Making it real: exploring the potential of Augmented Reality for teaching primary school science

The use of Augmented Reality (AR) in formal education could prove a key component in future learning environments that are richly populated with a blend of hardware and software applications. However, relatively little is known about the potential of this technology to support teaching and learning with groups of young children in the classroom. Analysis of teacher-child dialogue in a comparative study between use of an AR virtual mirror interface and more traditional science teaching methods for 10-year-old children, revealed that the children using AR were less engaged than those using traditional resources. We suggest four design requirements that need to be considered if AR is to be successfully adopted into classroom practice. These requirements are: flexible content that teachers can adapt to the needs of their children, guided exploration so learning opportunities can be maximised, in a limited time, and attention to the needs of institutional and curricular requirements

The Impact of Experiential Augmented Reality Applications on Fashion Purchase Intention

Utilizing the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model, the purpose of this study is to examine the effects of augmented reality (AR) (specifically augmentation) on consumers’ affective and behavioral response and to assess whether consumers’ hedonic motivation for shopping moderates this relationship. An experiment using the manipulation of AR and no AR was conducted with 162 participants aged between 18 and 35. Participants were recruited through snowball sampling and randomly assigned to the control or stimulus group. The hypothesized associations were analyzed using linear regression with bootstrapping. The paper demonstrates the benefit of using an experiential AR retail application (app) to positively impact purchase intention. The results show this effect is mediated by positive affective response. Furthermore, hedonic shopping motivation moderates the relationship between augmentation and the positive affective response. Because of the chosen research approach, the results may lack generalizability to other forms of augmentation. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed model using different types of AR stimuli. Furthermore, replication of the study with other populations would increase the generalizability of the findings. Results of this study provide a valuable reference for retailers of the benefits of using AR when attempting to optimize experiential value in online environments. The study contributes to experiential retail and consumer purchase behavior research by deepening the conceptualization of the impact of experiential technologies, more specifically AR apps, by considering the role of hedonic shopping motivations.Peer reviewe

A comparative study using an autostereoscopic display with augmented and virtual reality

