AR Developments - Engaging the Cognitive Processes

What is it?

Augmented Reality (AR) is the layering of digital information over a real time, live view of objects in the real world.

This digital information can be text-based, images, videos and 3D models, any content that is digitally available has the ability to be overlaid. This technology has the potential to enhance the users’ experiences by combining real and digital information on today’s smartphones and tablets.

What have we been doing?

Here at UCS we have been looking at AR and its uses since mid 2011, the Elevate Team were on a development sprint looking at location (GPS) based layering of digital material. We were using the Layar tool to allow visitors to the Ipswich Wet Dock to find out more information about UCS and its waterfront campus.

Visitors could download the app and subscribe to our channel, allowing them to view the surrounding area through the screen of their smartphone or tablet, this would overlay information about the buildings they were looking at. Due to the technologies in the smartphone/tablet the app would know where they are and in what direction they were looking. We could then plot via GPS what buildings were where and then display certain information about those buildings.

For instance, when looking towards the Library building, the user would be made aware that it was the Library building, what the opening times were, links to the Library’s communications channels and if the user was staff or student, they could search the catalogue.

The last day of this development sprint was set aside for further research. This is when we came across a beta release of a tool called “Aurasma”. Aurasma refers to itself as a visual browser, using mobile devices cameras and image recognition technology to overlay digital content.

Previous AR developments were based around “markers”, meaning you needed a very bold/contrasting icon style image for computer cameras to recognise. With the fast paced developments in mobile technologies and the processing power this brings, companies have been able to develop markerless tracking, known as “Natural Feature Tracking”. This means that image recognition technologies can identify everyday objects as markers, and therefore trigger a reaction within the app.

UCS was one of the first institutions to launch a prospectus with embedded digital content. Prospective students could pick up a copy of the prospectus, download a free app and then hold their mobile device over certain pages of the prospectus (where indicated) and they would have videos play to give more information. An advertising video is available here.

The Elevate Team took the work they had done with the Marketing Team in the prospectus and wanted to engage more with the academic teams. This work progressed into embedding videos in academic research posters. A number of these posters have been produced and one has won ‘best poster’ at an International Radiography conference.

Where are we now?

We have been thinking about ways in which we can take this technology a little further and to really use it in a teaching and learning setting.

We want to really enhance the student experience and to engage with their cognitive processes, getting them to think. We have been looking at developing small learning objects that can be used with mobile devices. Below is a video of a sample learning object that engages with students on a different level.

We no longer have a video that you simply watch and then move on from, we have included responses after the video in the form of a multiple choice answer question.

As you can see in the video, an image on the poster triggers a video to play. The video is someone asking a question of the viewer. The viewer is then able to make a decision/answer the question, which is then responded to in the video. In this instance, the video tells you if you are correct or incorrect and then shows some further feedback in the form of a further video. The video then goes on to show a further question popping up, this question takes you to a form to fill in, giving text based answers/feedback. This information is stored outside of the app, which is accessible to the quiz owner.

This example shows one question and feedback loop, but it is just as easier to create multiple questions, creating individual pathways through the materials if that was required.

This is another tool in our armoury and again, learning design is king.

Exploring UCS and Ipswich - An Interactive Campus Tour #Layar

During a previous Elevate Development Sprint we create a layer in the Augmented Reality "Layar" app.  The sprint was designed to allow us to test the technology and to find possibly uses for this application.

Since the sprint we have spoken with our Marketing & External Relations team to show them what we developed.  This seemed to fit very well with the work of the Student Recruitment Team, they wanted to create a more interactive campus tour, for open days and visits from prospective students.  The Student Recruitment Team had already starting gathering current students' favourite places around campus and around the town.  We were able to plot these locations on our layer, allowing them to be viewable once the user had downloaded the free "Layar" app, they can then view the "UCS" layer.

Below is a view of the places plotted on the map, this view is also available in a list, or the very visual camera view, where it overlays the locations on the phones screen in real time, so when you are looking at certain locations/buildings the screen will tell you what those are:



Not only do we show the locations that the students' chose, but we also display their comments about the locations, this also allows others to reply to those comments.  As well as being able to see the comments, open times, menu and other information is available.



