Augmented Reality (AR)

4 recent items regarding how augmented reality is being used in learning-related applications

On 02/19/2014, in Augmented Reality (AR), human-computer interaction (HCI), India, innovation, interactivity, mobile learning, play, user experience (UX), by Daniel Christian

Practical ideas for using augmented reality in contextual mobile learning — from blog.commlabindia.com by Aruna Vayuvegula

Excerpt:

Using Augmented Reality for contextual mLearning sounds too futuristic – a phenomenon that is being experimented in universities and research centers across the world. Wikipedia defines Augmented reality (AR) as a live, copy, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It is rather hard for a non-technical person to perceive the implication of this definition in a learning situation.

However, when you come across a report that says

864 million high-end cell phones could be AR enabled in 2014,
103 million automobiles will have AR technology by 2020, (Ref: Semico)

You can’t ignore Augmented Reality (AR). You need to stop, to understand what it all means. That’s when I came across an article by Jason Haag, who spoke at DevLearn 13 on Augmented Reality in mobile learning. Published at Advanced Distributed Learning website, it lists some cool examples in the form of videos about AR in action. The video from the link given below is one of them; it truly helped me conceive the idea of AR in a learning context.

AR Music APP Enchantium by DAQRI — from realareal.com by Kiran Voleti

Excerpt:

In the 21st century classroom: Students can see the shape of knowledge, Students can hear the shape of knowledge, students can TOUCH the shape of knowledge.

Zientia: Changing the Way We Learn with Augmented Reality — from realareal.com by Kiran Voleti

Enchantium is a 4D platform that uses augmented reality — from realareal.com by Kiran Voleti

Excerpt:

Discover a New Dimension of Play™ in a magical world of curated, kid-safe content where play sets can come to life and toys can talk, interact and learn new things.

Toys Become Enchanted

So much more than an app, Enchantium is a 4D platform that uses augmented reality and cutting edge technology to connect games and toys with interactive experiences.

The World’s 1st Augmented Television

On 01/27/2014, in A/V -- audio/visual, Augmented Reality (AR), emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, second screen apps, smart/connected TV, technologies for your home, telepresence, television, by Daniel Christian

SeeSpace InAiR: The World’s 1st Augmented Television — from kickstarter.com by Nam Do, Dale Herigstad, A-M Roussel

*Defining the new Augmented Television space*

From DSC:
For those interested in Human Computer Interaction (HCI), interactivity, interface design, augmented reality, and end user experience design — I think you will really like this one!

Again, I can’t help but think there are some significant educationally-related opportunities here; let’s let the students help us innovate here.

The year ahead: ten amazing science and technology innovations coming up in 2014 — from telegraph.co.uk by Paul Kendall and Chris Bell
From the world’s largest underground hotel to Star Wars-style holographic communication, the coming year is set to unveil an array of incredible advances in science and technology

Former Windows leader Steven Sinofsky presents 10 Mega Trends in Tech for 2014 — from businessinsider.com by Jay Yarow; via Graeme Codrington (@FuturistGraeme) and Laura Goodrich (@LauraGoodrich)

Top Technology Trends for 2014 — from computer.org
Excerpt:

Supporting New Learning Styles
Online courses demand seamless, ubiquitous approach.

These days, students from all corners of the world can sign up for online classes to study everything from computer science, digital signal processing, and machine learning to European history, psychology, and astronomy–and all for free. As interest in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) continues to explode, there will be a corresponding need for technology to support these new learning systems and styles. Platforms such as Coursera, with more than 3 million users and 107 partners; and edX, a partnership between Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University with 1.7 million users; are hosting classes with thousands of online enrollees each. And although lectures are still the mainstay of MOOCs, the classes require web forums, online meetups, and keystroke loggers to check identities, as well as powerful servers to handle the volumes. MOOCs and other new online classes are creating a demand for learning that is seamless—happening continuously via different technologies; ubiquitous—drawing from pervasive and embedded technologies; and contextual—drawing awareness from location-based and other sensor-based technologies.

5 Higher-Education Trends for 2014 — from theatlantic.com by Sophie Quinton
Expect an increased emphasis on teacher effectiveness, technical education, and more.

