Research Focus: One in Three Hundred
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AR-Faszinaturen Project Receives Funding in the DATIPilot Sprint Program
DATI stands for German Agency for Transfer and Innovation. DATI aims to translate research results into economic and/or social applications through effective idea, knowledge, and technology transfer, thereby unlocking innovation potential. To establish the agency, so-called DATIPilot Innovation Sprints were launched. From more than 3,000 submitted proposals, 300 very different projects were selected for funding, all sharing one common goal: to provide solutions to the challenges of our time and create added value for society.
At Mittweida University of Applied Sciences, Professor Philipp Klimant from the Faculty of Computer Science (CB) and his project partner and initiator, Faszinaturen UG from Berlin, were delighted to receive a grant. His project, "AR-Faszinaturen: Integrating Real Mass Models into AR for Improved Teaching of STEM Fundamentals," aims to provide a clear and engaging understanding of topics such as size, mass, gravity, stability, distances, and much more. Faszinaturen UG has already developed haptic models that represent the actual proportional mass of their "originals" (Eiffel Tower 12 cm = 1 g; Earth 13 cm = 6 kg). This offering will now be expanded through integration into Augmented Reality (AR), creating an even more motivating learning experience that combines the haptic and digital worlds.
At Mittweida University of Applied Sciences, the sub-project "AR System" is being developed. The goal of this sub-project is to develop an AR application that can reliably and without latency recognize haptic models and display content on them via a tablet and/or smartphone.
Users can then interact with the content via the AR application in the usual way, exploring the material in a playful manner and thus learning independently. This includes not only overlays directly onto the models, but also virtual objects and content alongside the mass models in free space. This is particularly challenging when there are larger distances between the mass model and the virtual content, as it must be assumed that the mass model is not permanently within the camera view of the output device.
Therefore, in addition to creating the basic AR application, the focus of this sub-project is on developing real-time tracking that robustly enables all six degrees of freedom in space by capturing the mass model in combination with spatial tracking.
The project began on July 1, 2024, with a duration of 18 months.
The author of this article is Prof. Philipp Klimant from Mittweida University of Applied Sciences.
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