The Pontifical of Salamanca applies augmented reality to presentations for educational purposes

An augmented reality system created by the Pontifical University of Salamanca allows users to prepare explanations for classes or conferences.

Augmented reality is an interactive system that combines images of the real environment with a virtual space and increasingly has more diverse applications.. Looking at this technology, The Pontifical University of Salamanca has developed a project whose objective is to exploit its possibilities in the field of education. The result is the EducAR tool, that allows you to make presentations that are as useful as they are spectacular for classes or conferences.

“It is a system based on augmented reality with markers, like a Power Point but in three dimensions”, so “we can make 3D presentations”, Rubén Aguilar Becerra points out, student of the Pontifical University of Salamanca who has developed this initiative within the framework of the University Innovation Club.

The presentations are made up of slides that contain the associations between the markers and the 3D graphics in addition to the explanatory texts that each user considers appropriate to include.. Although there are already similar products on the market, These are closed presentations with educational applications on very specific topics., How can the area of ​​Knowledge of the Environment be?. However, “I have created a general application that allows you to apply it to any area, so that teachers or anyone else can create the content, This is not offered by other applications”, Rubén Aguilera declares, that to develop this tool has had Professor Alfonso José López Rivero as project director.

3D buildings

To make a projection based on augmented reality, a physical object is necessary, which is usually simply a flat drawing on a sheet of paper.; a camera that can be the webcam of a computer or a mobile device; the monitor in which the sum of the virtual and the real is seen; and the software necessary to generate that final image. With these elements you can show “complex objects in three dimensions”, something that allows young students to understand some concepts much better”. For example, “we can have a webcam that focuses on the markers and, If we have a map of Salamanca, we can see the buildings in three dimensions and show the Salamanca cathedral from all points of view, moving the image, the student points out.

The goal is that anyone can use the EducAR tool, that's why, “I have made it as simple as I could”, states, convinced that it will be a very useful system for classes and conferences in which traditional presentations fall short.

Besides, The project includes the creation of a collaborative online platform for users to share their content, with the aim of having a good base of already created presentations in the long term, rated by other users and ready for third parties to use, since presentations can be saved for later viewing or editing.