KIT208 Assignment 3 Report (AR Devlog Nicolyn Kwok_598061)

KIT208 Assignment 3 AR Project » Devlog

2 years ago by nicc03-nicolynk

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Introduction / Overview

In-class learning can be boring as students usually study from textbook materials or videos. Therefore, it becomes a rare opportunity for students to experience outside-class learning. In addition, most STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects require adequate visualisations for better learning outcomes. Among all STEM subjects, mathematics and pure sciences can be challenging to study as sophisticated understanding is required to understand the concept, not to mention further additional aid to help increase the student’s learning curve.

Description of the application

The main objective of augmented reality (AR) is to further engage the participants when studying animals, particularly the different roles of each organism that are included within the food chain. Students usually learned all the study material from textbooks. Therefore, this AR application focuses on using AR technology to increase the student’s interest and engagement during the learning activity.

In this AR assignment, biology is the chosen field, especially when it comes to learning about animals and food chains. Usually, the most interesting way to learn about these topics is to make diagrams or posters to understand the concepts. Thus, to make it more interactive and interesting as possible, using AR application, 3D models are shown with the necessary information, such as: where they get the energy and who are their predators to the students with their relations to other living organisms within the food chain.

Using AR as the chosen media is proven to be significant to increase the interest of the student, as well as their level of engagement since it helps the users in better visualisations of food chain diagrams. As mentioned in a survey paper by Ronald T. Azuma from Hughes Research Library in 1997, Azuma stated that AR is being used as a visualisation aid for challenging viewing conditions, as in one’s occupation (architects) or real-life situations (underwater or in fog). “Researchers at the University of Toronto have built a system called Augmented Reality through Graphic Overlays on Stereovideo (ARGOS) [Milgram95], which among other things is used to make images easier to understand during viewing conditions [Drascic93a].” (Azuma R.T., 1997). Thus, this application of AR can be used to help learners to better visualise how a food chain might possibly look like among many other food chains in various ecosystems.

Proper usage of 3D models is also crucial in this particular use of AR because of the age range and attention span of the users and audience, which are the teachers and children. As quoted in a paper written by Donald A. Norman, “The most important design tool is that coherence and understandability, which comes through an explicit, perceivable conceptual model.” (Norman A.D., 1999). Consequently, to get better understandability and usability, explicit symbols and 3D models are included in the AR experience, not only that it helps the teachers to explain all the necessary details about the knowledge but also helps the audience to grasp the concept quicker in a more interactive and engaging approach. This application of AR in education can also be one of the modern ways that can be applied to every revolutionising education system in the world that is starting to implement teaching that involves more interactions and innovative media.

Interaction Design

Virtual buttons are planned as one of the interaction designs, where the students can press the virtual buttons to display the necessary information for a particular 3D model. The necessary information about the living organism will be shown in the background using the UI canvas to do so; therefore, when the virtual button is pressed, the information pops up as the 3D model's background. Virtual buttons are used as it is seen to be more interesting rather than reading the information from textbooks. In addition, the 3D model's information is designed to look like a game character's stat to make it more appealing to younger audience.

The usage of multiple image target interactions to a certain distance is being implemented to make it more interactive, by moving two image targets closer to each other, an arrow will appear between them to indicate who is the prey and who is the predator or where the energy will be transferred as either one of the two is consumed by the other. By comparing this to the technique used in most countries' school systems, this multiple image target interaction can be more interesting rather than drawing charts of food chains.

Technical Development

The simulation will use webcams instead of mobile phones, the reason why webcams are the chosen media to run the AR application is that they can be easily found in most schools’ computer laboratories. Therefore, the users can see the augmented reality experience displayed on the monitor, which can be connected to a projector for big classes. Secondly, not all schools permit the use of mobile phones for their learning activities, which causes not all teachers and students can use this application if the usage of mobile phones is the main media for the AR experience.

The cameras are used to detect the image targets so that each 3D model can be displayed for each image target. When the users wanted to see information about a certain living organism, the user can press the virtual button in each image to view the information can be seen in the background, ranging from the name of the model to who are the consumers, which makes the learning experience to be more interesting rather than reading from textbooks.

To get the arrow to be displayed between two image targets, moving two image targets closer to each other to a certain distance can show the arrow as the direction of the food chain that shows who will be eaten by whom. However, due to scripting issues, finding a suitable script to show the arrow is quite challenging, therefore this interaction design is not being implemented.

Description of 3D Models

The 3D models that are included in the augmented reality experience are found in the Unity Asset Store and mainly a plant and a few animals to symbolise each level of niche within the food chain itself. Starting from the very bottom, a 3D model of a plant is used to symbolise autotrophs (organisms that can produce and consume its own food as a source of energy, which is only limited to plants with chlorophyll), therefore, specific plants with green leaves are used to represent the producers of many food chains.

The second 3D model that is used is a rabbit, a white rabbit as they are uncommon to be found both in the wild, rural, or civilised environments; so, it might also attract the children’s attention to the experience. The reason why a white rabbit is used to represent herbivores among other herbivores is due to the range of the intended audience, which is primary school students as most children find a rabbit to be cute.

The next 3D model that is included in the AR application is a fox as a representation of secondary consumers, usually, carnivores that consume the primary consumers (herbivores), in this case, the white rabbit. The reason why a fox is used is that foxes are the most common animals that feed on rabbits in the wild, in addition, most textbooks and pictures on the internet use fox instead of any other carnivores that consume rabbits.

And the last 3D model used in the program is an eagle to represent an apex predator that usually sits at the uppermost of a food chain since there are no other living organisms that consume eagles. However, the intended apex predator is a falcon; but due to difficulty in finding a suitable 3D model, a 3D model of an eagle is used to represent the falcon due to the similarity in its appearance and characteristics. Thus, there are only limited ways that can kill eagles, either they are being hunted or died due to natural causes. Apex predators or falcons in the AR experience can also be consumed by decomposers after death, so that eventually the energy consumed by the falcon will go back to the environment; however, finding a 3D model of a decomposer is challenging. Thus, the AR experience only reaches the apex predator stage.

References

Azuma R. T., 1997, “A Survey of Augmented Reality”, Hughes Research Laboratories, Malibu, California 90265, In Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 6, 4 (August 1997), 355 – 385 https://mylo.utas.edu.au/d2l/le/content/526208/viewContent/4586034/View

CubicBrain (virtual buttons):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElmzIq6stNI

Donald A.R., 1999, “Affordance, Conventions, and Design”, The Nielsen Norman Group, ACM 1072-5220/99/0500 https://mylo.utas.edu.au/d2l/le/content/526208/viewContent/4586043/View

Egypt Pack – Eagle (Eagle 3D model): https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/characters/animals/birds/egypt-pack-eagle-140079#content

Exaggerated and Unique Foliage (Jonathan Foust): https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/vegetation/plants/exaggerated-and-unique-foliage-145037#content

Falcon image: https://www.nps.gov/places/000/peregrine-falcon.htm