What could you do with Augmented Reality?

: Image by Eric Rice via Flickr

Augmented reality is one of the few technologies that have come out within the last few years that really have the ability to simply drop jaws. Primarily, it’s hung out in the marketing field, and been used in car ads and recently on the cover of Esquire magazine. Home versions include a DIY lightsasber and Addidas has announced plans to include an AR code into several of their upcoming shoes, allowing people to actually use the shoe as a controller for a video game. Seriously. I really couldn’t make that one up.

The big question of course is, does Augmented Reality have a place in education, and if so… what is it? At FETC, the folks over at SMART had a small corner of their booth devoted to Augmented Reality. The person there said flat out that they have nothing in production right now, they really have no idea where it’s going to go, they just think it’s neat, has potential and wanted to hear what educators thought.

Well, I got an email about a month ago from a company with a product called Imaginality, and they’re much farther along the path of figuring this stuff out than anybody else that I’ve seen yet. They’ve taken the ordinary webcam, combined it with images that you print out and created some pretty dynamic modules. Basically you download their software, choose which modules you want to purchase, and setup your webcam. Then, when you hold the ‘paddles’ in front of the camera, it displays various 3D objects. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. What’s really interesting is the way the paddles can interact with each other. For example, check out this video of the Solar Explorer module.

As you can see, each paddle representes a different planet. The planets spin at the correct proportional speed, and have some bars in the corners representing various stats about them. But what’s interesting is when you move the planets within a few inches of each other. They resize themselves proportionally. The most dramatic example of that is when you move any planet next to the sun. Pretty powerful effect, much more so than holding up the pumpkin and a marble.

A few other examples. The video below is about the human heart. One paddle shows a beating heart, and by rotating it around you can see it from any angle. But the next four paddles display each of the four chambers. By holding up the ‘info’ paddle, you can make it translucent and see how blood flows through it. But when you start moving the paddles next to each other in the right combinations, the chambers actually connect to each other to create a complete heart.

Is this all you need to teach a student about the heart? Absolutely not. But you do have to admit that it’s a pretty amazing demonstration of the direction technology is moving. I mean, this isn’t something that you find in a museum, it’s being done with ordinary webcams and bar codes you print out. Pretty amazing.

The big question is, where does this belong in education? What kinds of AR should people be building? Science seems to be the most obvious application, and everything from biology to chemistry could make use of this. Think about the building blocks of matter, and how atoms interact with each other. But Imaginality also has a math module, using blocks to demonstrate how multiplication works. It’s more of a proof of concept right now, but it really does show some great potential.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about this one. Where does Augmented Reality fit in? If you could ask them to build a module, what would you want them to create? How would you use it in the classroom?

Virtual Mirror: augmented reality without glasses (crunchgear.com)
Augmented Reality Lets You See Tweets From Inside A Building (ubergizmo.com)
Layar Tells CNN: Augmented Reality Will Be Second Only to Voice On Phones (readwriteweb.com)
Augmented reality sneakers (adverblog.com)
Augmented Reality Rock Paper Scissors (ubergizmo.com)
Augmented reality invades media, Postal Service (matei.org)

30 Comments

Steve Dembo
1/25/2010

Blogged: Augmented Reality for Educators http://tinyurl.com/y9cmu8f

Alex Britez
1/25/2010

RT @teach42: What could you do with Augmented Reality? http://bit.ly/5Ew2vk

kishizuka
1/25/2010

Any thoughts from the library community? RT @teach42 Blogged: Augmented Reality for Educators http://tinyurl.com/y9cmu8f

Edtech Feeds
1/25/2010

[from kfisch] What could you do with Augmented Reality? – Teach42: http://url4.eu/1Df60

muppetmasteruk
1/25/2010

RT @teach42: What could you do with Augmented Reality? http://bit.ly/5Ew2vk

Robin Ashford
1/25/2010

RT @teach42: Blogged: Augmented Reality for Educators http://tinyurl.com/y9cmu8f

topsy_top20k_en
1/25/2010

Blogged: Augmented Reality for Educators http://tinyurl.com/y9cmu8f

Alex
1/25/2010

I totally agree that AR will have it’s place in education. However we need to really analyze the affordances that this type of user experience allows for. If not then the products developed will not take advantage of the full potential of the technology. This is pretty apparent by the slew of what, IMHO are poorly implemented mobile AR apps on the iPhone. I wrote a quick post about this on my blog also http://blog.unthinkmedia.com/?p=355 , I would love to hear your thoughts.

uberVU - social comments
1/25/2010

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by teach42: Blogged: Augmented Reality for Educators http://tinyurl.com/y9cmu8f...

