What are Augmented Reality Games (ARGs)?

5.2. Augmented Reality Games (ARGs)
The general idea of an ARG, as our research group is using it, is built on the constraints and affordances of the MIT game available. The game engine was developed at MIT with a Games-to-Teach grant, and merges handheld computers (Pocket PC), with GPS (Global Positioning System) units. For the players, game space is real space, tracked by GPS and plotted onto the handheld computer. The space that they move through is somewhat familiar -- they know it as a place with recognizable and culturally-familiar features -- but the game reveals added or augmented content that is meaningful within the frame of the game. So, just as a tree might have the augmented meaning of a goal or safe area in a children's game, a tree may be endowed with properties and meanings in these games, triggered by the GPS unit as they approach the tree in the game.