Academics' dream becomes an 'augmented' reality

Laura Edwards

14 September 2011: A T-Rex appearing at the University of Canberra campus is something most would think of as impossible, but thanks to a group led by the the University, it has already happened.

‘ARstudio: creating opportunities for multimodal layered learning through augmented reality’ is a project proposal developed by a team from the University of Canberra, the Australian National University (ANU) and Macquarie University academics.

The idea focuses on ‘Augmented Reality,’ a concept which combines the real and the virtual, giving people a view of reality which has been tweaked, enhanced or augmented.

Once a year, the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) offers competitive grants around the country for innovation and development projects.

Clearly impressing the ALTC panel, the group’s project proposal was accepted, and the group received full funding totaling $204,000.

The group consists of University of Canberra Senior Lecturer Danny Munnerley, Educational Designer Matt Bacon and Professor Robert Fitzgerald, with ANU Associate Professor Anna Wilson and Macquarie University Professor John Hedberg.

The ARstudio group amongst an example of augmented reality, L-R: Anna Wilson, Danny Munnerley, Rob Fitzgerald, Matt Bacon and John Hedberg (inset). Photo by Michelle McAulay, enhanced by Matt Bacon.

Together they proposed a two-year project with the primary goals of developing and researching the effective uses of augmented reality in educational settings.

Mr Munnerley says the plan was to use existing spaces to create new learning opportunities.

“The increasingly wide-spread use of mobile devices has the potential to radically change the way we think about learning opportunities,” he said.

“Instead of allocating particular times and spaces to learning, we can insert opportunities to learn from and interact with our environments wherever and whenever we want, using technologies to augment reality with visual images, text and sound. We can also open up ways for people to contribute to the augmentation, by commenting on an existing app or creating their own insertion.”

Mr Munnerley says he and his colleagues were ‘ecstatic’ after hearing their project proposal had been accepted.

“While we knew we had a great proposal, ALTC grants are very competitive,” he said.

“It’s a terrific opportunity to research and develop resources in an area that is really on the cusp of innovation.”

Mr Munnerley says augmented reality is becoming increasingly relevant in the modern world.

“Augmented reality is being embraced in marketing, the visual arts and in the museum sector,” he said.

“There is a real imperative for the education sector to experiment and find ways of using augmented reality to enhance student learning."

Mr Munnerley says augmented reality has also been popular at the University of Canberra.

“Just last month as part of National Science Week, iiNet, Scitec and the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science & Research placed two life sized virtual Dinosaurs on the University's campus which students could view on their Smartphones,” he said.

“Both dinosaurs are herbivores, so we decided to augment the augmentation and place a University of Canberra T-Rex in the same spot, just to keep them in check.”

The ARstudio will officially launch their project next month. The group plan to have two open conferences at the end of each year of the two-year project to update and engage the community in the work that has been done.