One of the most exciting applications of AR is in interactive gaming. At City University, an experimental AR educational application for geography students called ‘an interactive 3D puzzle’ was designed. The objective was to provide a combination of educational and entertainment experiences which can be available in the future to full-time, part-time and distance learning students at City University. For the purpose of the interactive 3D puzzle scenarios a big part of the campus of City University campus was modeled in 3D and two versions were created: one with 3 pieces and one with 6 pieces. Using the functionality of MRGIS the puzzle can be visualized in both VR and AR environments. Students can pick up the marker cards and examine the geometrical and geographical information in a tangible manner.
An advantage of this gaming application is that it is possible to collaborate with other users that could stand around the table-top environment and either give advice or play the game. Multiple users can naturally experiment with different combinations by randomly placing the marker cards close to each other. Meaningful textual feedback can be also provided during the game. Furthermore, this application has been demonstrated in GeoInformation Group’s Cities Revealed Event 2005 conference as well as informally to a number of postgraduate students in the department of Information Science (City University). The feedback we have received was that the AR interface is very easy to use even if there is much more work required for an educational application that can be used in practice.
More information:
http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~fotisl/AREL/gaming.htm
http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~fotisl/publications/IV2005.pdf
http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~fotisl/publications/gw2005.pdf
More information:
http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~fotisl/AREL/gaming.htm
http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~fotisl/publications/IV2005.pdf
http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~fotisl/publications/gw2005.pdf