Collaborative augmented reality for inorganic chemistry education

  • Authors:
  • Manuela Núñez;Ricardo Quirós;Inma Núñez;Juan B. Carda;Emilio Camahort

  • Affiliations:
  • Departmento de Lenguajes y Sistemas Informáticos, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain;Departmento de Lenguajes y Sistemas Informáticos, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain;Departmento de Química Inorgánica y Orgánica, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain;Departmento de Química Inorgánica y Orgánica, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain;Departmento de Sistemas Informaticos y Computacion, Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain

  • Venue:
  • EE'08 Proceedings of the 5th WSEAS/IASME international conference on Engineering education
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

Augmented Reality (AR) is a computer related research area that allows users to see views of the real world enhanced with text and virtual information. AR with 3D models can be used as an educational aid to help students gain spatial intuition. This intuition is very useful in many disciplines like, for example, Inorganic Chemistry. We present in this paper an AR system for teaching spatial relationships and chemical problem solving skills to university-level students. Our system is based on inexpensive webcams and open-source software. Our students quickly gained visual cues and 3D intuition when the system was implemented. A survey we conducted after the experience shows great acceptance of the system as well as better results when solving Inorganic Chemistry problems related to 3D crystal structures.