EAGER: Augmented Reality for Understanding Social and Environmental Science

这个项目是一个将增强现实（AR）引入新平台的实验。AR是一项令人兴奋的新兴技术，它将地理上注册的三维计算机图形覆盖在现实世界上。直到最近，增强现实还需要昂贵的硬件，或者至少需要一台配备网络摄像头的笔记本电脑。然而，最近移动电话技术的改进使得使用智能手机作为增强现实的交互设备成为可能，从而创造了便携式增强现实体验。通过使用手机作为一个“神奇的镜头”，参与者可以通过手机上的摄像头看到真实世界，并看到增强的地方，与现实世界的注册。在这个项目中，研究团队将创建一个演示，展示增强现实如何帮助理解和教授社会和环境科学。跨学科的合作研究团队将开发并演示一个使用AR环境在大学水平上教授考古学的示例场景。选择考古学有多种原因。考古学有一个非常物理的组成部分，主要处理三维物体，因此是一个很好的匹配需求和AR提供的功能。考古学教学中的一个问题是，实地调查的过程和方法很难在课堂上呈现，许多学生永远不会有机会从事实地调查，而那些从事实地调查的学生也仅限于少数几个不同的地点。项目团队假设，基于ar的模拟将适合让学生接触到实地工作所涉及的内容，并使他们能够参与各种各样的模拟场所。为了解决教学现场工作技术的挑战，我们寻求创建一个身临其境的交互式演示，学生使用AR环境“挖掘”遗址，解释文物，并创建一个整体遗址的重建。这样的AR环境将包括实际现场工作的许多方面，包括挖掘方法、战略分析（例如，下一步要看哪里）、现场数据的系统记录、3D文物的富有想象力的重建以及来自多个来源的证据的解释。考古野外工作有相当多的体力活动，增强现实的本质是它的使用有很强的体力方面。项目团队怀疑智能手机是一种合适的交互设备，因为它是大多数学生熟悉的设备，而且它的大小使得学生可以像携带任何其他考古工具一样携带它，如镘刀或刷子。这是一个概念验证项目，AR可以通过智能手机实现，并在课堂环境中使用，以交流关键的科学方法和概念，在这种情况下，围绕考古学科。然而，这个项目的含义是相当广泛的，例如，在偏远农村社区的小型平台上的虚拟教室，以及实地访问虚拟动物和岩石收藏品。

This project is an experiment to introduce Augmented Reality (AR)to new platforms. AR is an exciting emerging technology that overlays geographically registered three dimensional computer graphics on the real world. Until recently, AR required expensive hardware, or, at the minimum, a laptop computer equipped with a web camera. Recent improvements in cellular telephone technology, however, have enabled the possibility to use a smart phone as an interaction device for AR thus creating a portable AR experience. By using the cell phone as a "magic lens", participants can view the real world through the camera on the phone and see the augmentations in place, in registration with the real world.In this project the research team will create a demonstration of how Augmented Reality can aid in understanding and teaching social and environmental science. The interdisciplinary, collaborative team of researchers will develop and demonstrate a sample scenario for using AR environments to teach archaeology at the collegiate level. Archaeology was chosen for a variety of reasons. Archaeology has a very physical component and deals largely with three dimensional objects and thus is a good match of needs with the capabilities that AR provides. One problem in teaching archaeology is that the processes and methods of field research are difficult to present in a classroom, and many students will never get the opportunity to engage in field research, and those who do will be limited to only a few different sites. The project team hypothesizes that AR-based simulations will be suitable to expose students to what is involved in field work and to enable them to participate in a wide variety of simulated sites. To address the challenge of teaching field work techniques, we seek to create an immersive, interactive demonstration in which students use AR environments to "excavate" sites, interpret artifacts, and create a reconstruction of an overall site. Such an AR environment will include many aspects of actual field work, including excavation methods, strategic analysis (e.g., where to look next), systematic recording of the field data, imaginative reconstruction of 3D artifacts, and interpretation of evidence from multiple sources. Archaeology field work has a considerable amount of physical activity, and the nature of AR is that there is a strong physical aspect to its use. The project team suspects that a smart phone is a suitable interaction device because it is a device familiar to most students and it is of a size such that a student can carry it like any other archaeological tool, such as a trowel or a brush.This is a proof of concept project, that AR can be implemented through a smart phone and used in a classroom setting to communicate critical scientific methodologies and concepts, in this case surrounding the discipline of archaeology. However, the implication of this project are quite extensive, e.g., virtual classrooms on small platforms in remote rural communities and field site access to virtual zoological and lithics collections.