TECHNO-SPIRITUAL INTERACTION: LEVERAGING RAY CASTING IN AUGMENTED REALITY (AR) TO FOSTER AMANAH AND AWE IN AVIAN CONSERVATION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35631/JISTM.1144054Keywords:
Amanah, Augmented Reality, Awe, Islamic Environmental Ethics, Moral Agency, Ray Casting, System Usability ScaleAbstract
Current research on Augmented Reality (AR) consistently demonstrates its effectiveness in raising environmental awareness. Yet a persistent values behaviour gap limits the extent to which technical interaction translates into deeply rooted ethical stewardship. This paper proposes a Techno-Spiritual Interaction approach that integrates ray-casting interaction with Islamic environmental ethics to strengthen human character and moral responsibility. A mobile AR application, Burung Hijrah, was developed in which users rescue oiled migratory birds, specifically the Whimbrel and the Black Baza, situated at Tanjung Piai National Park, a Ramsar site at the southernmost point of mainland Asia. Through the precision of ray casting mechanics, users are actively and cognitively engaged in performing the act of rescue, which is immediately reinforced by Wonders of Creation content highlighting the biological engineering and migratory feats of the birds. An exploratory single-group post-use evaluation involved 30 participants, most of whom were undergraduate Information Technology students. The study employed the System Usability Scale (SUS) alongside a techno-spiritual instrument that measured Awe, Amanah, and Moral Agency. The application achieved a SUS score of 73.5, indicating good usability. Users reported very high levels of Awe (M=4.45) and Amanah (M=4.43), and high Moral Agency (M=4.08), with 90% agreeing that the digital rescue act felt morally meaningful despite being a simulation. Most participants also expressed an intention to build morally oriented applications in the future. The findings suggest that combining precise AR interaction with spiritual reflection offers a promising design approach for supporting users' reported experiences of Awe, Amanah, and Moral Agency, particularly among future IT practitioners.
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