Mobile Augmented Reality Applications Research Articles

A mobile augmented reality application for supporting real-time skin lesion analysis based on deep learning

Melanoma is considered the deadliest skin cancer and when it is in an advanced state it is difficult to treat. Diagnoses are visually performed by dermatologists, by naked-eye observation. This paper proposes an augmented reality smartphone application for supporting the dermatologist in the real-time analysis of a skin lesion. The app augments the camera view with information related to the lesion features generally measured by the dermatologist for formulating the diagnosis. The lesion is also classified by a deep learning approach for identifying melanoma. The real-time process adopted for generating the augmented content is described. The real-time performances are also evaluated and a user study is also conducted. Results revealed that the real-time process may be entirely executed on the Smartphone and that the support provided is well judged by the target users.

Immersive Robotic Telepresence for Remote Educational Scenarios

Social robots have an enormous potential for educational applications and allow for cognitive outcomes that are similar to those with human involvement. Remotely controlling a social robot to interact with students and peers in an immersive fashion opens up new possibilities for instructors and learners alike. Using immersive approaches can promote engagement and have beneficial effects on remote lesson delivery and participation. However, the performance and power consumption associated with the involved devices are often not sufficiently contemplated, despite being particularly important in light of sustainability considerations. The contributions of this research are thus twofold. On the one hand, we present telepresence solutions for a social robot’s location-independent operation using (a) a virtual reality headset with controllers and (b) a mobile augmented reality application. On the other hand, we perform a thorough analysis of their power consumption and system performance, discussing the impact of employing the various technologies. Using the QTrobot as a platform, direct and immersive control via different interaction modes, including motion, emotion, and voice output, is possible. By not focusing on individual subsystems or motor chains, but the cumulative energy consumption of an unaltered robot performing remote tasks, this research provides orientation regarding the actual cost of deploying immersive robotic telepresence solutions.

APPLICATION OF AUGMENTED REALITY IN E-COMMERCE

The problem of research is still relatively low usage of augmented reality mobile applications in e-commerce, despite it’s advantages and opportunities to increase competitiveness. The aim of the research is to find out and explore the benefits of augmented reality in e-commerce. The paper discusses the definition of augmented reality, it’s advantages and looks through most succesfull mobile applications in e-commerce containing augmented reality. The author includes a case study from a very popular app “Makeup Genius” and examines the basis for its success. The most popular augmented reality apps allow customers to virtually try on products saving time by not having to go to a physical store. Several sources point out that the main advantage of augmented reality is greater consumer interaction with the application, which as a result creates a pleasant experience for the customer.

Developing augmented reality-based learning media and users’ intention to use it for teaching accounting ethics

Ethics education is increasingly needed in business schools due to the escalation of fraud in business practices. However, faculties face challenges in gaining the millennials and Z generation's interest and attention, who are generally digital savvy, when teaching accounting ethics. One of the learning media that is suitable for millennial and Z generation students is that based on augmented reality technology, a technology that combines the real world and the virtual world in either 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional forms to reflect the real environment. This work aims to develop an augmented reality mobile application for teaching accounting ethics for university students using revenue recognition case. In this project, the development of the application uses the SCRUM method. Additionally, the System Usability Scale (SUS) is used to measure perceived usability. We conduct pre- and post-tests on the SUS. The pre-test is performed when the application is first released, and the post-test is conducted after the application has been improved based on the feedback from our respondents. The score of the pre-test is 80.00 (good to use) and the post-test score is 90.27 (excellent to use). Further, this study tests users’ intention to use the application. Using Technology Acceptance Model, the results show that potential users intent to use the application and the intention is affected by the perceived ease of use via the perceived usefulness of the application and the attitude towards the application.