Headings include:

Earning College Credit for What You Know
Career and Technical Education
Student-Loan Outrage
Data-Privacy Concerns
Teacher Effectiveness

Special Report: 2014 Top Tech to Watch — from spectrum.ieee.org

NMC Horizon Report — 2014 Higher Education Preview

JWT’s 100 things to watch in 2014

IBM internal experts club together to offer 2014 predictions — from siliconangle.com by Bert Latamore

Headings include:

Analytics
Cloud
Mobile
Skills

2014 Technology Predictions Series: RadiumOne on Mobile — from siliconangle.com by Suzanne Kattau

Internet of Things may strangle enterprise bandwidth — from informationweek.comby Deepak Kumar
The Internet of Things is poised to bring a flood of WAN traffic and new Internet-enabled devices to enterprise WANs. Be sure your corporate network is ready for it.

7 things you should expect from your leaders in 2014 — from forbes.com by Glenn Llopis

10 Jobs for tomorrow that barely exist today (Infographic) — from jobmarketmonitor.com by Michel Cournoyer and Thomas Frey

Addendum on 1/4/14:

10 Competencies Students Need to Thrive in The Future — from educatorstechnology.com

6 exciting developments in Augmented Reality [AR] — from atlargeinc.com

On 12/03/2013, in Augmented Reality (AR), educational games / serious games, Google, innovation, trends, by Daniel Christian

6 exciting developments in Augmented Reality [AR] — from atlargeinc.com

Excerpt:

Technology continues to advance at an amazing rate, providing us with innovation after innovation. One of the most exciting pieces of fruit to come out of the rapid increase in technological advances over the past ten years is, of course, augmented reality.

Virtual reality has become almost lifelike. Every little wrinkle in an old mans brow, or every blade of grass in an expansive field. They can all be seen moving individually with a life of their own. With the next generation of gaming consoles around the corner, it’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference between something physically real and something computer generated. Augmented reality blurs the line between what’s real and what isn’t by enhancing our sensory experiences and complementing the way we live. Augmented reality is reality’s next step…

1. Google’s Massive Ingress Game

Google Ingress 6 Exciting Developments in Augmented Reality

A proposal for Apple, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and any other company who wants to own the future living room [Christian]

On 11/18/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, analytics, animation, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), blended learning, Bring your own device (BYOD), career development, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), education, education reform, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, Google, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, IBM, ideas, immersion, informal learning, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, internet, K-12 related, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, media/film, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, motivation, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, open courseware and systems, pace of change, participation, passions, personalized/customized learning, play, professional development, real-world assignments, reinvent, second screen apps, simulations, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, social media, society, staying relevant, STEAM-related, storytelling, strategy, streams of content, student-related, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, telepresence, television, training / L&D, transmedia, trends, ubiquitous learning, user experience (UX), user interface design, using teams, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace, by Daniel Christian

“The main obstacle to an Apple television set has been content. It has mostly failed to convince cable companies to make their programming available through an Apple device. And cable companies have sought to prevent individual networks from signing distribution deals with Apple.”

— Apple, closer to its vision for a TV set, wants
ESPN, HBO, Viacom, and others to come along
qz.com by Seward, Chon, & Delaney, 8/22/13

From DSC:
I wonder if this is because of the type of content that Apple is asking for. Instead of entertainment-oriented content, what if the content were more focused on engaging, interactive, learning materials? More on educational streams of content (whether we — as individuals — create and contribute that content or whether businesses do)?

Also see:

What the mobile “fourth wave” means for operators — from mportal.com by D.P. Venkatesh on November 12, 2013

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

The communications landscape has historically taken the form of a tumultuous ocean of opportunities. Like rolling waves on a shore, these opportunities are often strong and powerful – yet ebb and flow with time.

Get ready, because the next great wave is upon us. And, like a tropical storm, it is likely to change the landscape around us.

As detailed by analyst Chetan Sharma, this particular wave is the one created by the popularity of over-the-top (OTT) solutions – apps that allow access to entertainment, communication and collaboration over the Internet from smartphones, tablets and laptops, rather than traditional telecommunications methods. Sharma has coined this the mobile “fourth wave” – the first three being voice, messaging (SMS) and data access, respectively – and it is rapidly washing over us.

Addendum on 11/25:

The Smart TV app revolution is coming: Here’s what you need to know — from businessinsider.com by Dan Frommer

Xbox, watch TV: inside Microsoft’s audacious plan to take over the living room — from by Nilay Patel
Can the Xbox One finally kickstart the TV revolution?

