Childhood nostalgia
72 of 209 respondents selected nostalgia for childhood as the primary reason people enjoy Chinese Dreamcore.
PROJECT 03 / CASE STUDY
Echo Hunt
A mobile AR exploration prototype that turns childhood objects and familiar public spaces into an active memory-collection experience.
PRIMARY CONTRIBUTION
I framed the opportunity, conducted the research, designed the product system and visual language, built the Unity AR demo and tested its interaction core in three physical contexts.
CURRENT OUTCOME
A concept-to-interactive prototype in which AR scene activation, 3D item rendering and ManoMotion collect/discard gestures were built and tested; the wider map, library and social ecosystem remains a visual concept.
01PROBLEM / EVIDENCE
TARGET USERS
18–28-year-old Gen Z students and early-career young adults who encounter Chinese Dreamcore through short-form video and streaming media.
How might familiar real-world places become active portals to childhood memory instead of remaining passive Dreamcore images on a screen?
RESEARCH EVIDENCEPRODUCT JUDGMENTFEATURE DECISION
01
72 of 209 respondents associated Dreamcore’s appeal with nostalgia for childhood — the largest response group.
Anchor the experience in recognizable objects from users’ formative years.
Four location-specific collections of transformed childhood objects.
02
Interviewees connected Dreamcore with familiar childhood elements and relief from present-day pressure.
Use real places with autobiographical meaning, not a fully fictional game world.
School, snack street, amusement park and public-square contexts.
03
Dreamcore is usually consumed passively through short video and streaming content.
Turn nostalgia into a physical act of searching, reaching and collecting.
Location → AR reveal → gesture → collect → memory library loop.
SURVEY · N=209 + INTERVIEWS · N=3
Nostalgia is both recognition and relief.
An online survey mapped the emotional appeal of Chinese Dreamcore. Three semi-structured interviews then connected those signals to childhood familiarity, present-day pressure and the value of revisiting memory through place.
Social change
58 of 209 connected its appeal with social change, reinforcing the link between memory and present-day uncertainty.
Resonance or escape
126 of 183 reported either strong emotional resonance or a brief escape from reality.
INTERVIEW SYNTHESIS · N=3
One representative voice, one shared pattern.
01Anonymous participantRepresentative response from three interviews
“Chinese Dreamcore feels familiar and intimate because it is composed of elements from my childhood. Nostalgia may also be a way of resisting present-day pressure and beautifying memories.”
PRODUCT IMPLICATION
Design around concrete childhood objects and familiar places, while keeping the experience exploratory rather than prescribing one fixed memory narrative.
The second survey question was shown only to respondents familiar with Chinese Dreamcore, producing 183 valid answers. Percentages below are calculated from the supplied response counts; survey field dates and interview recruitment details were not recorded in the source material.
02SYSTEM / SCOPE
SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
Separate the working AR interaction core from the future product ecosystem.
PROTOTYPE STATUS
The Unity demo proves scene activation, 3D rendering and ManoMotion gesture collection. Character creation, navigation, filters, persistence, library, community, chat and exchange are UX concepts, not shipped functionality.
01
Location context
School, amusement park, snack street and public square define the memory collection.
VISUAL CONCEPT02
AR scene activation
The mobile camera opens the real-world collection scene.
BUILT & TESTED03
3D item rendering
Location-specific childhood objects are placed into the live camera view.
BUILT & TESTED04
ManoMotion recognition
Hand tracking interprets the user’s collection and discard gestures.
BUILT & TESTED05
Collect / discard
A successful gesture resolves the object-level interaction in the demo.
BUILT & TESTED06
Library + social layer
Filters, persistence, personal library, chat and exchange extend the proposed loop.
VISUAL CONCEPTDESIGN + BUILD EVIDENCE
From emotional premise to a testable interaction core.
The product was intentionally scoped as a working AR interaction demo inside a broader concept experience. Every image below is labelled by its actual completion level.
Core experience loop
Users move through a meaningful place, reveal a transformed childhood object, collect it through a hand gesture and gradually assemble a personal memory library.
Concept UX flow
The proposed mobile flow connects navigation, camera activation, gesture guidance, collection feedback and the personal inventory.
Gesture interaction prototype
Unity and ManoMotion were combined to recognize the hand, surface an interaction cue and complete the collect gesture against a live camera scene.
Location-specific memory objects
Each environment uses a distinct set of remixed objects from the 2000s, making the collection recognizable without reproducing one literal memory.
MVP
One live camera scene, rendered memory objects, ManoMotion hand recognition and working collect/discard gestures.
DEFERRED
Character creation, real location navigation, filters, saved inventory, community, chat and item exchange.
TECHNICAL LIMITATION
The demo validates the interaction core, but does not yet prove GPS navigation, persistent collections or reliable recognition across devices, lighting conditions and crowd density.
03PROTOTYPE / TEST
TECHNICAL FIELD TRIALS
The interaction ran in three increasingly complex physical contexts.
03.1
Classroom
An indoor trial established that the AR objects could remain visible and the collect gesture could be recognized against a controlled, repeated background.
03.2
Snack street
The prototype was taken into a visually dense commercial environment to check whether live objects and hand tracking remained legible amid signage and movement.
03.3
Amusement park
A bright outdoor scene tested the core interaction against strong daylight, moving visitors and a larger spatial backdrop.
VALIDATION BOUNDARY
Technical field trials, not a moderated usability study.
These trials show that AR rendering and gesture collection can run in three real contexts. Participant-level completion rates, recognition error counts and comparative usability metrics were not recorded, so no behavioral impact is claimed.
NEXT VALIDATION
Connect one real location trigger to the working AR interaction, add a visible button fallback, then run 5–8 moderated sessions measuring discovery, gesture success, fallback use and whether the collected objects evoke personally meaningful memories.