M. Chang et al. (Eds.): Edutainment 2011, LNCS 6872, pp. 20–24, 2011. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011

The Application of Augmented Reality to Design Education

Chih-Hsiang Ko, Ting-Chia Chang, Yung-Hsun Chen, and Li-Han Hua

Department of Industrial and Commercial Design, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology,

43 Keelung Road, Section 4, Taipei, Taiwan linko@mail.ntust.edu.tw,

{night1267,silverydeer}@hotmail.com, ludan1211@gmail.com

Abstract. With the advances in computer technology, it is an inevitable choice for design educators to use digital tools to instruct students on subjects that are previously accomplished by face-to-face communication. The growth and dis-persion of computer assisted instruction stimulate design educators to develop pedagogically effective learning models for traditionally studio-based design education to cope with the pressure of globalized competition and the demand for interdisciplinary cooperative communication. The main purpose of this study was to investigate how students interact with augmented reality models in design programs and to evaluate their perceptions regarding the representations in learning about 3D concepts. Key issues in computerized design education were explored and attention was given to the application of related augmented reality applications to smooth out the development of computerized design pro-grams. The result of such an augmented reality application was evaluated and design students’ best practice in action was reflected.

Keywords: Augmented Reality, Design Education, ARToolKit.

1 Introduction

The purpose of design education is to teach design students the essential skills of innovation, aesthetics and analysis. After graduation, the students can immediately engage in industrial design, product development and product planning. With the advances in computer technology, it is an inevitable choice for the design industry to use digital tools, to cope with the pressure of globalized competition and the demand of interdisciplinary cooperative design communication. It is necessary for design students to match up with the development of the design industry and the progress of digital technology by changing their egoistic design thinking and collaborating with other disciplines. Many design courses are associated with computers that integrate various media into teaching materials for design education. However, the success of interdisciplinary learning depends on the smoothness of communication among vari-ous disciplines. The purpose of this research is to use augmented reality in interdisci-plinary design education to solve the problems of design communication in students

The Application of Augmented Reality to Design Education 21

from different backgrounds. Students’ experiences accumulated in interdisciplinary communication could help to enhance their involvement in related businesses soon after graduation. As a result, developing time and cost could be reduced in a design team and business development could also be promoted.

Although the direct communication between students and teachers in the classroom works successfully, design educators are interested in introducing more productive and effective methods for improving the learning experience of students. The emer-gence of technological innovations such as web-based virtual learning environments has provided the potential for such purposes. Virtual learning applications can provide the tools to allow users to learn in a quick and happy mode by playing in virtual envi-ronments [1]. One of the most promising technologies that currently exist is augmented reality (AR), which is a variation of virtual reality (VR). VR technology completely immerses a user inside a synthetic environment. While immersed, the user cannot see the surrounding real world. In contrast, AR allows the user to see the real world, with virtual objects superimposed upon or mixed with the real world. There-fore, AR supplements reality, rather than completely replaces it. Ideally, it would appear to the user that the virtual and real objects coexist in the same space [2]. The main advantage of using AR is that design students can see and manipulate 3D ob-jects in real time without the knowledge of traditional 3D modeling software. By perceiving and experiencing directly in three dimensions, spatial relationships could be comprehended better and faster than with traditional methods.

2 Literature Review

Designing 3D models is an important part of the design process and teaching with 3D models can improve content quality in design education. It is beneficial to allow de-sign students to view design proposals as 3D entities as early in the process as possi-ble. Previous works [3-7] explored the use of AR in education and its prospect. These works focused on presenting 3D graphical models to students, in order to assist them with complex spatial problems. However, the application of AR in design education was little explored [8]. There were applications for design collaboration, such as the utilization of ‘sharing space’ for the environment of 3D computer-supported collabo-rative work (CSCW) that strengthened the reality of designed objects and environ-ments [9]. Augmented reality was used to increase designers’ working space to observe their interaction in a virtual environment [10]. Designers were even provided with head-mounted displays to interact with 2D and 3D information [11]. However, portable and stand-alone augmented reality system was also developed with self-tracking and running on an unmodified PDA with a commercial camera [12]. Re-searchers proposed useful principles for the design of augmented reality from the viewpoint of product design to avoid pitfalls, which included the use of proper visual design techniques and the understanding of the user’s experience. They also sug-gested that industrial designers should participate in the technical development of augmented reality [13]. Therefore, the development and application of augmented reality to design education is not only a technical issue, but also requires the collabo-ration of diverse design educators to make augmented reality more suitable to students’ needs.