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Taking over your cable box also means the Xbox can overlay your TV signal with interesting information: a voice-activated channel guide, pop-up notifications when you get a Skype call and Xbox Live invites, a new NFL app that shows you real-time fantasy stats. You can even snap the TV window to the side of the screen while you play games. Your nasty cable interface is still there, but it allows the Xbox One to replace the cable box as the primary living-room entertainment device and go from gaming console to major new computing platform.

…

So the entire Xbox One is designed around what you might call a bold compromise: instead of directly integrating TV, the system hijacks it. Rather than plugging your cable box and Xbox into the TV separately, you first plug the cable box into the Xbox, and then the Xbox into the TV. Your cable box is still there, and still doing all the heavy lifting of providing TV, but now it’s doing it in service of the overall Xbox One experience. Smith describes it as “augmenting” the cable box experience in an effort to eliminate the friction of switching between games, apps, and TV.

From DSC:
The battle for the living room continues. I hope that we can eventually leverage these developments not just for entertainment, but for creating, contributing, sharing, absorbing, and discussing streams of content. The creative possibilities involving transmedia-based storytelling are exciting in this type of environment as well.

What if augmented reality could help bring more of the invisible things to life — such as equations, molecular structures, etc.?

On 11/07/2013, in 21st century, animation, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), biology, chemistry, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, education technology, emerging technologies, mathematics, physics, by Daniel Christian

augmented-reality-picture-11-7-13

From DSC:
When I woke up last night, an idea surfaced to the forefront of my thinking. It had to do with augmented reality. I wondered (and tried to picture)…

What if augmented reality could help bring something that’s harder to picture/understand/grasp to life?

What if, for example, you could point your mobile device at an object/piece of paper/”button” on a main screen and have an animation pop up that would explain what’s being discussed…? I realize this is being done in some areas (even in elementary apps such as ColAR App), but I think we are largely leaving this area untapped and we’re missing out on a powerful, potential way of engaging students and inviting interactivity.

For example, I had a very difficult time grasping organic chemistry — and the “weeding out” method worked on me big time! That course had a lot to due with me questioning my future as a pre-med student and I ended up dropping out of pre-med (a good decision, but heh, why blow the story now?). Being a student who prefers visuals, I think that it would have helped me greatly if I could have seen — and ideally manipulated — models and animations in real time.

For example:

If I tried to move an atom to an inappropriate ring/connection, the holographic design would show a holographic pop up — with accompany audio — letting me know why that won’t work. Wow.
Then I ran into the article below and the idea came back to me…and again, I wondered…where might augmented reality help us out here? Or holographic displays that can be manipulated?

Which points to:

BEAUTY OF MATHEMATICS — a video on Vimeo from PARACHUTES.TV by Yann Pineill & Nicolas Lefaucheux

“Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty — a beauty cold and austere, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music.”

—Bertrand Russell

Here’s an augmented reality app to help your young one develop some creativity!

On 10/14/2013, in Augmented Reality (AR), cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, communications, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital storytelling, innovation, K-12 related, new media literacies, story, storytelling, tools, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I’m sure it’s possible, but the really fun thing here would be if students could create these things from scratch — to foster their creativity, innovation, digital storytelling skills, and their new media literacies!

Also, somewhat related:

Our Story for iPad — by The Open University

Wow! Those teaching Physics/Science/Art might want to investigate new possibilities w/ Google Glass (& the like)!

On 09/13/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, art, Augmented Reality (AR), biology, chemistry, creativity, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, flipping -- inverted learning, Google, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, immersion, informal learning, innovation, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, media/film, Michigan, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, new media literacies, online learning, online media, physics, platforms, science, streams of content, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, telepresence, ubiquitous learning, user experience (UX), videoconferencing, virtual field trips, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

A first look at how educators are really using Google Glass — from by Stephen Noonoo

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

Per Andrew Vanden Heuvel:

What Glass does offer, Vanden Heuvel said, is a shift in perspective, particularly because teachers can use it as a tool to engage students faster and more easily than before. After returning from Geneva, Vanden Heuvel launched a YouTube channel devoted to his experiments with science–and Glass–called STEMBite. To date, in more than two dozen videos, he’s guided viewers through the physics of ball spin on the tennis court to the polarization of light through (appropriately enough) a pair of glasses.

