With just an iPad, students in any classroom across the world could soon re-imagine the ordinary diagrams in any physics textbook transforming these static images into 3D simulations that run, leap or spin across the page. The tool relies on a model called Segment Anything from the tech company Meta. It’s a computer visualization tool that allows users to click on a photo to isolate particular objects (a dog, or maybe a face). Similarly, through Augmented Physics, students and teachers select various objects inside a diagram, such as the skier and the ski jump, and assign those objects roles.
The AI then applies some basic physics, such as the force of gravity, to make those objects move. It works for several different kinds of diagrams, too. They include optics diagrams, so students can simulate how a prism refracts sunlight, for example, and electrical circuits, so they can see currents zip along wires. The team also designed its product with feedback from real students studying physics and with science teachers. The tool isn’t perfect yet and it can only turn a brand-new diagram into an effective simulation about 60% of the time. But the team is working to improve those success rates.
More information:
https://www.colorado.edu/today/2024/11/01/textbooks-come-alive-new-interactive-ai-tool