AR in action Part I: Architecture, Education & Art

My last post A concise introduction to AR explains briefly what AR is. However, to understand the impact and significance of AR, we need to have a look at what its used for. Here are a few examples from various fields, ranging from architecture to parenting. This is by no means a full account of all the developments in AR application, rather, it serves to get acquainted with the possibilities of AR and highlights some interesting projects.

Architecture

Augmented Round Table for Architecture and Urban Planning

In the field or Arhcitecture and Urban Planning, using 3D models on a 2D interface is insufficient to grasp the subtle details of the buildings’ spacial relations. Therefore, students and professionals need real-world 3D models, which they meticulously assemble; a highly time and material resource intensive practice. Now, with the use of AR, the programmed structures can be visualized in 3D, with the use of HMDs to overlay sound and graphics to the planners natural senses. These overlays remain in place, even while the person moves around, because the HMDs allow for the location of the person to be tracked. Note that the model is interactive, enabling the planners to directly adjust and modify the structures in real-time. Also, the interior structure of buildings could be seen, much as if the viewer would have x-ray vision. (Webster, 1996; Guo, 2008)

Education

The field of education has likewise expressed high interest in developing AR for its purposes. Brett E. Shelton explores the potential for learning with AR,  for example using markers and HMD so that textbooks could gain an interactive pop-up quality (left). This way, students are able to interact with 3D models of their subject. Rather than having to figure out how all those lines on the page are supposed to be our solar-system in action, they can actually observe how the planets circle around the sun.  CSIRO has been researching AR for educational purposes, focusing on using virtual objects as the center of learning interaction (middle, right).

More recent research at CSIRO has been focused on using this technology for long distance interaction between people solving a task together. This is part of their research on Interactive Visualization (IV), a young research field created “to develop new scientific methods to increase person’s abilities to explore and understand the data, so that an increased awareness of meaning in the data is possible” (Zudilova-Steinstra, Adriaansen & Van Liere, 2009).

Arguing that the use of mobile AR would do more justice to equity, researchers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the Teacher Education Program at MIT, have joined forces in HARP: a Handheld Augmented Reality Project. The video below gives a short introduction to the project and the philosophy behind it.

The technique used in HARP is also known as augmented learning. In augmented learning, the students learning environment dynamically adapts to them, offering additional visual and/or audio information. Commonly, this information is shown as pop-ups on a computer screen. However, as in HARP, more and more researchers have taken an interest in the use of MARS’ (Mobile Augmented Reality System). Researcher Jayfus T. Doswell claims that “MARS has the potential to adapt to individual learning needs and dynamically distribute tailored instruction to improve learning performance for a lifetime” (Doswell, 2006). Wheather on a pc or a mobile device, a key aspect of augmented learning is that information is given to students on a need to know basis, as opposed to conventional learning approaches where information is memorised prior to excecuting a task. It may be argued that this could have negative effects on students memory skills. But, in a society where information is in abundance and knowledge is rapidly outdated, the augmented learning approach supplies students with experience in dealing with this high turnover of information,  equipping them for a future in which the skill of dealing with data will be in high demand.

Art

The playful, interactive element of AR makes it an attractive technology for artists who like to involve the public in their work, to let them discover and reflect upon different corners of contemporary society. In an exposition end 2009, artists at swissnex in San Fransisco explored the use of AR in this manner, adding “new experiences to everyday objects” such as storybooks and t-shirts. See what they came up with here: