Radiating Centers: Augmented Reality and Human-Centric Design

People understand themselves as centers. Using a humanities approach, this paper proposes a conceptual model that promotes human-centricity for AR experiences. It uses David Burrows' phenomenology of sound and human thought as a reflective model. He argues that humans act according to a center-periphery scheme that is projected in three fields of action relating to body, mind, and the existential self. The paper suggests that AR inventors ought to consider how humans imagine their own centric position in the world when they design new applications and interfaces. The thesis for this short paper is that a humanities-based vision for AR could assist with overcoming the disjuncture between the real and the virtual at the early design stages and make human participants feel more integrated.