Advances in display devices are facilitating the integration of stereoscopic visualization in our daily lives. However, autostereoscopic visualization has not been extensively exploited. In this paper, we present a system that combines Augmented Reality (AR) and autostereoscopic visualization. We also present the first study that compares different aspects using an autostereoscopic display with AR and VR, in which 39 children from 8 to 10 years old participated. In our study, no statistically significant differences were found between AR and VR. However, the scores were very high in nearly all of the questions, and the children also scored the AR version higher in all cases. Moreover, the children explicitly preferred the AR version (81%). For the AR version, a strong and significant correlation was found between the use of the autostereoscopic screen in games and seeing the virtual object on the marker. For the VR version, two strong and significant correlations were found. The first correlation was between the ease of play and the use of the rotatory controller. The second correlation was between depth perception and the game global score. Therefore, the combinations of AR and VR with autostereoscopic visualization are possibilities for developing edutainment systems for childrenThis work was funded by the Spanish APRENDRA project (TIN2009-14319-C02). We would like to thank the following for their contributions: AIJU, the "Escola d'Estiu" and especially Ignacio Segui, Juan Cano, Miguelon Gimenez, and Javier Irimia. This work would not have been possible without their collaboration. The ALF3D project (TIN2009-14103-03) for the autostereoscopic display. Roberto Vivo, Rafa Gaitan, Severino Gonzalez, and M. Jose Vicent, for their help. The children's parents who signed the agreement to allow their children to participate in the study. The children who participated in the study. The ETSInf for letting us use its facilities during the testing phase.Arino, J.; Juan Lizandra, MC.; Gil Gómez, JA.; Mollá Vayá, RP. (2014). A comparative study using an autostereoscopic display with augmented and virtual reality. Behaviour and Information Technology. 33(6):646-655. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2013.815277S646655336Azuma, R. T. (1997). A Survey of Augmented Reality. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 6(4), 355-385. doi:10.1162/pres.1997.6.4.355Blum, T.et al. 2012. Mirracle: augmented reality in-situ visualization of human anatomy using a magic mirror.In: IEEE virtual reality workshops, 4–8 March 2012, Costa Mesa, CA, USA. Washington, DC: IEEE Computer Society, 169–170.Botden, S. M. B. I., Buzink, S. N., Schijven, M. P., & Jakimowicz, J. J. (2007). Augmented versus Virtual Reality Laparoscopic Simulation: What Is the Difference? World Journal of Surgery, 31(4), 764-772. doi:10.1007/s00268-006-0724-yChittaro, L., & Ranon, R. (2007). Web3D technologies in learning, education and training: Motivations, issues, opportunities. Computers & Education, 49(1), 3-18. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2005.06.002Dodgson, N. A. (2005). Autostereoscopic 3D displays. Computer, 38(8), 31-36. doi:10.1109/mc.2005.252Ehara, J., & Saito, H. (2006). Texture overlay for virtual clothing based on PCA of silhouettes. 2006 IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality. doi:10.1109/ismar.2006.297805Eisert, P., Fechteler, P., & Rurainsky, J. (2008). 3-D Tracking of shoes for Virtual Mirror applications. 2008 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition. doi:10.1109/cvpr.2008.4587566Fiala, M. (2007). Magic Mirror System with Hand-held and Wearable Augmentations. 2007 IEEE Virtual Reality Conference. doi:10.1109/vr.2007.352493Froner, B., Holliman, N. S., & Liversedge, S. P. (2008). A comparative study of fine depth perception on two-view 3D displays. Displays, 29(5), 440-450. doi:10.1016/j.displa.2008.03.001Holliman, N. S., Dodgson, N. A., Favalora, G. E., & Pockett, L. (2011). Three-Dimensional Displays: A Review and Applications Analysis. IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting, 57(2), 362-371. doi:10.1109/tbc.2011.2130930Ilgner, J. F. R., Kawai, T., Shibata, T., Yamazoe, T., & Westhofen, M. (2006). Evaluation of stereoscopic medical video content on an autostereoscopic display for undergraduate medical education. Stereoscopic Displays and Virtual Reality Systems XIII. doi:10.1117/12.647591Jeong, J.-S., Park, C., Kim, M., Oh, W.-K., & Yoo, K.-H. (2011). Development of a 3D Virtual Laboratory with Motion Sensor for Physics Education. Ubiquitous Computing and Multimedia Applications, 253-262. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-20975-8_28Jones, J. A., Swan, J. E., Singh, G., Kolstad, E., & Ellis, S. R. (2008). The effects of virtual reality, augmented reality, and motion parallax on egocentric depth perception. Proceedings of the 5th symposium on Applied perception in graphics and visualization - APGV ’08. doi:10.1145/1394281.1394283Juan, M. C., & Pérez, D. (2010). Using augmented and virtual reality for the development of acrophobic scenarios. Comparison of the levels of presence and anxiety. Computers & Graphics, 34(6), 756-766. doi:10.1016/j.cag.2010.08.001Kaufmann, H., & Csisinko, M. (2011). Wireless Displays in Educational Augmented Reality Applications. Handbook of Augmented Reality, 157-175. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-0064-6_6Kaufmann, H., & Meyer, B. (2008). Simulating educational physical experiments in augmented reality. ACM SIGGRAPH ASIA 2008 educators programme on - SIGGRAPH Asia ’08. doi:10.1145/1507713.1507717Konrad, J. (2011). 3D Displays. Optical and Digital Image Processing, 369-395. doi:10.1002/9783527635245.ch17Konrad, J., & Halle, M. (2007). 3-D Displays and Signal Processing. IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, 24(6), 97-111. doi:10.1109/msp.2007.905706Kwon, H., & Choi, H.-J. (2012). A time-sequential mutli-view autostereoscopic display without resolution loss using a multi-directional backlight unit and an LCD panel. Stereoscopic Displays and Applications XXIII. doi:10.1117/12.907793Livingston, M. A., Zanbaka, C., Swan, J. E., & Smallman, H. S. (s. f.). Objective measures for the effectiveness of augmented reality. IEEE Proceedings. VR 2005. Virtual Reality, 2005. doi:10.1109/vr.2005.1492798Monahan, T., McArdle, G., & Bertolotto, M. (2008). Virtual reality for collaborative e-learning. Computers & Education, 50(4), 1339-1353. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2006.12.008Montgomery, D. J., Woodgate, G. J., Jacobs, A. M. S., Harrold, J., & Ezra, D. (2001). Performance of a flat-panel display system convertible between 2D and autostereoscopic 3D modes. Stereoscopic Displays and Virtual Reality Systems VIII. doi:10.1117/12.430813Morphew, M. E., Shively, J. R., & Casey, D. (2004). Helmet-mounted displays for unmanned aerial vehicle control. Helmet- and Head-Mounted Displays IX: Technologies and Applications. doi:10.1117/12.541031Pan, Z., Cheok, A. D., Yang, H., Zhu, J., & Shi, J. (2006). Virtual reality and mixed reality for virtual learning environments. Computers & Graphics, 30(1), 20-28. doi:10.1016/j.cag.2005.10.004Petkov, E. G. (2010). Educational Virtual Reality through a Multiview Autostereoscopic 3D Display. Innovations in Computing Sciences and Software Engineering, 505-508. doi:10.1007/978-90-481-9112-3_86Shen, Y., Ong, S. K., & Nee, A. Y. C. (2011). Vision-Based Hand Interaction in Augmented Reality Environment. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 27(6), 523-544. doi:10.1080/10447318.2011.555297Swan, J. E., Jones, A., Kolstad, E., Livingston, M. A., & Smallman, H. S. (2007). Egocentric depth judgments in optical, see-through augmented reality. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 13(3), 429-442. doi:10.1109/tvcg.2007.1035Urey, H., Chellappan, K. V., Erden, E., & Surman, P. (2011). State of the Art in Stereoscopic and Autostereoscopic Displays. Proceedings of the IEEE, 99(4), 540-555. doi:10.1109/jproc.2010.2098351Zhang, Y., Ji, Q., and Zhang, W., 2010. Multi-view autostereoscopic 3D display.In: International conference on optics photonics and energy engineering, 10–11 May 2010, Wuhan, China. Washington, DC: IEEE Computer Society, 58–61

