After all, Augmented Reality (AR) is considered the best of both worlds, combining real and virtual objects in the real environment, allowing the use of both technology-based applications and a traditional physical book, taking the advantages of both combined and the child and parent are met halfway. To further investigate the use of digital stories (music, sounds), interactions and animation effects in learning engagement, using the augmented reality technology.
- Problem Statement
- Significance of the project
- Objectives of Study
- The Relevancy of the Project
- Scope of Study
- Feasibility of the Project within the Scope & Timeframe
Upon completion of the project, children will be able to use the app embedded on their Android tablet while enjoying the AR books. In the second phase of the project (second 4 months) the focus will be on development, Implementation then testing (Section 3.4-3.5).
Augmented Reality
- Augmented Reality VS. Virtual Reality
- Types of Augmented Reality
- Devices used for Augmented Reality
- Augmented Reality Applications
- Augmented reality in Education
Users can perceive a different view of the real objects with the help of the markers. Nowadays, the application of augmented reality is widely used in various fields including aviation, medicine and industrial design.
Storytelling in Education
Response to the story is immediate and occurs as the narrative is delivered and received. Some stories delight in stretching plausibility to the limit; others grasp truth with brevity and nostalgia. Even the most fantastic myths contain emotional truths, and may be expressions of metaphorical truths that cannot be expressed directly.
Development of understanding leads the listener and storyteller to construct meaning from the narrative and with additional support; this can then be applied to more familiar situations, contexts and experiences. In this way, the meaning of the story, regardless of how old its source is and where and when it takes place, can gain contemporary relevance for the individual's hearing, retelling and working with the story here and now. The changes of character may be social or economic, such as the change experienced by Cinderella, or physical, as in Beauty and the Beast, or emotional, as in the awakening of remorse and pity in so many epic heroes.
Digital Storytelling and Augmented Reality
- Digital Storytelling with Augmented Reality
Scam stories depict cunning for the benefit of selfishness or for the common good. Exposure to a diverse range of stories and narrative traditions helps listeners begin to distinguish truth from lies. Nowadays, in technologically enhanced learning and teaching environments, storytelling is supported by various multimedia tools embedded in the learning channel in visual, auditory and kinesthetic form.
The act of delivering a story is known as Digital (ly) (Story) Telling. In addition to the above, digital storytelling offers rich learning moments in helping students become media literate. With Augmented Reality (AR) technology, storytelling becomes more interactive and intuitive in terms of human-computer interaction.
Mobile Technology
- Android Operating System
- Mobile Learning
By the end of 2010, Android had become the world's leading smartphone platform, while in the second quarter of 2012 it was announced that Android had a worldwide smartphone market share of 68% and 75% in the third quarter of 2012. The table above shows the comparison of percentages of the market share of the top smartphone platforms based on research in the United States in 2012. In June 2012, there were more than 600,000 apps available on the Google Play Store and the estimated number of applications downloaded from the Play Store exceeded 20 billion (Fingas, 2012).
MAC aims to help Japanese-English speakers perceptually distinguish non-native alphabets such as (/r/) and (/l/) in English phonemic contrast with a visual aid. It is a handheld computer game where the player plays the role of a scientist to investigate sudden health problems stemming from point pollution problems (Antonellis, Bouras, & Poulopoulos, 2005). In an immersive learning environment, students experience real feelings and emotions as they exist in the real world. Therefore, when deep learning is mentioned, it automatically integrates with several new technologies, especially augmented reality (AR), as mentioned in the previous sections, where AR creates an immersive learning experience.
Alphabet Learning
- Available Alphabet Means of Teaching & Learning
- Current Alphabet Learning Approaches
Therefore, the child must master learning the alphabet before preschool age (Donette E Davis, St Aidens Homeschool). Children's literature experts recognize the alphabet book as one of the first forms of books written just for children (Huck, Hepler, Hickman, & Kiefer, 2001). In the 16th century, the alphabet was added to a printed devotional book for children's daily use.
The app is interactive and engaging as it offers unique games for learning the alphabet. The application comes with several basic features including “Learn ABC” game, “Find the Alphabet” game, “Match the Alphabet” game and rewards. The last module is 'rewards' which is based on the 'Find the Alphabet' game and the 'Match the Alphabet' game.
Planning Phase
During the planning phase, the important project background information was gathered; also, project requirements were defined as in; the project's problem formulation (section 1.1), goals (section 1.2), motivation, relevance (section 1.3) and scope (development requirements) and was thoroughly understood. Regarding this project, the planning phase depended on the understanding of children's alphabet learning process and how it can be improved by implementing augmented reality through digital storytelling. Furthermore, time management should be studied early in this phase in order to know the feasibility of the project within the given time which is approximately 6 months.
