Problem Statement
Augmented Reality is used by various professions to support learning and marketing processes. In educational environment, AR can enhance the interactivity of the learning process. Adding interactivity to a classroom learning experience always enhances student engagement. To be able to view and manipulate an object being learned about can lead to deeper understanding and further exploration and questions. By introducing AR into the classroom, students will have a new way to learn by being able to see a 3D view of what would have been images in a text book.
Augmenting physical spaces with many participants requires a control over the physical space and the virtual contents. Positioning of virtual contents should be interactive. The virtual objects should be placed according to participants' positions and be flexible with changes in the physical environment. In addition, they should be interactive and mobile to support learning processes. Therefore, we built an augmented reality application for Hololens to interactively position, track and move virtual objects in the Cybercommon room.
Furthermore, the registration of the virtual contents is a big issue in augmented reality applications. A precise tracking of the physical object is required to augment the virtual contents without the break of the illusion that the virtual content is a part of the physical object. Therefore, a sophisticated tracking system like OptiTrack will provide a precise motion capture and 3D tracking, and by incorporating that into our application we obtain an interactive augmented reality application at an interactive rate. We used the OptiTrack system to drive the augmentation of the virtual objects.
Augmenting physical spaces with many participants requires a control over the physical space and the virtual contents. Positioning of virtual contents should be interactive. The virtual objects should be placed according to participants' positions and be flexible with changes in the physical environment. In addition, they should be interactive and mobile to support learning processes. Therefore, we built an augmented reality application for Hololens to interactively position, track and move virtual objects in the Cybercommon room.
Furthermore, the registration of the virtual contents is a big issue in augmented reality applications. A precise tracking of the physical object is required to augment the virtual contents without the break of the illusion that the virtual content is a part of the physical object. Therefore, a sophisticated tracking system like OptiTrack will provide a precise motion capture and 3D tracking, and by incorporating that into our application we obtain an interactive augmented reality application at an interactive rate. We used the OptiTrack system to drive the augmentation of the virtual objects.
Project Description
The goal of this project is to offer a smart, virtually enhanced environment for supporting interactive collaborative workspaces and educational classrooms using Augmented Reality. We built an application for the Hololens Head Mounted Display (HMD) where the person with the (HMD) can add virtual contents in various spots around the physical classroom to be used later for a class lesson of a specific subject. The application will allow the managing of the information that will be displayed at specific locations using a control menu.
A main component of our application is the tracking system. We aim to increase the interactivity by enabling the tracking of virtual objects. That will give a control over the positioning of the virtual contents and will make them more dynamic along with the physical space. For different situations, you can arrange your physical space by arranging the rigidbodies on the positions that define your set up. Then, your application will be driven by these tracked positions. In our current implementation, we enable the post of virtual contents to specific locations (i.e. students' tables). In addition, you can assign a virtual object to a rigidbody to make it mobile so you can move it around the room. This is essential in augmented reality application that target educational environment.
We built two educational sessions for Chemistry and Geology. In both sessions, the user can add virtual contents and post them to tracked positions in the classroom. He can interact with virtual contents and even make them static or mobile. Our application is highly extendable. For the class project requirements, we built two educational sessions but additional sessions for various subjects can be added in future development. In addition, the current sessions for the Chemistry and Geology can be extended by adding more features and controls.
A main component of our application is the tracking system. We aim to increase the interactivity by enabling the tracking of virtual objects. That will give a control over the positioning of the virtual contents and will make them more dynamic along with the physical space. For different situations, you can arrange your physical space by arranging the rigidbodies on the positions that define your set up. Then, your application will be driven by these tracked positions. In our current implementation, we enable the post of virtual contents to specific locations (i.e. students' tables). In addition, you can assign a virtual object to a rigidbody to make it mobile so you can move it around the room. This is essential in augmented reality application that target educational environment.
We built two educational sessions for Chemistry and Geology. In both sessions, the user can add virtual contents and post them to tracked positions in the classroom. He can interact with virtual contents and even make them static or mobile. Our application is highly extendable. For the class project requirements, we built two educational sessions but additional sessions for various subjects can be added in future development. In addition, the current sessions for the Chemistry and Geology can be extended by adding more features and controls.