Design and validation of an augmented book for spatial abilities development in engineering students

This paper presents an application of augmented reality for improving spatial abilities of engineering students. An augmented book called AR-Dehaes has been designed to provide 3D virtual models that help students to perform visualization tasks to promote the development of their spatial ability during a short remedial course. A validation study with 24 Mechanical Engineering freshmen at La Laguna University (Spain) has concluded that the training had a measurable and positive impact on students' spatial ability. On the other hand, results obtained using a satisfaction questionnaire illustrate that AR-Dehaes is considered an easy to use, attractive, and very useful technique for students. AR-Dehaes has proved to be a very cost-effective tool insofar as it only required an ordinary PC with a webcam to be used.

[1]  Dieter Schmalstieg,et al.  Mathematics and geometry education with collaborative augmented reality , 2003, Comput. Graph..

[2]  T. R. Black,et al.  Attitudes towards sketching and drawing and the relationship with spatial visualisation ability in engineering students , 2002 .

[3]  María Teresa Pérez Carrión,et al.  Ejercicios para el desarrollo de la percepción espacial , 1998 .

[4]  Manuel Contero,et al.  Development of a Fast Remedial Course to Improve the Spatial Abilities of Engineering Students , 2008 .

[5]  T. Lord.  Enhancing the visuo‐spatial aptitude of students , 1985 .

[6]  Ivan Poupyrev,et al.  The MagicBook - Moving Seamlessly between Reality and Virtuality , 2001, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.

[7]  C. Adcock,et al.  Primary Mental Abilities. , 1971, The Journal of general psychology.

[8]  James L. Mohler.  STUDENT UNDERSTANDING OF SPATIALLY-DEPENDENT ENGINEERING CONCEPTS , 2001 .

[9]  Beat Signer,et al.  Using paper to support collaboration in educational activities , 2005 .

[10]  Nathan W. Hartman,et al.  Virtual reality-based spatial skills assessment and its role in computer graphics education , 2006, SIGGRAPH '06.

[11]  Manuel Contero,et al.  Improving visualization skills in engineering education , 2005, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.

[12]  Tun Hussein,et al.  Effect of Instructions on Spatial Visualisation Ability in Civil Engineering Students , 2002 .

[13]  Fumio Kishino,et al.  Augmented reality: a class of displays on the reality-virtuality continuum , 1995, Other Conferences.

[14]  C. Potter,et al.  Perception, imagery, visualization and engineering graphics , 2003 .

[15]  Rosa María Baños,et al.  Immersion and Emotion: Their Impact on the Sense of Presence , 2004, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[16]  Azniah Ismail,et al.  On Improving Spatial Ability Through Computer-Mediated Engineering Drawing Instruction , 2006, J. Educ. Technol. Soc..

[17]  P. Milgram,et al.  A Taxonomy of Mixed Reality Visual Displays , 1994 .

[18]  R. Shepard,et al.  Mental Rotation of Three-Dimensional Objects , 1971, Science.

[19]  Ferran Naya,et al.  Learning Support Tools for Developing Spatial Abilities in Engineering Design , 2006 .

[20]  Jianping Yue,et al.  Does Cad Improve Spatial Visualization Ability , 2001 .

[21]  Sheryl A. Sorby,et al.  Developing 3-D Spatial Visualization Skills. , 1999 .

[22]  Ronald R. Schmeck,et al.  Individual differences in cognition , 1983 .

[23]  T. Pintaric,et al.  An adaptive thresholding algorithm for the augmented reality toolkit , 2003, 2003 IEEE International Augmented Reality Toolkit Workshop.

[24]  Ronald Azuma,et al.  A survey of augmented reality" Presence: Teleoperators and virtual environments , 1997 .

[25]  Maria del Carmen Juan Lizandra,et al.  An Augmented Reality System for Learning the Interior of the Human Body , 2008, 2008 Eighth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies.

[26]  Ronald Azuma,et al.  A Survey of Augmented Reality , 1997, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[27]  Bülent Güven,et al.  The Effect of Dynamic Geometry Software on Student Mathematics Teachers' Spatial Visualization Skills. , 2008 .

[28]  Valerie J. Shute,et al.  Understanding spatial ability , 1984 .

[29]  J. J. Moré,et al.  Levenberg--Marquardt algorithm: implementation and theory , 1977 .

[30]  A. Wesman.  The DIFFERENTIAL APTITUDE Tests , 1952 .

[31]  Mark Fiala,et al.  ARTag, a fiducial marker system using digital techniques , 2005, 2005 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR'05).

[32]  Zhengyou Zhang,et al.  A Flexible New Technique for Camera Calibration , 2000, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell..

[33]  Jack M. Loomis,et al.  Virtual Environments and the Enhancement of Spatial Behavior: Towards a Comprehensive Research Agenda , 2000, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[34]  Dieter Schmalstieg,et al.  The Studierstube Augmented Reality Project , 2002, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[35]  M. Linn,et al.  Emergence and characterization of sex differences in spatial ability: a meta-analysis. , 1985, Child development.

[36]  S. Vandenberg,et al.  Mental Rotations, a Group Test of Three-Dimensional Spatial Visualization , 1978, Perceptual and motor skills.

[37]  Rosa María Baños,et al.  Presence and Emotions in Virtual Environments: The Influence of Stereoscopy , 2008, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[38]  Angela Dias Velasco,et al.  Predicting Academic Success of Engineering Students in Technical Drawing from Visualization Test Scores , 2002 .

[39]  Mary P. Truxaw,et al.  Effects of Spatial Ability and Instructional Program on Geometry Achievement , 2008 .

[40]  C. Geiser,et al.  The relationship between computer-game preference, gender, and mental-rotation ability , 2006 .

[41]  Andreas Dünser,et al.  Virtual and augmented reality as spatial ability training tools , 2006, CHINZ '06.

[42]  J. Pratt,et al.  Playing an Action Video Game Reduces Gender Differences in Spatial Cognition , 2007, Psychological science.

[43]  M. Turcsányi-Szabó,et al.  Augmented Reality in Education , 2018, Handbook of Mobile Teaching and Learning.

[44]  Hannes Kaufmann,et al.  General Training of Spatial Abilities by Geometry Education in Augmented Reality , 2006 .

[45]  M. Rosa,et al.  Presence and emotions in virtual environments: the influence of stereoscopy. , 2008 .

[46]  Mazlan Mahadzir,et al.  Improving spatial ability using a Web-based Virtual Environment (WbVE) , 2005 .

[47]  Giuseppe Conti,et al.  Learning Using Augmented Reality Technology: Multiple Means of Interaction for Teaching Children the Theory of Colours , 2005, INTETAIN.

[48]  Stephen Crown,et al.  Improving Visualization Skills of Engineering Graphics Students Using Simple JavaScript Web Based Games , 2001 .

[49]  S. Olkun.  Making connections: improving spatial abilities with engineering drawing activities , 2003 .