Requirement Analysis Phase
In addition, all data and information collected during the planning phase were used in this phase. In this phase, a basic investigation of the effective tools to be used and their equivalents, a minor comparison between the AR SDK platforms and development platforms to be used in this project and why (see Section 3.5) were also made.
Design Phase
Implementation Phase
- Testing
Tools
- Hardware & Equipments
- Software, Platforms & SDKs
- AR SDK and Platforms Comparison
- Why Mobile (Android)
The Android SDK was used to compile and deploy the application, for use on a mobile phone. It was used to edit and create, the logo, the buttons for interactions and finally the markerless marker (alphabet book). MonoDevelop is an open source integrated development primarily aimed at developing software using the Mono and Microsoft .NET frameworks.
It is used to develop video games for web plugins, desktop platforms, consoles and mobile devices. The powerful Unity 3D is used to compile all the above list of software, programs and SDKs, to design the application. The Qualcomm AR SDK is called Vuforia (see subsection above). The Qualcomm AR SDK (Vuforia) uses computer vision technology to accurately align graphics with underlying objects and has support for image targets, frame markers, virtual buttons, and simple 3D objects.
Project Activities
- Initial Storyboard
- Choosing the Alphabet Objects
- Logo Design
- Book Design
- The Sound and Song of Storytelling
- Development in Unity 3D
The figure below shows the compilation of the previous design for the alphabet section of the book. The figure above is a screenshot of the vuforia developer website, using the Target Manager tool. As 3D models are the pop-up art of the book, the main idea of the addition, to bring the objects to life, is therefore very important, because the core of the application revolves around the 3D dimensional world and interacts with it.
Below is the rigging of the shark model shown in image 51, bones are made to guide the model for animation. For this project, some of the models were animated in Maya, due to the complexity of the model and device limitations. Once all the extended elements have been prepared, the development of the application in Unity 3D and the Vuforia extension begins.
System Architecture
Functionalities & Important Codes
- Applying Animations
- Applying Interactions
The summary of this class is when the trackable event handler tracks a marker, (the marker is seen) then it will animate the animation attached to the game object, which is the child of the ImageTarget(marker) found, and when if the tracking is lost, it will stop the animation. This is done by making public the Gameobject string used to refer to the string and public the animation string to also refer to the animation clip attached to the gameobject. Doing so will automatically create a space in the unit interface for one to key in the name of the desired game object and the animation clip. it is circled in the image below).
One of the most important scripts to mention is the implementation of interaction with the 3D world script class (RayTraceInteraction). This class was written after many trials in the pursuit of implementing interactions with the 3D object, whether play and animation clip or dynamic interaction, the interaction call was unsuccessful until this class was developed. Little did one know that interacting with the 3D world is very complicated, early trials of interactions were by sampling to see if the 3D model was clicked/touched, if there was any event, but the debugger always mentioned that the model fit was lost on delivery.
Challenges Encountered
- Program Installation, Compilation & Learning Curve
- Interaction & Animation
- Time constrain
Method of User Perception Survey and Observation Study
- User Perception Survey
- Key Milestones
- Gantt Chart
Usability is a crucial factor that needs to be assessed to recognize that either the educational application or software will facilitate the acquisition of knowledge. ISO 9241-11 defines usability as the degree to which a product can be used by specific users to achieve specific goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specific context of use. The potential users 80 involved in the study are among parents with small children, teenage boys and girls and preschool teachers as well as children from 3 to 6 years old.
User perception survey was conducted among parents of the young children and preschool teachers. Four questions have been asked of users regarding the usability of the AR-Alphabet product. The purpose of the observational study is to see and analyze the responses from children.
- Prototype
- Pilot Study
- Discussion
- Another Pilot Study
- User Testing Results
The results showed that the majority 7 of the respondents rated it as 5 and 3 parents/teachers rated it as 4. This shows that all the respondents agree that the product can help students in learning the alphabet. The results showed that the majority 6 of the respondents evaluated the scale 5 while the other 4 evaluated the scale 4.
This shows that most respondents agree that the product is easy to use. The graph shows that five of the respondents rate scale five and the remaining respondents rate scale 4. The result shows that all respondents agree and most agree that the product is fun and engaging.
Finally, the project is meant to implement augmented reality and digital storytelling using mobile technology to teach children the alphabet. The augmented reality technology will strengthen the regular physical learning method so that the children of the current generation can have fun and be engaged in the learning process. In addition, mobile augmented reality has a unique interface where users can work simultaneously with both physical and virtual worlds.
In conclusion, the project could motivate and engage children to learn the alphabet using the frame technology of augmented reality. Retrieved from Edible Apple: http://www.edibleapple.com first-augmented-reality-app-hits-the-iphone-app-store/. Retrieved from INc.: http://www.inc.com/guides/201104/how-to-use-augmented-reality-in-advertising.html.
