranged around six locations within the gardens, each identified on a map accessible through the home screen of the application, which also includes a help page, a history of the Japanese Tea Garden with text and images, and a link to a page for visitor donations to the garden.

When visitors touch the AR experience button on the home page, the application opens the visitor’s camera view to engage a series of AR interactive experiences. Visitors encounter AR content at locations around the garden when they focus their camera on any of a series of special activation image graphics.

The Torii Gate

As they approach the magnificent Torii Gate, visitors can bring up a 3D image of the Gate on their phone. The application tells the story of the significance of the Torii Gate in Japanese culture (it serves as a boundary between a sacred space and the mundane human world) and explains the name changes on the Gate over the years. Originally, the Gate included the name “Japanese Tea Garden”, but the name was changed to “Chinese Tea Garden” at the start of World War II when anti-Japanese sentiments arose in the county. Visitors can change the name on the 3D image of the Gate back to “Japanese Tea Garden” with a single swipe across their phone.

Dragon Photo Op

At the Dragon Bridge, visitors can capture a photo of Kokoro, the Japanese tea gardens’ resident flying dragon. Visitors use the AR application to make the VR dragon swirl through the air around the garden, then land for a photo that visitors can capture, keep, and share on social media.

Coloring Koi Fish

Visitors add colors to their own custom Koi fish, then cast their animated creations into the pond below.

Virtual Jigsaw Puzzle

The visitor line their camera up to a specific spot in the Garden Overlook B. Once lining up their camera, they can create a vintage view of the garden overlook by assembling a 15-piece jigsaw puzzle. When the pieces are assembled, the vintage view overlays the real-world view.

Placing Water Lilies

By simply tapping the button on their phone, visitors can point their camera at the pond and with a second tap place 3D water lilies into the pond.

Jingu Family Tea Ceremony

Teatime! When visitors enter the Jingu House restaurant and scan an image target on an empty table, the AR application brings up a 3D tea set on the tabletop. Visitors can switch between 3 different historic tea sets displayed on the tabletop.

Visitors can also use their smartphone to scroll through historic photos and captions that explore the importance of the Japanese Tea ceremony, including a brief history of the Jingu Family, the original caretakers of the Tea Garden.

The Idea

Develop an easy-to-use mobile application that allows visitors to employ their smartphones to explore the natural beauty and rich history of the San Antonio Japanese Tea Garden. Include augmented reality experiences that let visitors immerse themselves in a series of entertaining activities highlighting key elements of the Garden. Make it fun and educational, helping visitors navigate around the garden as they interact with 3D representations of objects and spaces within the garden. Let visitors direct their own course through the garden while they view, make, save, and share captivating digital experiences, providing a rich personal connection to this favorite San Antonio destination.

Services

Balance Studios was commissioned by Geomedia to develop and produce an immersive mobile application that uses augmented reality (AR) to create captivating experiences for visitors exploring the Japanese Tea Garden. Our team worked with closely with Geomedia, bringing hundreds of images, text, and video to life through the mobile app. We worked hard to create a robust, intuitive mobile application that makes touring the garden entertaining and educational. We incorporated a series of 3D AR experiences into the app to give visitors some unexpected surprises as they tour the garden. We worked with the project team to create an experience that connects with both young and old visitors and highlights the historic roots of the site.

The Result

The mobile application is a hit with visitors! The app creates a rich, deeply immersive experience for visitors that provides many opportunities for personalized engagement with the history and lush beauty of the site. The mobile application entertains and educates visitors, providing a compelling exploration of the Japanese Tea Garden that’s fun and entertaining. The application has been well received by the local creative community as well, winning a 2022 San Antonio Advertising Federation Silver ADDY Award in 2022.