The Development of Mobile Augmented Reality Application to Facilitate High School Students with Various Learning Strategies in Learning History

Augmented Reality is a demanding feature that widely embeds in our mobile devices. With the current mobile networks this feature will be increasingly accessible in many areas such as education. The current situation in learning history is boring and unattractive to high school students. In addition, the current history books as well as additional revision books are very textual and contain less pictures.The aim of this paper is to describe the mapping of the different learning styles that the students have employed onto the AR mobile application in learning history. The mapping should facilitate all learning styles so that learning history becomes more interactive and engaging.

A Case Study on Research Postgraduate Students’ Understanding of Academic Integrity at a Hong Kong University

This case study aims to understand how research postgraduate (RPg) students at a Hong Kong university perceive academic integrity before and after participating in the Trail of Integrity and Ethics on the general issues of academic misconduct (TIE-General learning trail), which makes use of Augmented Reality (AR) technology and mobile application to help students acquire abstract concepts (Wong et al., 2018). A total of 33 RPg students, who had completed the mandatory courses on research ethics and teaching skills, successfully completed the TIE-General learning trail. The participants were required to demonstrate their levels of understanding of academic integrity and ethics before and after going through the learning trail. Results of the thematic analysis on the participants’ responses indicated that the RPg students were generally able to show some understanding of the six fundamental values of academic integrity defined by the International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI), namely honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage. Among these six values, the findings suggested that honesty and respect might be the most familiar values to the participants. However, the other four values seemed to be less familiar to them. On top of the above six values, empathy and mindfulness were considered as two other important attributes of academic integrity from the participants’ perspectives. This article analyses the possible impacts of empathy and mindfulness on the academic integrity development of university students.

Augmented Reality Mobile Application as Learning Media in Science Subject for the Post Gen Z Generation

The total population of Indonesia as of September 2020 is based on the official statistical news number 07/01/th. XXIV, 21 January 2021 issued by the Indonesian Statistics Center, totaling 270.20 million people and 10.88% or 29,397,760 people are the post Gen Z generation born from 2013 onwards with an estimated age up to 7 years of age. The post Gen Z generation is a generation that is categorized as early childhood. Moreover, learning from an early age is important so that children are familiarized with the knowledge they are most interested in and mastered so that it makes it easier for them to understand it. Especially if the learning material is delivered electronically via a smartphone which is associated with the application of the Augmented Reality (AR) method so that they are more interested in learning and with a different atmosphere in terms of delivering face-to-face subject matter in class which is sometimes boring. In this paper, we design and implement a learning model equipped with AR technology to make it easier for young children to learn subject matter that is important for their future and limited to science subject matter. In this paper, a mobile application with AR technology is proposed where users can learn from the images they capture and gain learning from the perspective of these images. What's more, the application of AR technology is also more practical and reduces the burden of carrying heavy and thick books in studying a subject matter. The model was designed using a use case diagram as a business process design and class diagrams for database design including the user interface as a representation of communication between users and applications.

The Design of a Gamified Responsible Use of Social Media

Social media is part of almost everyone's daily life. Its networking facilities redefines the way people connect and interact with each other. However, social media is reported being misused in different ways, especially the millennials. There is a need to elevate the teens' level of empowerment on the responsible use of social media. Other technological innovations like augmented reality (AR) and digital gamification provides pedagogical benefits. Digital gamification in the classroom is a teaching strategy that translates content and delivery into a game using digital technology. On the other hand, AR is an emerging technology to enlarge real-life situations in multimedia. Research shows both technologies increase interactivity well as attention span among the learners. Additionally, these technologies, including social media, are among the many useful tools in teaching twenty first century learners once correctly used. With this, a game-based mobile application was developed to advocate responsible use of social media among teens. The learning content was gamified in augmented reality to provide an innovative teaching and learning way at Silliman University. This paper describes the gamification design of the learning trail on the topic of responsible use of social media. Specifically, it presents the publishing process of the augmented reality mobile application about responsible use of social media. Kuhlmann's 3C Model (Challenge, Choices, Consequences) was utilized to formulate the learning content. It also demonstrates the design phases, game mechanics, and the general evaluation of the learning application. Four challenges were developed. These are (a) be familiar with security and privacy policies, (b) do not express concerns about others, even if you think you are anonymous, (c) respond to digital offenders, (d) do not tell the world about an upcoming vacation. These challenges were translated into graphics and animations. The animated material was compiled, programmed, and published to a server of the mobile application. The gamified learning trail on responsible use of social media is accessible through QR codes leading to the augmented reality interface. The design was validated and found to be relevant and engaging.

