A Comparative Study of Single Maker Based and Multiple Touch Functions for Visualizing Engineering Contents

Abstract

Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that enables the users to visualize and interact with 3D virtual objects, which are digitally processed and augmented in real time environments. The use of AR in education has a wide potential of providing learners with a new experience and challenges in learning, especially in the learning of kinesthetic and dynamics subjects such as Mechanical Engineering. AR uses a ``marker'' which is a tangible mechanism to interact with the digital contents. However the problem for visualizing becomes limited as the user needs to focus more on the marker rather than the digital contents. To improve this problem, we designed a dynamic simulation software tool that allows the user to interact using multiple interactive functions on a single paper for a four-bar linkageFour-Bar Linkages (4BL)mechanisms (4BL) problem. A preliminary test of the new user interface found that users could focus more on the contents rather than the interaction mechanism. The results and a discussion on the comparative of marker based and multiple touch functions are provided in this paper.