Time-to-Adoption: Four to Five Years

Well underway in disciplines like medicine, engineering, the sciences, and archaeology, augmented reality and enhanced visualization techniques offer dramatic new ways for humans to use visual comprehension skills to explore complex phenomena, situations and relationships. By combining richer, three-dimensional imagery with contextual information, augmented reality allows viewers to assimilate different types of information about a single topic at the same time. Augmented reality is also being combined with games to enhance the learning experience of the games; this combination will likely broaden the application of this technology to fields such as the humanities where it has not yet made significant inroads.

Enhanced visualization facilitates the transfer of knowledge from one person to another by incorporating various means of representing, understanding, and experiencing that knowledge. Complementary forms of representation, including contextual information, animations, drawings, sounds, and other forms that contain more than just factual information, are used to convey a broader sense of the concept.

Relevance for Teaching, Learning & Creative Expression

• provides a superior model of an object (heart, mechanical device, etc.)
• allows information to be "projected" onto an object so that users don't need to turn their attention away to look things up
• encourages collaborative learning by offering a virtual "product" for learners to interact with
• can create a body memory of a subject, which encourages retention of knowledge

Examples

• MIT's "Teacher Education Program" is using augmented reality on handheld devices in simulated games, including an environmental spill simulation and a "whodunit" at an art museum. http://education.mit.edu/ar/

• The "Envision Center" at Purdue University is focused on research and design in computer-based visualization, including creating a platform-independent haptic rendering system. http://www.envision.purdue.edu/

• The University of Florida has developed a transparent reality simulation engine which can be applied to a variety of disciplines, including nursing, chemistry, and physics. The engine "represents internal, abstract and usually invisible functions, processes and concepts with explicitly visible and manipulatable symbols to assist users in exploring, developing and confirming mental models." http://vam.anest.ufl.edu/wip.html

For Further Reading

Trend: Augmented Reality Check
(Eva Kaplan-Leiserson, Learning Circuits, December 2004.) This article summarizes different types of augmented reality and examines their applications in education. Includes links to other useful articles. http://www.learningcircuits.org/2004/dec2004/0412_trends.htm

Augmented Reality Brings Maps to Life
(Will Knight, New Scientist, 19 July 2005.) Paper maps can be brought to life using hardware that adds up-to-the-minute information, photography and even video footage. http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7695