CSC784

REPORT

Interactive learning by augmented reality agent

MOHAMED FAHRULNIZAM BIN MAZURA@HASSAN

(2014285684)

DATE SUBMITTED: 27 DICEMBER 2014

ABSTRACT

With the technology advance today, learning can be improved and delivered in more creative and

effective way by using multimedia as an approach. So, augmented reality is one of the

approaches to present the learning content different way than traditional learning. Augmented

reality is a technology that provides the superimposed of virtual objects on a real environment.

But , the issues is augmented reality learning application today is not very interactive since it not

solve the idle problem if the user do nothing when system is play on. Augmented reality has two

approach which is marker less and marker based. In marker based augmented reality, the

tracking is based on marker and content will not be show if there are no marker detected. So, to

overcome this problem, intelligent agent is identify one of the best possible way to fix this flaw.

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction

in this chapter, a brief description of project title will be explain. There are summary of

clarification about my research background, problem statement and objective.

The research background will explain about augmented reality application and what I want to do.

The issue about current system will be explain in problem statement.

1.1 Research background:

There are many method and styles in learning whether in traditional way or modern ways. As we

can see today, there‟re many application , website or book for kids to learn about science planet.

Learning theory which is sensory stimulation theory also apply for this project. The theory said

an effective learning happen when sensed are stimulated (oxford brookes universities, 2011 ). So

,to stimulate the sense during learning, augmented reality which contain 3D element ,sound ,text

and animation are used combined with artificial intelligent element. So that user will interact

more with the application and there will be two ways communication between application and

user.

In order to create fun learning environment augmented reality application is used. Creating

immersive and engaging experiences consistently increase the learners retention of a solution or

stimulates deeper understanding of facts or issues. Augmented reality has been shown to deeper

comprehension and increase engagement with learners of all ages (Christine.p & s.wrangler,

2011)

Augmented reality is a concept of supplementing the real world with the virtual world. Although

it uses a virtual environment created by computer graphics, its main playground is the real

environment. Computer graphics serve the function of adding necessary information into the real

environment. In so doing, it makes up for the weak point of unreality which can occur in the

environment providing only the virtual world. Augmented reality is to improve the recognition

tools for the real world and thus to efficiently interact between humans and computers (kim &

kim, 2014).

There is still much research required to determine the most effective ways to use augmented

reality technology for a variety of tasks. Today there is not even a single interaction technique

specific to AR that is widely accepted by a mass audience (Thomas, 2014).

To improve communication between computer and user and also making the application more

interactive, the answer of this problem is intelligent agent . Intelligent agents work by allowing

people to delegate work that they could have done, to the agent software. Agents can perform

repetitive tasks, remember things you forgot, intelligently summarize complex data, learn from

you and even make recommendations to you (t.hanh & t.thaovy).

1.2 Problem Statement:

In order to solve the margin error that conventional augmented reality application and to provide

accurate information for user more quickly, there are researchers implement the two ways

communications system between augmented reality and users through marker less augmented

reality application (kim & kim, 2014). There are many issues, both technical and social, that

should be pursued in the meantime. One of the important aspects is creating appropriate

interaction techniques for AR applications that allow end users to interact with virtual content in

an intuitive way (zhou, been, & billinghurst, 2008).

Research that has been done by (yong, xiaowu, & xin, 2009) mentioned that in marker based

augmented reality, the system does not handle any event in idle stated and only wait for user

request to response. In order to solve this problem, the best possible way is using intelligent

agent in augmented reality. AR agents are capable of automatically taking care of low-level

details such as network communication between components or switching between

representations (Barakonyi, Psik, & Schmalstieg, MonkeyBridge: Autonomous Agents in,

2005).So, it will be two ways communication between computer and user as example the teacher

and student in a classroom.

1.3 Objective:

To determine integration between augmented reality and intelligent agent

To measure the compatibility of the intelligent agent and augmented reality

To evaluate the effectiveness of the application

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction

A brief explanation about the definition of augmented reality, earlier research on augmented

reality in education, Augmented reality agent and also learning theory that has been apply in this

research.

This chapter also discuss about a few of related work that has been done before. It will explained

about why augmented reality agent should be used in augmented reality in order to make

learning more effective

2.1 What is Augmented Reality

Virtual reality that target to matched the worlds environment is called as augmented reality. 3

dimensional virtual object will appear in the same space as the real world and this will raise user

perception and interaction with the real world (Azuma, Baillot, Behringer, Feiner, Julier, &

MacIntyre, 2011). Computer will generate the virtual scene and it will combined with real scenes

by the user. This combination will create an augmented reality system.

2.2 Augmented reality in education

Augmented reality has the quality to overlay computer graphic onto the real world. It is not same

as immersive virtual reality because augmented reality interfaces permit user to see real world in

similar time as virtual imaginery connected to real object and location. (pence, 2011) has said “

Although virtual worlds have become popular for education, but it seems probable that

augmented reality will affect higher education shortly and more profoundly than virtual worlds”.

Collaborative task can be enhance by augmented reality, the StudierStube project of Schmalsteig

is a good example to show about this collaborative task (billinghurst, 2002). Augmented reality

technology has develop to the point where it can be applied to a much spacious range of

application domains.

Education is a field where this application could be peculiarly useful. Augmented reality is very

effective in this field because learners are co-located and can use natural means of

communication like speech and gesture and also can adapt very well with immersive virtual

reality or remote collaboration. Technological advanced today enabled innovative learning tools

and this will give some new idea and challenges to make new learning environment which have

greater context of immersive virtual learning by using collaborative augmented reality

(kaufmann). There are four function that has been listed by (li, 2010) which are making up for

the deficiency of education conditions, avoiding the danger brought by the real world

experiments, breaking the limitation of space and time and also virtualizing the figure of the

character. Augmented Reality can provide rich contextual customized learning environment and

contents for each single individual.

Learning activities vary with a broad diversity of learning processes underneath. These can be

basically classified into two categories which are constructive and analytical. Shameena Parveen,

co-founder of Edutech said "For students to develop the needed skills, schools need to move

from a rote learning concepts and an 'I teach-you‟ listen methods to a more active and

participatory learning method where learners take responsibility for learning and are engaged

participants rather than passive observers. More importantly, the skill we need our students to

have is learning to learn as in today's knowledge economy, we are constantly required to learn,

unlearn and relearn" (xiangyu, 2012).

2.3 Augmented reality agent

Intelligent system is something that processed internal information to do something purposeful.

An agent is anything that is capable of acting upon information it perceives. An intelligent agent

is an agent that able to make decision based on experience (mills & stufflebeam, 2005). Research

that has been done by (barakonyi, weilguny, psik, & schmalsteig, 2004) stated, adding an

intelligent agent in application is need in complex situation to take off workload because it

proactively can make decision based on event coming from sensors present in its environment.

Agents enable users to focus on higher application level objects instead of low level details such

as networking or pose tracking which can increase usability (Barakonyi, Weilguny, Psik, &

Schmalstieg, 2004). Therefore AR agent can serve as key interface element in augmented reality

application.

2.4 Learning theory

People learn in many different learning theories. We need to know the variety of learning theory

because it will be useful to consider in developing an application on how the students learn and

how you teach in educational programs.

According to (dunn, 2011), an effective learning happen when senses are stimulated. A research

has found that 75% of knowledge is educate through seeing, 13% through hearing and 12%

through other senses like touch, smell and taste. Sensory Stimulation Theory of Learning

Sensory stimulation theory learning means that this theory can be applied towards learning. That

is, by stimulating the senses, the individual‟s learning can be enhanced (study mode, 2013).

2.5 Related work

Agent system is very important fields since it emerge as a natural of dealing with problems of

distributed nature such problem exist in military training, games and entertainment industry and

many others (gelenbe, hussain, & kaptan, 2005). (g.cambell, w.stafford, & holz, 2014) made a

research on why, when and how to use augmented reality agents and found the result that an

embodied virtual character allow for faster navigation along a shorter route than marking the

target. So, the result from that research supports my research in term of why using Agent should

be used in augmented reality. Another related work is „monkey bridge‟ done by (Barakonyi,

Psik, & Schmalstieg, MonkeyBridge: Autonomous Agents in, 2005) . It is a collaborative

augmented reality game employing autonomous animated agent. They are show autonomous

agents offer rich gaming experience in augmented reality games by engaging users in various

domains

CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH DESIGN

3.0 Introduction

This chapter will describe briefly about variable which is dependent and independent variable.

And also about research question, hypothesis , field experiment, data collection, data analysis

and also methodology method that is used.

3.1 Dependent and independent variable

figure 3.2 1

The figure 3.2.1 above show about dependent and independent variable . Dependent variable is a

variable that main concern of the research. Independent variable is the variable that will be

change in this research paper, when independent variable changes, the dependent variable will

either increase or decrease. The outcome of this research will make learning application in

augmented reality more interactive and also solve the communication between user and

computer in augmented reality.

3.2 Research question

1. Why current augmented reality learning application not so interactive

2. Why intelligent agent must be used in augmented reality?

3.3 Type of investigation

Causal:

Does combination of intelligent agent and augmented reality can make learning more

efficient?

Does AR agent solve communication in Augmented reality

Correlation:

Are communication related with intelligent agent?

Are augmented reality make learning more interactive?

3.4 Hypothesis

H1: Augmented reality agent solve communication problem in in augmented reality and make

learning more effective

H2: Augmented reality agent does not solve communication problem in in augmented reality and

learning are not effective

3.5 Study setting

The study setting for this research paper is lab experiment. It is because, this research is measure

the efficiency of the current system and the new system that applying combination of intelligent

agent and augmented reality. I do observation on whether the intelligent agent will solve

communication problem in in augmented reality and make learning more effective.

3.6 Data collection

Primary data: the primary data collection in gather the data from the observation and also

interview from the corresponding person

Secondary data: secondary data is collect the data from the past research, journal and books .

3.7 Research methodology

There is phases in research methodology that have been identified. There are problem

identifying, planning and data gathering, designing the prototype, development of the system and

evaluation. The research methodology framework is shown as below:

figure 3.8 1

3.8 Technique use

The cameras will tracking the live video from real world environment and detect the marker.

Intelligent agent will be programmed and combine with augmented reality learning application.

The agent will guide user on how to do. If the user do nothing and the system is idle, agent will

appear and help user what they can do. So, the system will be more efficient in term of

interaction and communication with the user. The user will not have problem to do complex task

with the help from agent

CHAPTER 4

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

4.0 Introduction

An expected outcome and the discussion will be elaborate more in this chapter based on

findings that have been gathered.

4.1 Analysis plan

True experimental design will be conducted in order to get the data and it will include both

treatment and control groups and also record both before and after result. Experiment will be

conduct in two group which consist of a few of students. That two group will be given two

different application setting. One group will get the proposed application solution and another

one will get current application. The survey will be given to them before and after they start

using the application by answering questionnaire. Besides that, I also will do an observation on

how they interact with the system. The questionnaire will be collected and data will gathered to

be analyze

4.2 Expected outcome

The expected outcome that possible are there will be two ways communication between system

and user. The user will not having problem in communication with the system and can do

complex task. Other than that, the idle time of the system will be reduce and learning application

will be more interactive and effective.

4.3 Advantage and disadvantage of purpose solution

There are advantage and disadvantage for the research purpose solution. One of the advantage is

Augmented reality will helps increase the level of user understanding in learning. Other than

that, the user also will not having problem with the certain complex task in the system because

agent will guide then until they complete all of the task in the system.

The disadvantage of purposed system is this application cannot be used in the dark place. It must

be used in a place that have good lighting environment since it will detect the black and white

marker to view the scene.

4.4 Future enhancement

For the future enhancement, there are a few aspect that must be consider such as:

1. Tracking

The tracking should be more advance which can detect the marker in low lighting

environment

2. Voice recognition

The user can ask the question and agent will detect the voice of the user and will answer

the question given.

4.5 Conclusion

This research is to solve the communication between user and system and also solve the idle

problem in current augmented reality system in order to make learning become more interactive.

The traditional learning styles which is book that only have static text and picture is not attract

the students to learn, so this application will gain more attraction to learn and deeper user

understanding in their learning.

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