“What I’m excited by making these videos is not only that they’re filmed with Google Glass, but they’re high engagement videos, so they’re meant to be really short and to get kids to think about how math and science is all around,” he said. “I suppose I could have done that before, but it’s just so easy now.”

Per Hanna Brown:

“I’ve had videos in my classroom before–that’s not a novel thing–but I’ve never been able to take a video from my eye perspective,” said Hannah Brown, another early Glass adopter who works as a high school art teacher at Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, an all-online statewide charter school in Ohio.

From DSC:
Virtual field trips, mobile learning, videoconferencing, web-based collaboration, Human Computer Interaction (HCI), and other topics come to my mind when I see this.

Google Glass: Surgery tool of the future? [Ferro] From DSC: Some serious potential for mobile/distance learning.

On 09/10/2013, in Augmented Reality (AR), Bring your own device (BYOD), communications, Daniel S. Christian, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, face-to-face, Google, innovation, internet, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, mobile learning, mobile technologies, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, platforms, second screen apps, social learning / networks, teaching & learning, teaching online, telecommunications, telepresence, videoconferencing, by Daniel Christian

.

Also see:

Wearable tech at the workplace — from connectedworldmag.com

Excerpt:

Wearable sensors are the latest tech-related fashion craze, but not just for consumers. Businesses could soon make use of sensors affixed to hats, watches, glasses, and more. Equipped to provide workers with much-need data about the surrounding environment, these devices may soon invade the job and redefine the workplace—much like tablets and smartphones did just a few years back.

Naturally, businesses have been discussing how something like Google Glass could be used at work. Even the BYOD (bring your own device) phenomenon has the potential to extend to wearable technology, with workers bringing their personal smart watches and glasses for use at work. However, the potential for wearable sensors could be much greater, with specific applications created for targeted industries.

From DSC:
Some serious potential for mobile/distance learning here. What if, instead of a surgeon, that person was an archaeologist on a dig speaking to students in their living rooms, on mobile devices, and/or in classrooms somewhere else…? An electrician fixing a broken transformer on the electrical grid and talking through what she is fixing…? The possibilities are numerous.

See Andrew Vanden Heuvel’s work on this as well:

How Andrew Vanden Heuvel is revolutionizing education from outside the classroom
Find out what this Google Glass Explorer and online science teacher thinks about online learning and the future of education.
Teaching with Glass
STEMbite: An Experiment in Teaching with Google Glass
Explorer Story: Andrew Vanden Heuvel [through Google Glass]
STEMbite (other/more)

Moving back to the surgery…one last thought/idea here:

What if there were several people wearing Google Glasses and the learners/students could pick the camera angle that they wanted to see?

The science-fiction world continues to develop — but it’s often for real!

On 07/17/2013, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Augmented Reality (AR), computer science, Daniel S. Christian, digital video, engineering, global / globalization, Google, interactivity, internet, learning ecosystem, robotics, society, telecommunications, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Some items that made me think of this posting:

DARPA unveils Atlas DRC Robot — from spectrum.ieee.org by Stephen Cass

Specs:

Six feet, two inches tall (1.88m)
330 pounds (150kg)
On-board real-time control computer
On-board hydraulic pump and thermal management
Tethered for networking and 480-V three-phase power at 15 kW
Two arms, two legs, a torso and a head
28 hydraulically actuated joints
Carnegie Robotics sensor head with LIDAR and stereo sensors
Two sets of hands, one provided by iRobot and one by Sandia National Labs

Drone Home — from time.com by Lev Grossman — also see TIME: “Rise of the Robots” Special Issue

Excerpt:

Flying a drone, even just a Parrot, makes you realize what a radically new and deeply strange technology drones are. A drone isn’t just a tool; when you use it you see and act through it — you inhabit it. It expands the reach of your body and senses in much the same way that the Internet expands your mind. The Net extends our virtual presence; drones extend our physical presence. They are, along with smart phones and 3-D printing, one of a handful of genuinely transformative technologies to emerge in the past 10 years.

.

Bioengineers 3D print tiny functioning human liver — from wired.co.uk

Peek inside Tesla’s robotic factory — from wired.com

Image from
http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/alternative/1206_2012_tesla_model_s_first_drive/photo_11.html

.

