PBS KIDS Prototyping Augmented Reality with Teachers

Involving Elementary-School Mathematics Teachers in the Design of AR Applications for Classrooms

Purpose:

Contract Work

 

Team: 2 organizations
My Roles: Research Management, Lead Developer

 

Development:
C#, Unity3D

 

Topics:

augmented-reality

children

education

prototyping

user-centered-design

 

 

In recent years, augmented reality applications for children’s entertainment have been gaining popularity, and educational organizations are increasingly interested in applying this technology to children’s educational games. In this research we collaborated with teachers in order to explore educational potential for AR technology for elementary-school classrooms. Through interviews, surveys and prototyping activities, this project investigated the topics of: What mathematics curriculum topics should technological innovations address in the Grade 1-3 classrooms? Which of the topics are suitable for AR games? And, how can we facilitate an efficient dialogue between educators and game designers?

 

 

Publications :

Radu, Iulian, Betsy McCarthy, Yvonne Kao. “Discovering educational augmented reality math applications by prototyping with elementary-school teachers.” In Virtual Reality 2016 Proceedings (VR), IEEE, 2016.
[PDF]

 

 

 

Handheld Augmented Reality Interaction Techniques for Children

Investigating Relationships Between Design, Usability and Child Development

 

Purpose:

My PhD. Research

 

Team: 12 people
My Roles: Project Lead,

Lead Researcher / Designer / Developer

 

Development:
C# Unity3D, Maya

 

Topics:

augmented-reality

children

cognition

developmental psychology

interaction techniques

mixed methods

user studies

This is an augmented reality game I have built as the main research instrument for my PhD research. It is a smartphone-based game for children aged 5-10 years old. Players take the role of a wizard which must collect a set of magical lemons to create magical items for their pets. Each level of the game is associated with a different AR interaction technique condition, and is followed by various mini-games in which children play with their pet. The system architecture allows data logging and replay/simulation of a child’s entire gameplay; log analysis and visualization tools are built on top of the logging layer to assist in quantitative analysis. The research employs qualitative and quantitative methods to determine the relationships between children’s age, developmental skills, and usability of different AR designs.

 

Publications :

[1] Radu, Iulian, Blair MacIntyre, and Stella Lourenco. "Comparing children’s crosshair and finger interactions in handheld augmented reality: relationships between usability and child development" In  Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children . ACM, 2016.
[PDF]

[2] Radu Iulian. “Exploring the Usability of Augmented Reality Interaction Techniques During Children’s Early Elementary-School Years”. Doctoral Thesis. Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016

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Puppy Plus:

Augmented Mathematics using Tangibles

Purpose:

For My PhD Research

 

Team: 5 people

My Roles: Project Lead,

Lead Researcher / Designer / Developer

 

Development:

C#, Unity3D, Maya

 

Topics:

augmented-reality

children

education

game design

hci

Through this Android-based AR math game, children 6-8 practice basic mathematics skills through familiar physical interactions. In the game, children manipulate physical game pieces in order to feed a hungry puppy the amount of food it desires on its virtual island. With this project we are exploring design of multi-marker augmented-reality experiences suitable for elementary math classrooms.

 

 

Images:

 

       

 


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