Silhouettes from Real Objects Enable Realistic Interactions with a Virtual Human in Mobile Augmented Reality

Realistic interactions with real objects (e.g., animals, toys, robots) in an augmented reality (AR) environment enhances the user experience. The common AR apps on the market achieve realistic interactions by superimposing pre-modeled virtual proxies on the real objects in the AR environment. This way user perceives the interaction with virtual proxies as interaction with real objects. However, catering to environment change, shape deformation, and view update is not a trivial task. Our proposed method uses the dynamic silhouette of a real object to enable realistic interactions. Our approach is practical, lightweight, and requires no additional hardware besides the device camera. For a case study, we designed a mobile AR application to interact with real animal dolls. Our scenario included a virtual human performing four types of realistic interactions. Results demonstrated our method’s stability that does not require pre-modeled virtual proxies in case of shape deformation and view update. We also conducted a pilot study using our approach and reported significant improvements in user perception of spatial awareness and presence for realistic interactions with a virtual human.

Development of a Mobile Augmented Reality Application using Cultural Products

Development of a Mobile Augmented Reality Application using Cultural Products

Mobile Augmented Reality (mAR) blended learning application in animal cells learning

This paper develops the Augmented Reality (mAR) mobile application by combining augmented reality with mobile learning to exploit the characteristics of both elements using a blended learning approach, augmented mobile application (mAR) is designed to teach the structure and function of animal cells by combining virtual and real environments. The main contribution of this research is to enhance students learning experiences on animal cell material.

Mobile Augmented Reality Heritage Applications: Meeting the Needs of Heritage Tourists

As competition intensifies, value co-creation with tourists is essential for successful implementation of mobile augmented reality (AR) heritage applications. This study therefore aims to identify heritage tourists’ needs and involvement when developing mobile AR heritage applications using a grounded theory approach. Since AR applications are still in their infancy in the tourism industry the grounded theory approach was employed. Fifty in-depth interviews were conducted in Macau’s World Heritage Sites. The interview transcripts were analyzed by the open coding method with the NVivo software, the process of axial coding and the selective coding method. This study generated new requirements for mobile AR heritage applications that reflect the needs of the Asian tourist market, which are different from those of the European tourist market. The characteristic of tourist empowerment and the association between co-creation and tourism were also identified. This study contributes to provide a theoretical framework for designing mobile AR heritage applications and has implications for mobile AR application developers and tourism practitioners.

Learning jawi using multi-maker augmented reality

This paper discussed the development of multi-maker Augmented Reality for learning Jawi in order to complement the formal study in school. We conducted an experiment with N=10 participants from Pusat Minda Lestari, UMS age 5 and 6 years old, to study the effectiveness of learning Jawi using the developed mobile augmented reality application. We prepared a test environment comprising an EEG system and mobile AR application for analysis and testing. Results found that the learnability of the students were improved after they used the mobile application to learn basic Jawi. The methodology used was ADDIE Model, which included the Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluate phases. This project is an innovation in learning Jawi and hopefully can increase the children’s interest in learning Jawi.

