Rudai 23. Thing 14: Augmented Reality

Before this 'Thing' I wasn't really sure what 'Augmented Reality' was but now having read the post I have a clear idea.  It turns out I have used this before, although I wasn't aware it was called augmented reality.   There was a free fashion magazine around London a couple of years ago, I don't remember the name of it... you could scan the cat walk pictures and they'd come to life (providing you had the magazines app).

The concept isn't to dissimilar to a technique which I currently use, QR codes.  I have displayed QR codes in relevant sections of the library.  If a student can't find a book they can scan the QR code using their phone or tablet and will be taken directly to the LRC website which contains the online resources.  The fault with this is not all students have the app or software to scan the code, although it can be downloaded in seconds.  I feel once all devices have AR and QR software automatically installed these techniques will be more successful.

I've had a look at Anatomy 4D and tried out the examples, really cool!

I decided to give AR a go using Aurasma.  There are some animated short stories and poems on youtube, I thought it'd great to bring a poem to life by using one of these.  You could photograph the page of a poetry book and use that as a trigger but I decided the create the image below.  It could be displayed around the library to promote a 'poem of the week'.  Students could scan then watch/listen (using headphones of coarse!)

Poem: Bluebird by Charles Bukowski
Animation: Monika Umba

Trigger Image

Screenshot of my example in action

Here is the actual video

 

I feel AR and QR are both really great tools.  In the future I can imagine tablets will be more affordable and widely used than there are now, they will also all come with standard software for using AR without having to sign up.  When that happens I fell AR will be something that is used more frequently in libraries.