Assignment2 AR Report

Introduction

Are your kids bored in class from learning science on a paper sheet and worksheets? This AR chemistry application is designed to help young children aged 10-13 to interact and play, through AR with chemicals and combine them into a compound!

Description of the application

What does the application do? 

This chemistry based application is designed to be able to view a simple element such as carbon(C) and basic chemical compounds like dioxide (O2) using AR technology. When the user is presented with an element card, they are able to view a 3D game model of that element and be able to view facts about that element as well as combine two cards such as carbon and dioxide into the chemical compound, carbon dioxide. 

What is the significance of this application in education and AR?  

Traditional teaching methods in classes typically consist of paper worksheets which many students can associate worksheets to being a chore. Students may find worksheets as ‘simple’ and ‘plain’ which leads to a decrease of interaction and interest in that subject. As school education is important and a critical part for children to learn, it is important that children in schools be interacting and be more engaged with subjects. 

This is achieved by using AR technology to increase student interaction and engagement. AR is ‘new’ and a different method from what is traditionally taught at schools and uses modern technology would create excitement and a fun way to learn. By using interactive physical cards and AR technology to view 3D element models in real time and be able to interact and combine them into different compounds allows students to be more interested and more engaged than a plain worksheet.  

Interaction Design

The main interaction of this chemistry application is the combine button, which is displayed on the computer screen UI. This method was chosen over a virtual button as it allowed users to click to button more accurately over a virtual button which may not always appear based on how detectable the image targets are as well as preventing accidental button presses which made virtual buttons an unreliable choice.

When the two image targets (elements) are detected and the image targets are relatively close to each other, the combine button will appear on the bottom left side of the screen. Once the button is clicked, a game sound will play and the two elements will ‘combine’ and the name of the compound will be displayed on the top left side of the screen as well as on the image targets. A fact about that compound will also appear on the image target.

Storyboard 

Technical Development 

This application was designed in Unity 3D using the Vuforia AR engine. This application is intended to be used on a computer with a webcam. 

Once the program is active, place an element image target into a clear view of the webcam. Once the program recognises the image target, a 3D model and text of the element will appear on the computer screen. The user is free to move and rotate the element card as long as the image target is detected by the webcam. The user can also place another image target element onto the webcam and if two elements are detected and are able to be combined, a button will appear on the bottom left side of the screen which once pressed, will allow the user to combine the two elements into a compound which results in the text being changed into a fact and the UI on the top right to display the element name. 

3D models 

The 3D model used an element cube prefab which contains the element name, symbol, mass and group type.

References: 

2019. FREE Casual Game SFX Pack. [online] Dustyroom. Available at: <https: assetstore.unity.com="" packages="" audio="" sound-fx="" free-casual-game-sfx-pack-54116=""> [Accessed 21 August 2022]. </https:>

Science Notes and Projects, 2021. Periodic Table Flash Cards – Free Printable PDF Element Facts. [image] Available at: <https: sciencenotes.org="" periodic-table-flash-cards-free-printable-pdf-element-facts=""> [Accessed 21 August 2022].  </https:>

STEM sheets, 2022. Periodic Table Flash Cards. [image] Available at: <https: stemsheets.com="" science="" periodic-table-flash-cards=""> [Accessed 21 August 2022].   </https:>

toppr, 2022. dioxygen. [image] Available at: <https: www.toppr.com="" guides="" chemistry="" the-p-block-elements="" dioxygen=""> [Accessed 21 August 2022].  </https:>

Unity Asset Store. 2019. Science Lab - 118 Elements. [online] Available at: <https: assetstore.unity.com="" packages="" 3d="" props="" tools="" science-lab-118-elements-139352=""> [Accessed 21 August 2022].</https:>

Unity Assets

FREE Casual Game SFX Pack created by Dustyroom: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/audio/sound-fx/free-casual-game-sfx-pack-5...

Science Lab - 118 Elements created by GVRgames: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/tools/science-lab-118-elements-139352