Augmented reality in smart retailing: A (n) (A) Symmetric Approach to continuous intention to use retail brands’ mobile AR apps

Smart retailing has recently emerged as a new form of retail brand management enabled by novel technologies such as mobile augmented reality applications, to create better experience and value for customers. Augmented reality has also received significant attention as a growing field in marketing theory and practice. However, there is a limited understanding on how and why customer interactions with an augmented reality app can result in positive customer benefit perception, engagement and behavioural consequences. This study examines the chain of effects from AR attributes on the building blocks of continuous intention to use a shopping AR app and to pay a price premium, by incorporating the roles of a customer's benefits perception, psychological inspiration and engagement via a(n) (A)Symmetric Approach. The results support all direct hypothesised relationships among the variables, except the relationship between interactivity and utilitarian benefits, which was found to be insignificant. The study further demonstrates the moderating role of AR customisation in the proposed model, and reveals that the impact of utilitarian and hedonic benefits on shopping AR application engagement is non-linear. Non-linearity also transpires in the impact of psychological inspiration on willingness to pay price premium. Interestingly, the findings indicate that augmented reality customisation to some extent enhances the relationships in the hypothesised model.

3D Curve Creation on and Around Physical Objects With Mobile AR.

The recent advance in motion tracking (e.g., Visual Inertial Odometry) allows the use of a mobile phone as a 3D pen, thus significantly benefiting various mobile Augmented Reality (AR) applications based on 3D curve creation. However, when creating 3D curves on and around physical objects with mobile AR, tracking might be less robust or even lost due to camera occlusion or textureless scenes. This motivates us to study how to achieve natural interaction with minimum tracking errors during close interaction between a mobile phone and physical objects. To this end, we contribute an elicitation study on input point and phone grip, and a quantitative study on tracking errors. Based on the results, we present a system for direct 3D drawing with an AR-enabled mobile phone as a 3D pen, and interactive correction of 3D curves with tracking errors in mobile AR. We demonstrate the usefulness and effectiveness of our system for two applications: in-situ 3D drawing, and direct 3D measurement.

Çocuk Cerrahisi için Ayna Dünya Simülasyonu

Objective: To create contents that allow students to be experienced in 3D with 360-degree video and 3-dimensional scenes in a real environment for student/assistant training and distance online medicine education. Method: The 360 degree video recordings were made with Samsung Gear 360 in three different areas: Classroom, Operating Room and Case Meeting in the medical school. A 3D scene was designed with Autodesk 3dsMax. 360-degree videos and 3D scene were combined in Unity program. The Augmented Reality (AR) application was developed within the Unity and the mobile application was tested by different users. AR experience is now available with the mobile application. Results: As part of this study, three 360-degree videos were recorded and the augmented reality mobile application was developed. Conclusion: In this study, the pilot study was completed by producing content with 360-degree videos and augmented reality technology for use in medical education. We plan to investigate the eficacy of these mirror world contents to medical education with further studies.

A Survey on Mobile Augmented Reality With 5G Mobile Edge Computing: Architectures, Applications, and Technical Aspects

The Augmented Reality (AR) technology enhances the human perception of the world by combining the real environment with the virtual space. With the explosive growth of powerful, less expensive mobile devices, and the emergence of sophisticated communication infrastructure, Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR) applications are gaining increased popularity. MAR allows users to run AR applications on mobile devices with greater mobility and at a lower cost. The emerging 5G communication technologies act as critical enablers for future MAR applications to achieve ultra-low latency and extremely high data rates while Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) brings enhanced computational power closer to the users to complement MAR. This paper extensively discusses the landscape of MAR through the past and its future prospects with respect to the 5G systems and complementary technology MEC. The paper especially provides an informative analysis of the network formation of current and future MAR systems in terms of cloud, edge, localized, and hybrid architectural options. The paper discusses key application areas for MAR and their future with the advent of 5G technologies. The paper also discusses the requirements and limitations of MAR technical aspects such as communication, mobility management, energy management, service offloading and migration, security, and privacy and analyzes the role of 5G technologies.

