Augmented reality

The Miller-Sarah Feinman

The main goal of this assignment was to create an augmented reality by using Aurasma Studio. Once I logged onto the website, I clicked the “Assets” button, in order to find the picture of The Miller. This digital picture copy replicated the paper copy, which we received in class. Next, I clicked on the picture, and pressed, “Create New Aura.” Since the picture of The Miller was provided on the website, I chose the option that let me choose an existing picture. After this, I found a trigger image on google images. I felt that the image I chose was very accurate, based on my research. The trigger photo was then shown on top, overlapping my original image.

The next part of the assignment was to add an aura to this image. An aura can be an image, video, or website. To do this, I pressed “add more actions.” I then inserted a link to the youtube video that I found. This video provided a summary, and analysis of The Miller, in The Canterbury Tales. After doing a lot of research, I felt that this video was very appropriate. The last part of the assignment was to download the “HP Reveal” app on my iPhone. After I did this, I simply put the camera towards the original paper copy of The Miller, and then a picture was automatically taken. This caused the trigger image to pop up over the original image. Additionally, I was also able to press the link I attached, which directed me to the youtube video I attached.

As a future elementary school and special education teacher, I truly think that this is an excellent tool for the classroom. I especially think that students will find it extremely interesting and intriguing when they see their aura come to life. This new type of technology is mind-blowing, and will be extremely beneficial for students, who don’t have an easy time learning. Since most children by now have iPhones, this type of learning will be extremely possible and accessible in the classroom. The use of Augmented Reality will lead to a successful, and fun learning environment. Students will become fully engaged in learning, while being in an interactive atmosphere. [Read more…]

Aurasma Experience – The Monk

Hopping into this project was a lot simpler and easy than I had originally thought. At first, I was a little intimidated by creating an aura over a trigger image because I thought it would consist of consecutively difficult, tedious steps. Alas, I had no reason to worry because everything was surprisingly straight forward. The trigger image that I was assigned was a picture of a 14th c. English monk. After downloading the HP Reveal app on my phone, I went over to studio.aurasma.com to begin working on my assigned trigger.

What is currently shown is the editing page accompanied by the 14th century monk trigger image.

I knew that I wanted my aura to have an image and a website. My main concern for adding an image was so that whoever wanted to scan the trigger image, an image (aura) would show up as a confirmation that it worked. It is also pretty cool that something actually pops up that wasn’t originally there before, but since my primary focus was to make this trigger have an educational purpose, I think the website that I chose worked out perfectly. At first, I was thinking of adding a link to a YouTube video about English monks, but when I found this particular website, I ended up receiving the best of both worlds. Not only does this site have educational information about my particular image, but it also already has a YouTube video on the page. This works out because if certain individuals are visual learners, then they can take advantage of the easily accessible video on the website.

The aura that sends the user immediately to this website, containing information about 14th century English monks along with a video.

All I had to do was get an image from google images and download it. Then I copied the URL for the website that you see in the image above. There were options to choose from in that I could decide how exactly I wanted to have the aura image show up (in this case I chose the fade-in).

After doing that, I clicked the ‘add action’ button on the right hand side which brought me to this window in the image below. With this window we are able to add URLs and can even manipulate how we want them to be activated, such as automatically or by tapping the aura image that fades in. I chose the automatic feature just in case some people were unaware of the tapping feature. I do have concerns for this method because, if used irresponsibly, someone could use this automatic send to send the user to an inappropriate, offensive, or even harmful website.

It was fun to work on AR, especially so closely like this. On educational spectrum, I think using AR in terms such as what we have just done can be extremely effective both in and outside the classroom. It seems that in our current time we rely heavily on our mobile devices, and in most cases, they serve as distractions from education or research purposes. The aurasma project brings an educational and research favoring reinforcement into the ever-growing power of cellular devices. It would be interesting if historical sites would start taking advantage of this technology in order to show a more visualized and engaging experience in history and knowledge. Imagine walking around certain parts of the Stonehenge and seeing an aura video getting triggered to show how the native people moved those giant rocks. The same goes for the construction of the pyramids and other great creations.

I am taking natural hazards and disasters right now this semester and I just thought of how cool it would be for there to be an app that uses the camera and shows the potential damages that hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods could do to one’s surrounding area. It’s both educational and interesting to visualize how they actually are formed and caused. There might already be something like that in existence but it’s just a thought.

-Grant Boyd

The Knight- Grace Staudt

The Aurasma assignment started with a regular piece of paper with a story on it accompanied by some ordinary artwork. The assignment was to “add an aura” to this piece of paper. To do so I simply had to find a picture or video that I thought described or depicted the story of the Knight in an appropriate way. I chose a cartoon video that replicated the story of the Knight from Canterbury Tales.

I then added this sort of cover photo to my aura that would pop up on your screen when using the HP Reveal app to interact with the story. When using the HP Reveal app, you simply open it up to the camera and if you have your paper in front of you, the aura should come popping up off the paper.

This form of augmented reality creates an amazing form of interactive learning. Teaching the Canterbury Tales can be long and confusing. If I was in high school and was able to use this app to help me learn and study the information, I know that I definitely would have paid much more attention and actually enjoyed the lesson. As a future teacher I am very interested in what I will be able to do with this app in the future.