Mike Sansone
1/25/2010

Great question for schools & biz by @teach42: What could you do with Augmented Reality? http://bit.ly/7P3WXN

edutopia
1/25/2010

RT @mikesansone: Gr8 Q for schools & biz by @teach42: What could you do with Augmented Reality? http://bit.ly/7P3WXN

Augmented Experience
1/25/2010

What could you do with Augmented Reality? – Teach42 http://bit.ly/4zPidx

ASU MEC
1/25/2010

Interesting stuff from the #MEC2010 keynote speaker: RT @teach42: Blogged: Augmented Reality for Educators http://tinyurl.com/y9cmu8f

Ben Sykes
1/25/2010

#AR What could you do with Augmented Reality? – Teach42 http://bit.ly/4zPidx

Eileen Lento, Intel
1/25/2010

RT @teach42L Blogged: Augmented Reality for Educators http://tinyurl.com/y9cmu8f

Google Educator
1/25/2010

RT @edutopia: Gr8 Q for schools & biz by @teach42: What could you do with Augmented Reality? http://bit.ly/7P3WXN

Raj Boora
1/25/2010

I think AR is something that we need to get into education, but the problem is that it isn’t easy to build the apps that one would need. Once we solve that issue, things are going to be much simpler. In the mean time, using the COTS model that leverages social media and existing apps like Layar can help some disciples out with AR, but not all.

kohd
1/25/2010

What could you do with Augmented Reality? – Teach42 http://tinyurl.com/y9cmu8f

Tweets that mention What could you do with Augmented Reality? - Teach42 -- Topsy.com
1/25/2010

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Steve Dembo, kishizuka, Robin Ashford, Alex Britez, ASU MEC and others. ASU MEC said: Interesting stuff from the #MEC2010 keynote speaker: RT @teach42: Blogged: Augmented Reality for Educators http://tinyurl.com/y9cmu8f [...]

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1/25/2010

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by edutopia and Mike Sansone, Google Educator. Google Educator said: RT @edutopia: Gr8 Q for schools & biz by @teach42: What could you do with Augmented Reality? http://bit.ly/7P3WXN [...]

Randy Lyseng
1/26/2010

Very cool 3D animation augmented reality tools via @teach42 – http://bit.ly/7AMlXs

David McGraw
1/26/2010

What could you do with Augmented Reality? Read/Watch: http://bit.ly/bsuvWA

Bob Deneau
1/26/2010

I have been playing around with a program called ARsights that can use 3-d images from the google warehouse. All I needed was my webcam and to print the marker. After installing the program on my computer, I was able to view 3-d models of places that I downloaded for free like the Parthenon. Talk about bringing the world to our students. I am very excited with AR tech!

train_boy
1/26/2010

http://tinyurl.com/y9cmu8f
What could you do with Augmented Reality? – Teach42

Randy Kolset
2/2/2010

Augmented Reality is going to change how students interact with information. I see it being able to be used in all kinds of curricular areas. Science and Health simple with body parts being shown from any angle. What if you did social studies with 3d maps and students can see why trails were created in certain regions combined with animations showing directions that people had traveled. It would be a great novelty to writing. You could add one to your assignments so people get a picture of what you are thinking. Reading with illustrations and animations to make a new type of pop up book. Mathematics showing geometry and other math concepts. It is going to be real great when the can actually manipulate the objects. I am in awe as to the possibilities. Thins that have been only seen in movies are beginning to appear before our eyes.

Robin Martin
2/10/2010

Steve, this is a great post about AR and the comments add to it. Here is my little contribution to AR, check this site from USAToday: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/wizarding-world-of-harry-potter-preview.htm

And print the map, and follow the directions to see what they have done with AR and the world of Harry Potter. Simple, but very cool. I think we are at the baby step phase of this new technology!

Augmented Reality with Bing Maps The Wave of the Future « Eduhowto
2/21/2010

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