The Future of the Internet III

Presents survey results on technology experts' predictions on the Internet's social, political, and economic impact as of 2020, including its effects on integrity and tolerance, intellectual property law, and the division between personal and work lives

Real Virtuality: A Code of Ethical Conduct. Recommendations for Good Scientific Practice and the Consumers of VR-Technology

The goal of this article is to present a first list of ethical concerns that may arise from research and personal use of virtual reality (VR) and related technology, and to offer concrete recommendations for minimizing those risks. Many of the recommendations call for focused research initiatives. In the first part of the article, we discuss the relevant evidence from psychology that motivates our concerns. In Section “Plasticity in the Human Mind,” we cover some of the main results suggesting that one’s environment can influence one’s psychological states, as well as recent work on inducing illusions of embodiment. Then, in Section “Illusions of Embodiment and Their Lasting Effect,” we go on to discuss recent evidence indicating that immersion in VR can have psychological effects that last after leaving the virtual environment. In the second part of the article, we turn to the risks and recommendations. We begin, in Section “The Research Ethics of VR,” with the research ethics of VR, covering six main topics: the limits of experimental environments, informed consent, clinical risks, dual-use, online research, and a general point about the limitations of a code of conduct for research. Then, in Section “Risks for Individuals and Society,” we turn to the risks of VR for the general public, covering four main topics: long-term immersion, neglect of the social and physical environment, risky content, and privacy. We offer concrete recommendations for each of these 10 topics, summarized in Table 1

Liberate your avatar; the revolution will be social networked

This paper brings together the practice-based creative research of artists Charlotte Gould and Paul Sermon, culminating in a collaborative interactive installation that investigates new forms of social and political narrative in multi-user virtual environments. The authors' artistic projects deal with the ironies and stereotypes that are found within Second Life in particular. Paul Sermon’s current creative practice looks specifically at the concepts of presence and performance within Second Life and 'first life', and attempts to bridge these two spaces through mixed reality techniques and interfaces. Charlotte Gould’s Ludic Second Life Narrative radically questions the way that users embody themselves in on-line virtual environments and identifies a counter-aesthetic that challenges the conventions of digital realism and consumerism. These research activities and outcomes come together within a collaborative site-specific public installation entitled Urban Intersections for ISEA09, focusing on contested virtual spaces that mirror the social and political history of Belfast. The authors' current collaborative practice critically investigates social, cultural and creative interactions in Second Life. Through these practice-based experiments the authors' argue that an enhanced social and cultural discourse within multi-user virtual environments will inevitably lead to growth, cohesion and public empowerment, and like all social networking platforms, contribute to greater social and political change in first life