Creative Industries: Challenges and Opportunities in XR Technologies

The paper aims to point out current challenges and opportunities in extended reality (XR) technologies that cover augmented, mixed and virtual reality (AR, MR, VR) within the frame of creative and related industries and current technological progress particularly based on the results of primary research. While the XR technologies struggle with limitations of the proper research on one side, multiple research projects including this one, have shown significant acceptance and potential of the XR technologies, especially in the ongoing digital era accelerated by the COVID-19 situation. The research presented in this paper was held with the small groups of artists in France who had opportunity to test the augmented reality mobile application on artworks from various artists. This and other cited research projects show that the acceptance rate of the XR technologies by the informed audience strongly predominates over its penetration in such population which can be interpreted as significant market opportunity. This milieu has strong impact on the democratization of the XR industry in the recent years with substantial investments by business sector. Meanwhile these technologies have become powerful enough to raise serious concern of their impact on ethical issues, social distancing and other related topics.

Expert Review on Mobile Augmented Reality Applications for Language Learning

Many mobile applications that can increase user engagement and promote self-learning have been developed to date. Nevertheless, mobile applications specific to Malay language learning for non-native speakers with relevant materials are still lacking. Moreover, expert reviews are needed to identify usability issues and check whether such applications can meet the learning goal with relevant materials features. This study developed an augmented reality (AR)-based mobile application called RakanBM for learning the Malay language (i.e. the language officially spoken in Malaysia), and then performed an expert review on the application contents, text presentations, learning outcomes, assessments, effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. The expert review was conducted by a panel of six experts from two specific fields, namely the Malay language and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), using methods such as cognitive walkthrough (CW), semi-structured interviews, think-aloud protocols, and survey. The results from CW, semi-structured interviews, think-aloud protocols shows that enhancement was needed on user interface and user experience in term of aesthetic and interactivity. The survey results were classified into two levels: high (mean > 4.0) and satisfied (mean > 3.5). Application factors that were recorded as satisfied were the application contents, text presentations, and satisfaction, while the factors recorded as high were the learning outcomes, assessments, effectiveness, and efficiency. The comments or suggestions for improvement were mainly around the contents of the application. Nevertheless, the application received good comments on its usefulness and the topics covered, which were suitable and best for non-native speakers. The findings of this study can guide developers and researchers in the development of future applications that can support language learning for non-native speakers in particular.

Kültürel Mirasın Etkileşimli Keşfi İçin Mobil Artırılmış Gerçeklik ve Web Tabanlı Görselleştirme Teknolojilerinin Kullanılması: Sfenks Heykeli Örneği

Kültürel mirasın korunması, dijital dokümantasyonu ve sürdürülebilir bir anlayışla gelecek nesillere aktarılması uluslararası toplumların önceliklerinden biri haline gelmiştir. Fotogrametri tekniği kültürel mirasın dijital dokümantasyonunda başarıyla kullanılmıştır. Fotogrametri, dijitalleştirme, 3 boyutlu (3B) modelleme, görselleştirme ve simülasyon alanındaki son gelişmeler, dijital kültürel mirasın daha geniş yelpazede erişilebilirliği için yeni fırsatlar sunmaktadır. Fotogrametri, artırılmış gerçeklik (AG) ve web tabanlı görselleştirmenin kombinasyonu, kültürel mirasın etkileşimli sunumu için büyük bir potansiyele sahiptir. Bu çalışmada, fotogrametrik modellere dayalı mobil AG ve web tabanlı görselleştirme uygulamaları için bir iş akışı geliştirerek kültürel miras bağlamında sanal, interaktif ve sürükleyici bir deneyim oluşturulması amaçlanmıştır. Önerilen iş akışı, Kütahya Arkeoloji Müzesi’nde sergilenen Sfenks Heykeline uygulanmıştır. Fotogrametrik yöntem ile elde edilen 3B model optimize edilerek, AG ve web tabanlı görselleştirme uygulamaları için hazırlanmıştır. Çalışmanın sonuçları, AG, web tabanlı görselleştirme ve fotogrametri sinerjisinin kültürel mirasın etkileşimli olarak sunumu için büyük bir imkân sağladığını doğrulamıştır. Çalışmada tanımlanan araştırma çizgileri daha kapsayıcı kültürel miras ortamları oluşturmak daha keyifli ve zenginleştirici turizm deneyimi sağlamak amacıyla yeni fırsatlar sunmaktadır.