A touchable universe: potential of haptic technology to improve learning outcomes
Lead Participant:
ANARKIK3D LIMITED
Abstract
Title: The touchable universe: exploring the potential of haptic technology to improve learning outcomes.
Haptics is an emerging technology that enables people to feel digital information. When combined with 3D audio-visual interfaces, it offers enormous potential for education. For instance, a well- designed system will enable dental students to feel the tooth as they practice drilling in a virtual patient’s mouth, while physics students could compare pushing snowballs uphill on Earth and Europa, and designers could learn how to shape glassware without the need for a furnace. Haptics makes the virtual universe touchable.
Anarkik 3D’s proposal is to take the idea of the touchable universe and build the digital platform that will enable developers to create and build haptic apps for use inside an affordable but convincing virtual classroom, where students can experience lessons in a fundamentally more realistic and interesting manner than ever before. Working with educators, experience designers and students, we will define the requirements for vivid learning experiences that link directly to the national curriculum, with a particular focus on ‘hard to teach’ topics. These will be evaluated by educational and business partners, including universities and an international distributor, against a matrix including cost, complexity, educational value and market appeal.
The best of these requirements will then be taken forward and built into the platform. Prototype demonstrators as software applications combining haptics and, for example, 3D audio-video materials will be tested in a range of schools across the UK to help prove the key message – that haptic learning environments provide an affordable and effective way to improve skills and understanding in ‘hard to teach’ subject areas.
The core technology enabling this to happen is Anarkik3D’s proven ‘A-Frame’ system, developed in 2008 with a SMART award. This award winning commercially available 3D modelling application was designed and built using the A-Frame system which is highly expandable for use as an educational resource to support the development of educational apps that need access to various engines, such as a physics engine or a learn-to-code sandbox. Our team has the coding expertise to make the changes, and distributors to help to prioritise and market the resultant apps.
The outputs of this feasibility study will therefore include tested develop methodologies, an adapted A-Frame, a clear understanding of which haptic kits offer most educational benefit for what cost, better understanding of development costs and projections for return on investment.
Haptics is an emerging technology that enables people to feel digital information. When combined with 3D audio-visual interfaces, it offers enormous potential for education. For instance, a well- designed system will enable dental students to feel the tooth as they practice drilling in a virtual patient’s mouth, while physics students could compare pushing snowballs uphill on Earth and Europa, and designers could learn how to shape glassware without the need for a furnace. Haptics makes the virtual universe touchable.
Anarkik 3D’s proposal is to take the idea of the touchable universe and build the digital platform that will enable developers to create and build haptic apps for use inside an affordable but convincing virtual classroom, where students can experience lessons in a fundamentally more realistic and interesting manner than ever before. Working with educators, experience designers and students, we will define the requirements for vivid learning experiences that link directly to the national curriculum, with a particular focus on ‘hard to teach’ topics. These will be evaluated by educational and business partners, including universities and an international distributor, against a matrix including cost, complexity, educational value and market appeal.
The best of these requirements will then be taken forward and built into the platform. Prototype demonstrators as software applications combining haptics and, for example, 3D audio-video materials will be tested in a range of schools across the UK to help prove the key message – that haptic learning environments provide an affordable and effective way to improve skills and understanding in ‘hard to teach’ subject areas.
The core technology enabling this to happen is Anarkik3D’s proven ‘A-Frame’ system, developed in 2008 with a SMART award. This award winning commercially available 3D modelling application was designed and built using the A-Frame system which is highly expandable for use as an educational resource to support the development of educational apps that need access to various engines, such as a physics engine or a learn-to-code sandbox. Our team has the coding expertise to make the changes, and distributors to help to prioritise and market the resultant apps.
The outputs of this feasibility study will therefore include tested develop methodologies, an adapted A-Frame, a clear understanding of which haptic kits offer most educational benefit for what cost, better understanding of development costs and projections for return on investment.
Lead Participant | Project Cost | Grant Offer |
|---|---|---|
| ANARKIK3D LIMITED | £79,452 | £ 79,452 |
Participant |
||
| INNOVATE UK |
People |
ORCID iD |
| Ann Marie Shillito (Project Manager) |