Towards Smart Classroom
Affordable and Simple Approach to Dynamic Projection Mapping for Education
In order to transform the traditional classroom int an interactive space, we developed a projection mapping toolbox:
an affordable, simple alternative to complex systems. Our system uses Python and Microsoft Kinect V2 for dynamic projection mapping (PM). We demonstrated three ways PM can be used to make Augmented Reality (AR) applications for classroom use.
Duration : Sep 2019 – Nov 2019
Team : Akshay Dave, Paul Oh, Mia Lorenzo, Mirue Kang, Jihyun Hwang
We projected free body diagrams onto boxes, made AR quiz tacking for teachers, and made an AR game. The goal of the projection mapping toolbox is to help students learn more efficiently and raise academic achievement.
Why ?
To allow educators and students to easily access, learn, and understand important concepts and ideas through visual models.
Where ?
Not only is this applicable on school environments, but for business environments and more.
Who ?
Created for students to comprehend however, it can be further developed and adapted for artists, entrepreneurs, researchers, etc.
Intro
Recently, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) platforms have been developed for various applications. AR is an interactive source that allows users to manipulate virtual objects without losing their presence in the real world, providing a balance between human interaction and virtual elements. Mobile applications or specialized headsets are broadly used to provide AR experiences. Projection mapping (PM) is another experience under the subset of AR and is a technique used to transform 3D objects into interactive displays. Users can superimpose graphics on top of dynamic objects, changing their appearance and making them more versatile. Projection mapping creates room-scale AR experiences, where users do not need to worry about obstruction from cables or heavy headsets. Room-scale AR experiences combined with non-specialized hardware make projection mapping a compelling tool for education.
Research & Experiment
Within the classroom, research has proven the benefits of projection mapping to education; overall, the use of AR leads to better communication, collaboration, and engagement compared to traditional teaching. The experiment was tested using Augmented Studio, an AR system, which allows the real-time projection of images to transfer better content comprehension. Students have reported having a greater understanding of the subject that they are learning as well as the surveys have revealed academic improvement as well as increased motivation. Although many projection mapping products have been developed and utilized, most of them required expensive hardware, therefore, making PM implementation within classrooms difficult.
Unlike other complex expensive systems, our system was created using Python and Pygame. The coding in Python makes the system easier for high school students and teachers to use, even those with minimal coding skills. High school students will be able to interact and visualize study materials, while instructors on the other hand can easily teach instruct dense subject matter.
Result
After performing various experiments to conduct the detection and movement of the marker, the projection mapping pipeline was able to compute Zmaker with an accuracy of 96.85%. The conducted results of our tecchnology can be compared to Kinect as it is important to note that Kinect had a higher accuracy (99%) than the proposed methods. While Kinect’s higher accuracy can be beneficial for certain tasks, it was not compelling for our current research. There were two major downsides of using Kinect: increased latency and less working area.
When Kinect was used, the projection mapping pipeline had a latency of 0.5 seconds, while the proposed method had a latency of 0.14 seconds. Kinect could only compute a maximum depth of 4.5m whereas the proposed method can detect a marker at a maximum distance of 8.0m.
The proposed method had sufficient accuracy and minimal latency for developing augmented reality applications. By proposing this toolbox, researchers envision a smart classroom where students are taught using modern methods. AR-enabled course work will engage students and make learning more effective.
Mirue Kang 