The Student Recruitment Team produced a "Welcome to UCS Ipswich" brochure, which tells the reader about downloading the app.  This brochures also has embedded video content about locations around the campus, simply by downloading the UCS Connect app, readers can watch videos by holding their mobile device over the appropriate pages.

 

We are now working with our Induction Planning Team to enhance the tour for new students arriving in September.

Release of #UCSConnect in the App Store #aurasma

UCS Connect, the visual browsing application reskinned from the Aurasma Lite app has now been approved and is a avilable for download from the app store.

Shown below is the app in the app store via an iPhone, UCS Connect is also available via the Android Market Place for users with Android devices.

The app has been released to allow us to take advantage of the Aurasma Platform, allowing the new 2013 Undergraduate Publication to have video content embedded in the printed publication.  As well has the Undergrad Publication the Elevate Team are using the app/platform to assist in the dissemination of other projects/findings.

Recently we supported the production of a conference poster, allowing the academic member of staff to embed the audio files from student interviews in to the printed poster.  The poster and views of the author can be found here and here.

There is great interest for this application of bringing the physical and virtual worlds together, both from a marketing/promotional aspect and the teaching and learning.

The Elevate Team are going to be looking at how we can make this more of sustainable technology, currently it is quite niche, although getting lots of interest.  We will be working on a "Getting Started" guide to using and creating "auras", the name given to the digital interaction.  Currently we are running all of our developments through one developer account with Aurasma, we will speaking to their Partners Manager to see if there are options for allowing this development to grow sustainably.

The Elevate Team are also running a workshop on interactive posters and we will be sharing our developments with this technology.

The 2013 Undergraduate Publication is officially released on Monday and due to the nature of the technology used, the launch will supported by a press release, describing this as the first UK Institution to augment a prospectus with the Aurasma technlogy.

 

Interactive Poster Prototype #UCSConnect #aurasma

The Elevate Team have been working with Sam Chenery-Morris, a lecturer within the School of Nursing and Midwifery.  Sam is presenting a poster at the RCN Education Forum Conference titled "Evaluating Midwifery Practice ".

The Elevate picked up on this poster during a chat with Sam as part of the "Learning Technologist for a day" model, where one of the team is based within the School of Nursing and Midwifery.  Sam has designed the poster and we thought it would be a good test to see how well we could embed some digital material into the printed poster.  Sam had some audio material that had been recorded with the students, so we set about creating the "auras" that would trigger the audio files using the Aurasma Development Studio.

As I type this we are awaiting approval of our UCS Connect app, a re-skinned version of the Aurasma app, as mentioned here.  The way Aurasma works means we are able to access our own content via their "Aurasma Lite" app, if that app is subscribed to one of our UCS channels.

To improve the experience of the audio we quickly added some images and some key text/subtitles thoughout the audio.  The "auras" are much more impressive if images/video is used.

Below is an image showing Sam's poster, including David to give a sense of scale :-)

We have used images that Sam had already added to her poster as triggers, these are the images that the mobile device will recognise and then complete the action that we have developed.  We have used the Aurasma icon to identify the images that have an action associated with it, as well as a small guide showing what to do in the bottom right of the poster.

You will see in the image below, that we have also included QR Codes to the same video content, these just link to the video in Youtube, this gives alternative access to the video content, for users without the app.

Normally we would also include a short url giving another route to the material, but we chose this time to not include that manual route, just to see how users would interact with the poster.  Below you will see David demonstrating the poster using an Android device, this application is available to both iOS and Android devices.

 [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izo9LSpeU7A[/youtube]
http://youtu.be/izo9LSpeU7A

You will notice on the second "aura" that David is able to double tap the screen to make the video play in fullscreen mode, meaning that the device can be moved away for the poster, especially helpful when the digital content is a few minutes in length.

Apologies for the audio quality in the video as it was recorded in an open plan office, and the speaker on the Asus Transformers isn't the best.

We really are starting to see a buzz around this work, only today our Office of Research and Enterprise and shown an interest in working with us.  And we mustn't forget the UCS 2013 Undergraduate Publication that will have "auras" embedded within it, a sneaky peak of a page can be seen below:

 [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4WkuFqDM_8&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
http://youtu.be/K4WkuFqDM_8

The Elevate Team will be running a workshop on Interactive Posters at the next JISC RSC Eastern e-Fair.