THE PUBLIC RELATIONS MEDIA APPLICATION TO PROMOTE MATS WITH AUGMENTED REALITY TECHNOLOGY IS TO LEVERGE THE POTENTIAL OF BAN NONG OM MAT WEAVING CAREER DEVELOPMENT GROUP IN UBON RATCHATHANI PROVINCE

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to develop an application on an Android operating system with the objectives to 1) develop a media to promote the sale of mats with augmented reality technology, and 2) to study the satisfaction of the sample group towards the implementation of the application. The population of this study included 46 members of Ban Nong Om Mat Weaving Vocational Development group. The research instruments were divided into three parts which were, first, interview forms and discuss group for data collection about the contexts of the community; second, the public relations media of application on an Android operating system developed with augmented reality technology  to promote the sale of mats with the use of Unity, C#, and Vuforia; and the final part, questionnaire on satisfaction assessment towards the use of the public relation media application. The statistics used in the research were mean and standard deviation. The results showed that 1) the application could present the mat promotional material in a 3D model with augmented reality technology. It helped visualize the mat patterns more clearly as if experiencing the real with audio describing information about each mat. And 2) the members from Ban Nong Om Mat Weaving Vocational Development Group, the members were satisfied with the application at a high level (Mean=4.46, S.D.=0.67). This research had been used for area-based public relations campaigns to promote the unique mat pattern of the community. The community representatives could implement it to publicize at the showcase booth and advertise through the Facebook page of Ban Nong Om Community Enterprise Group to increase sales channels and help the community and customers to buy and sell products more conveniently