From DSC:
And, if you are up to filtering through a great deal of content, create some Google Alerts on the following things to see what’s happening with them:
.

Internet of Things
.
Augmented reality
.
WebRTC
.
Artificial intelligence
.
Self-driving cars
.
Wearable technologies

Reflections on a solid webinar “In the future, the whole world will be a classroom” [Gorbis]

On 07/03/2013, in 21st century, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, Augmented Reality (AR), corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, education reform, education technology, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, innovation, internet, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, mobile learning, new business models, social learning / networks, streams of content, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, trends, ubiquitous learning, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

In the future, the whole world will be a classroom — from fastcoexist.com by Marina Gorbis

. .

From DSC:
What Marina is asserting is what I’m seeing as well. That is, we are between two massive but different means of obtaining an education/learning (throughout our lifetimes I might add). What she’s saying is also captured in the following graphic:

.

Also see:

A long-overdue technological revolution is at last under way — from economist.com
.
Catching on at last — from economist.com
New technology is poised to disrupt America’s schools, and then the world’s
.
School’s out for summer: Rethinking education for the 21st century — from allthingsd.com by Naveen Jain

AWE 2013: Six trends in Augmented Reality [arblog.inglobetechnologies.com]

On 06/24/2013, in Augmented Reality (AR), emerging technologies, human-computer interaction (HCI), user experience (UX), by Daniel Christian

AWE 2013: Six trends in Augmented Reality — from arblog.inglobetechnologies.com

Trace what you see: The NeoLucida is the first portable Camera Lucida to be manufactured in nearly a century [Jobson]

On 05/08/2013, in art, Augmented Reality (AR), digital photography, photography, by Daniel Christian

Trace what you see: The NeoLucida is the first portable Camera Lucida to be manufactured in nearly a century — from colossal.com by Christopher Jobson

.

Trace What You See: The NeoLucida is the First Portable Camera Lucida to be Manufactured in Nearly a Century drawing machines drawing device

The folks needed to create the next generation of learning: Computers can’t touch this. [Christian]

On 05/03/2013, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, accessibility / UDL, adjunct faculty, analytics, animation, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Augmented Reality (AR), Bring your own device (BYOD), collaboration, content development, aggregation, repositories, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital video, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, faculty/staff, global / globalization, graphics, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, internet, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, machine-to-machine communications, mobile learning, mobile technologies, multimedia, music, Near Field Communication (NFC), new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, personalized/customized learning, photography, play, reinvent, research, second screen apps, simulations, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, social media, society, story, storytelling, streams of content, teachers, telepresence, television, transmedia, trends, user experience (UX), user interface design, using teams, videoconferencing, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, web design and production, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
What we need is a major hackathon — or an organization with deep pockets — that can bring together folks from a variety of disciplines including:

Subject Matter Experts
Instructional Designers
Cognitive Psychologists
Computer Scientists and/or those exerienced with learning analytics/data mining, Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Those gifted in film/media/videography/photography
Great storytellers/writers (including writing for transmedia-based learning experiences)
Folks who can create engaging, educational games
Designers
- Web
- Graphic
- Interface
- User experience
- User interaction
- Those gifted in creating multimedia-based content
Musicians
Human Computer Interaction (HCI) experts
Mobile learning experts
Those knowledgeable with second screens/M2M communications
Animators
Illustrators
Social media experts
Accessibility experts
Researchers
Those gifted in creating augmented reality-based apps
Legal/copyright experts
& others

We need for these specialists to collaborate in order to create the next generation of learning. Anyone who can bring these skillsets together and experiment with creating materials will have significantly contributed something to the current generations and to future generations!

And, in the words of M.C. Hammer, computers “can’t touch this!” Why? Because “learning is messy!”

What fields did I miss?
Please leave your thoughts and
feedback in the comments section.

Learning Ecosystems

4 recent items regarding how augmented reality is being used in learning-related applications

The World’s 1st Augmented Television

6 exciting developments in Augmented Reality [AR] — from atlargeinc.com

The battle for the living room continues; I hope we can leverage these developments/this convergence for learning materials.

What if augmented reality could help bring more of the invisible things to life — such as equations, molecular structures, etc.?

AWE 2013: Six trends in Augmented Reality [arblog.inglobetechnologies.com]

Trace what you see: The NeoLucida is the first portable Camera Lucida to be manufactured in nearly a century [Jobson]

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