On Friday March 21 we hosted a kickoff workshop on the ScienceSpots AR platform concept which aims at providing a technical, pedagogical and motivational environment for creating context-aware story-based games for science learning. ScienceSpots AR will support augmented reality (hence “AR”) much like Calory Battle AR does. The first game to be developed on the platform will continue the story of two leopards from the UFractions game as they escape from poachers across African savannah while prompting the player to solve challenges on geometry. The game as well as the ScienceSpots AR platform on which it runs will be announced in more detail soon.
To implement the platform and learning games on it, we have established a consortium of highly skilled experts from various backgrounds including software engineering, mobile and context-aware computing, machine learning, game design, graphic design and 3D modeling, user interfaces, usability, education and mathematics. During workshop eight interesting presentations were held by the attendants, followed by fruitful discussion on the goals of the first prototype as shown in the photos below.
This workshop was supported by the New Faculty Research Fund of Ajou University (2012).
Amir Dirin (Haaga-Helia UAS) discussed on mobile games and usability
Joonas Westlin (Ubilife) introduced the concept of ManySense middleware
Nina Hytönen (Haaga-Helia UAS) and Renny Lindberg (Haaga-Helia UAS) illustrated the concept of the mathematics game
Tatu Harviainen (VTT) showcased VTT’s technologies on smart interaction technologies
Prof. Teemu Laine (Ubilife), Prof. Jaemu Lee (Busan Nat’l University of Education), Amir Dirin (Haaga-Helia UAS) discussed after Prof. Lee’s presentation on educational theories for computer-based mathematics learning
Consortium members on well-deserved dinner: Tatu Harviainen (VTT), Amir Dirin (Haaga-Helia UAS), Prof. Jaemu Lee (Busan Nat’l University of Education), Nina Hytönen (Haaga-Helia UAS), Renny Lindberg (Haaga-Helia UAS), Joonas Westlin (Ubilife), Jung Ryul Seo (Ubilife), Prof. Teemu Laine (Ubilife) and Prof. Adil Khan (Ubilife). Two members are missing: Prof. Hae Jung Suk (Digital Media, Ajou) and Dae Hwan Kim (Digital Media, Ajou)