Augmented Reality

Typical view of AR, having hologram-like 3D object above the view of real worldMost of the applications of STEDUS are based on augmented reality (AR for short). What is it?

It is old, but still new concept. You can find more on subject at Wikipedia where you can study concept more deeply. In here we only scratch the surface, trying to describe it shortly.

Basically, it is a technique with which virtual content is brought onto view of the real world. Virtual content can be 3D-models or animations, video, text, images, audio..

Secondly, to know how (size, position, orientation etc.) that content should be added onto view of real world, the surroundings need to be analyzed, i.e. if there is a marker or other familiar features around.

Thus, typically it is a combination of computer vision and methods of adding content to realtime videoview of real world.

How can it help education then?

Experience based education is usually best type of education. Sometimes giving such is not possible due to lack of real physical objects or devices, and even when they are around, extra information in field of view could help much the learning process. When there is no possibility to have real physical objects or devices, a computer generated version could go a long way - specifically if it was hologram like (see the image top right of this page, a hologram -like animated police appearing over a comic book).

There could be thousands of examples of usage possibilities. Instead of giving loooong list here, we try to cover few different kind of needs through examples. Please also see videos at bottom of page to give you even more ideas. Also in the videos there are merely just few examples, but they hopefully give you a hint of what is possible and how it could help in education (even though not all of the videos are about educational usages).

Example 1:Example 1, Teacher is showing example of box on inclined surface, and students can see affecting forces in realtime on real objects
In physics, one typical example is to have a box on inclined surface. In class room there might be small box and small triangle-shaped object. If box is placed on the longest side of triangle, teacher can tell about the forces affecting the box, they can be drawn to whiteboard or shown on computer slides. That would still be passive learning even the objects were real. But if students would see arrows of forces above the real box as soon as it is placed top of triangle, they could test it easily themselves, placing box to different part of triangle and see if arrows or numbers change, it would become active, experience based learning. Even if teacher was doing the moving of box, students would observe the arrows appearing right when box was placed, and thus it would be more visual proof that when box was placed, the forces of gravity, friction and normal started to affect it.

Example 2:
Student is mixing two liquids. Above the glass containers, she sees what kind of molecules those liquids consists of. When she pours one to another, she will see as 3D animation above the experiment, what is happening in molecular level as the liquids are mixing up.

Example 2, student mixing liquids and seeing at the same time what is happening in molecular level

Example 3:
In mathematics, there is grid made out of markers on the floor. Above the markers students see some 3D-animation, i.e. virtual billiard balls all presenting different number from 1-9. Then they are presented with questions like "how do you get 12?", "what is the next prime number?" etc. Then they need to hide markers presenting correct numbers. Thus, students learn by actually doing things physically, and also through fun playing. Instead of playing with computer alone, they are playing together like at the playground grid. Teacher can concentrate on giving hints about how to solve the task, and how to calculate. Please see our front page for photographs taken while testing this kind of approach.

More examples

Similar augmentation can also be used with the books:

Some basic features of Augmented Reality

Testing on some measuring features

Interactions with markers: to see earth through different lenses or how it orbits sun