Digital Humanities – Spring 2018

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

Augmented Reality: Pokemon Go, History and Impact

For those of you who were around in summer 2016, you may have noticed random large groups of people walking the streets with huge grins on their faces, staring at their phones, possibly oblivious to oncoming traffic. I remember the culture of Pokemon Go back when Niantic first released the game. It was magical. For the first time in history, video games were bringing people outside. I remember I was living in Minneapolis at the time, and my friends and I would go out searching for Pokemon around the neighborhood. We would run into other groups of young adults and kids doing the same thing. Parents and their children, teenagers, adults, even a few seniors were off of the couch running around searching for Pokemon. It was a beautiful phenomenon in many cities. Gym battles were epic, people would exchange information on where the best Pokemon could be caught. Businesses would give discounts based on what team you played for. TV stations covered the craze. People were injured, relationships formed, rivalries ignited. It truly created a feeling of camaraderie among the younger generation.

As I re-downloaded the game I was hit by a wave of nostalgia for what the game could have been. Unfortunately it was plagued by glitches and constant downtime and this eventually led to many people abandoning it mere weeks after it came out. A general sense of missed opportunity was felt by many. Niantic dropped the ball a little. It seemed the game had been released too early and the societal impact it had was not anticipated.

Overall, the game was the biggest summer fad of 2016 and showed how Augmented Reality could help revolutionize the video game industry. For once games could improve people’s social lives instead of isolating them. I believe the true magic of Pokemon Go was that it captured the dream of many millenials who grew up with Pokemon, and allowed them to experience what living in the Pokemon world could be like. This dream coupled with the timing of its release created a perfect storm of sorts, you really had to be there–to witness it for yourself.

Zeke Johnson,

Feb 2018

Aurasma Studio

As you are working on this project, take screenshots of your work and take some reflective
notes in a Word or Google doc. When you have finished this project, I’d like you to write a blog
post about 2 things:
1. Document your process — what did you do and what did you think about it.
2. Think of some ways that this technology could be used in the “real world.” How could it
be used in classrooms, the marketplace, print books, newspapers/magazines, the
workplace, museums, etc.

Creating this Augmented Reality Text was interesting. I began with looking up the actual section of the general prologue where the Yeoman is mentioned. After I found that, I found a picture describing in more detail what he would have looked like, and why he was wearing the things he was. For example, because he was a forester and wore a bow, it could be determined that he is keeping the Knight’s land in top condition. I then looked up more information on the English social class system to figure out exactly what a Yeoman was. I had an idea of what to expect from my research, having already read the Canterbury Tales prior to this class. I think the hardest part of the process was the actual researching portion rather than the uploading the trigger and links for the information that I found. Aurasma Studio was very user friendly- but that may be because I had the cheat sheet on blackboard to guide me as well. I also had trouble seeing both of the creations that I had made, and have only recently been able to see the British Flag trigger and not the other.

This process most definitely could be used in classrooms to make reading more engaging for everyone involved. Students often complain that reading is too boring, and they prefer using devices to do their reading (mostly because they have access to other things on the device). I think this is the perfect way to combine technology and physical reading as well. Students would be able to interact directly with the text and the level of learning would most definitely increase because of the engagement. This would also be awesome to use in making any lesson more interactive and engaging for teachers and students, and lets the teachers express their creativity while still meeting the standards of the curriculum and school. (Emily Hatch)