The Franklin AR

In this augmented reality process, I began just like everybody else. I was assigned the Franklin from the Canterbury Tales. I went to Aurasma Studio, logged into the Cortland account, and went to the Franklin in “My Assets”. After selecting an image to overlay on top of the pre-uploaded format, I opted to “+ Create New Aura”, and overlaid my image on top of the green border already available in the assets.

After applying my overlay media, I chose to add an action. While doing a little research on the Franklin, I found an education friendly and informative video about a Franklin’s social position in 14th century medieval England, which supported its argument through description and language from the Canterbury Tales. When the augment is accessed, the photo media and video should be easily accessed, and after downloading the HP Reveal app I found this to be true and the my creation of an Augmented reality was successful.

This process was not only very simple, but also very practical when considering not only the accessible nature of technology in our society, but also the amount of information available on this technology that has become so accessible. This augmented reality program could be so helpful in a classroom setting. For example, if a student were to read the Canterbury Tales in a classroom that has an augmented reality program in place and provided its students with the platforms to access such programs, the students not only could instantly visualize the characters they may not immediately recognize through description or language. Going even further, these students would be able to access additional information about such characters and their place in the social setting that the story/literary work depicts.

Beyond literature, these techniques could be used in a historical context. If textbooks become AR friendly, students could take out their phones and instantly learn about individual historical figures in relation to the sociohistorical period being learned. For example, one could learn about the effects of polio when learning about FDR, or could possibly access an augmented reality map that literally maps out the Union states and the Confederate states if learning about the Civil War era.

Even from an industrial standpoint, a construction company could use AR to visualize future structures in a certain area, like how Pokemon Go projects animated monsters onto a camera view of the world around us. This would help project managers see problems/obstacles before they happened, while also allowing for certain logistics to be addressed, such as spacial relations with operating equipment and surrounding structures.

As we are becoming increasingly technologically oriented as a society, it is interesting to see how we can use these technological advancements to advance our own education and understanding of the world. The study of these tools are honestly very helpful, and perhaps an increase in the number of classes available like “Introduction to Digital Humanities” could lead to a better intellectual contribution of technology, as well as more successful industrial advancements.

-Peter McKasty

Aurasma, AR, and Society

For this assignment, we were tasked with creating an augmented reality image in the Aurasma program. I had the Reeve in the medieval feudal system. I found an image of a Reeve on the internet and tied it to the AR Aura for the Reeve. I then added a trigger for this image to a URL about the medieval Reeve and his role in society.

The ultimate effect of this was that when people scanned the Aura with their phones, an image of the Reeve would appear, if they then tapped this image, the page with information about the Reeve would load on their phone.

This AR technology is fascinating because it allows us to visualize what previously would have to be a mental image. Some benefits to this technology would be allowing us to visualize how things work, and how things are done without actually having to be at these locations or doing this work. This has applications in the medical field, as well as education, public history, architecture, engineering, business, and many more. This world is complex and very challenging at times, and AR seems like a very valuable teaching tool in helping us better understand the world we live in.

Some drawbacks of this technology include the eventual limitations of our imaginations if this technology were to become a part of everyday life. Why bother imagining what the Twin Towers looked like when there is an AR representation of them right at our fingertips. I believe AR could possibly take away from our ability to create mental images in the long run, especially if we were to grow up with this technology. It also can only do so much for us, it cannot substitute for reality, and the tech is still relatively clunky to work with.

Overall I believe that we are on the verge of a technological revolution of sorts when it comes to AR. Many AR programs exist, and they are interesting to play with for a short time, but they have more potential than real world application at this point in time. For instance while Aurasma is cool for its novelty, how much benefit does it truly give to help understand the Reeve. Would a simple google search provide the same information, or does Aurasma create a unique approach that transcends novelty into an actual teaching tool. The future will be the judge.

Feb 2018

Zeke Johnson

Aurasma Prioress

I chose the image of the Prioress from the Canterbury Tales. In order to start to add an aura onto the image of the Prioress I clicked on “assets” on the top of the page and chose the trigger photo of the Prioress. After choosing this image I researched what a Prioress was and did. Once I found a website I liked and felt explained a Prioress well, I copied the link. I then went back to the page I had the trigger photo on and clicked on “Create New Aura”. After that I uploaded a photo of a Prioress onto my trigger image. I then clicked “add actions” in order to embed a link to the informational website I found. After saving everything I have done thus far I checked that the process worked by using the HP reveal app on my phone. When I scanned the aura with the app it brought me directly to the website I chose to embed into the image.

I feel that augmented reality would be very helpful in multiple different settings. In the classroom this technology would be helpful in allowing students to research and interact with different appropriate sources in order to learn more about any given subject. A teacher could add many auras that are the appropriate sources and ask their students to report on one or just a few of the sources they have found in their image. This could also be a very tool useful in industrial settings as well. Auras of what buildings should be expected to look like can be added to blueprints to show the workers as well as the general public what they will soon be seeing in reality. In public settings such as parks, stores and museums augmented reality can be used to enhance the experience of the user. Children can be entertained as well as adults while still learning about and experiencing the world around them.

Kara Smith