Development of an AR Commemorative Photo Feature for the Tourism App "Discover OSAKA" (Hello Kitty XR Experience)

The tourism board wanted to offer new experiential value that would encourage visitors to tour a variety of tourist spots across the prefecture and turn the visit itself into a lasting "memory."

• Providing tourist information alone offered a weak incentive for users to keep opening the app and actually visit the sites in person.
• The board wanted to leverage the IP of a popular character to offer an AR experience (commemorative photos) that could only be had on-site, driving visits, touring, and social media sharing in one continuous flow.
• It was necessary to reliably implement, at stable quality, AR that overlays a character onto real space through the smartphone camera, along with decorative accessories, beauty filters, and social media sharing.

Miichisoft handled the "AR commemorative photo" feature built into the tourism app end-to-end, from consulting and basic design through development, testing (unit / integration / system), and maintenance. We implemented the full experience that lets users visit a location and create memories together with the character.

• Spot check-in: Confirms a visit to a supported tourist spot and unlocks the AR photo feature
• AR camera: Overlays a popular character onto real space through the smartphone camera
• Commemorative photo & save: Saves photos with AR elements and filters applied to the device
• AR accessories: Adds character-style accessories (hats, ribbons, masks, etc.) to photos
• Beauty filter: Applies a beautifying effect to the face in the camera feed
• SNS sharing: Direct sharing to major social networks such as Facebook, X, and Instagram

The mobile app was developed in Flutter/Kotlin, using Niantic Lightship (ARDK) / ARKit for the AR experience, with AWS as the infrastructure. By taking ownership from basic design through integration and system testing, we ensured the display quality, usability, and stability required for an app handling licensed IP.

Flutter ／ Kotlin ／ Niantic Lightship ARDK ／ ARKit ／ AWS

The end user is a tourism board (DMO) responsible for tourism promotion and inbound visitor attraction in the Osaka area. Aiming to give domestic and international travelers a "stress-free, comfortable touring experience," the organization is pursuing tourism DX by integrating tourist information search, facility reservations, and payments into a single app. As one of its core initiatives, the tourism board planned a feature offering an AR (augmented reality) experience in collaboration with a globally popular character, encouraging visitors to tour spots across the prefecture, create memories of their visit, and spontaneously share their experience on social media. This project, carried out under a development structure via a major telecom carrier, covered this "AR commemorative photo" feature.