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3 Research Design

This study compared AR-based design communication with traditional media by configuring a simple AR environment, and traditional 2D drawings were used in me-dia presentation. The test subjects were specially chosen to represent interdisciplinary team members, such as design, management and engineering. Each group included three students from different backgrounds, and there were a total of six groups par-ticipating in this study. The platform was based on the augmented reality application ARToolKit, which is a tool for developing AR interfaces using computer vision based tracking with square markers. It provides AR tracking, virtual object overlay and simple interaction techniques. The only hardware required is a computer and a low-cost USB web camera. The requirements for a marker is that it must be square, must have a continuous border and the image inside the border must be asymmetric. The visual marker is detected in a live video stream, extracting the 3D position of the marker and its rotation.

The system utilized collaborative augmented reality as a medium for presentation, and used 3D models to facilitate design communication. The platform included a notebook and a camera for the detection of printed markers. By changing, moving and rotating the markers, 3D models were generated, superimposed and displayed on the screen. The system configuration is illustrated in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. The collaborative augmented reality system

4 Results and Discussions

The final implementation was evaluated by design students and the questionnaire for user interaction satisfaction (QUIS) was used to measure the quality and quantity of student interactions with the system. The overall mean for all questions was a 5.9 on a 1-9 Likert scale. The scale was arranged so that positive adjectives anchored towards 9 and negative towards 1. Comments and question ratings on the QUIS indicated areas for interface improvements. The quantitative questionnaire results were investi-gated further by focus groups and interviews. The results were positive, based on feedback from students. Users suggested several enhancements such as multitasking

The Application of Augmented Reality to Design Education 23

and interdisciplinary collaboration. Some students also indicated that the idea of using augmented reality to identify promising concepts might not be easy for novice users to grasp.

Feedback from the students revealed the following advantages of applying aug-mented reality to design education:

• AR-based models are 3D and can be moved in multi-directions conveniently. • AR-based models can replace physical rough models. • AR-based models can be rotated freely. • AR-based models can be manipulated instantaneously to stimulate more design

thinking than 2D drawings. • AR-based models increase interactivity in design communication. • AR-based models facilitate the understanding of spatial problems.

The system used AR as a 3D geometric manipulation tool and the focus lay on the collaborative aspect between students and teachers. The system could fill in the gap of visualization problems and lack of collaboration support by offering a way to visual-ize 3D models that were not only tangible, but also could be interacted with. Design students and teachers could view such models concurrently from different angles on a face-to-face basis. Presenting 3D models in the AR system could stimulate instant and intuitive interactions that encouraged exploration of new ideas. Material and colors of models could be changed instantaneously to reduce communication misunderstand-ing. Overall, the system brought about joys in designing, the capacity to realize de-signs, and a sense of accomplishment.

5 Conclusions

The result indicated that the use of augmented reality to support design education could be beneficial to students’ learning. The design of system should be intuitive to use, portable, flexible, and should have much of the functionality of the current design pedagogy, in order to effectively improve learning outcomes and to shorten learning time. Intuitiveness is important in the context of both output and input devices. With-out intuitiveness, input devices might mislead users and reduce learning effect while output devices could not improve learning ability simply by digitizing traditional pedagogical systems. Substantiating spatial and abstract concepts in system output is important for computerized design education to successfully increase students’ learn-ing outcomes in educational settings.

Augmented reality can present objects in a more intuitive way that is suitable for developing 3D educational programs for design, and allows design students to explore the full potential of design concepts, to evaluate 3D objects before anything is physi-cally built. Students want to be empowered by technology and to apply their knowledge and experience to communicate designs that lead to improved results and greater personal satisfaction. The system can thus build a future in which students will experience competence, clarity, control, comfort, and feelings of mastery and accomplishment.

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Acknowledgments. This work was sponsored by the National Science Council, Tai-wan, under the Grant No. NSC99-2410-H-011-025-MY2.

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