Education
In recent years, augmented reality is gaining increasing prominence in various areas of knowledge, showing the versatility and possibilities presented by this new technology derived from virtual reality. With AR you can identify, locate, obtain, store, organize and analyze digital information, evaluating its purpose and relevance. It is defined as an efficient resource to be able to share through open resources, such as communities and networks, thus allowing teachers and students to create new digital content. Through AR, learning can be developed more quickly by enabling an interaction enriched with knowledge associated with increased motivation on the part of the student.[27].
It is based on the possibility of inserting virtual objects in real space, which, through an interface, can be accurately displayed at real scale. In this paradigm, students become an active precursor for the development of the teaching and learning process with which they interact, increasing their motivation towards learning through educational methodologies such as gamification or edutainment.[28].
Another example of applications with augmented reality that can be very useful are those that allow you to translate the words that appear in an image. Simply take a photo of any unknown text—an advertisement, a menu, a flyer, etc.—and you get an instant translation of the same object. The process is very simple: the software identifies the letters that appear on the object and looks up the word in the dictionary. Once it finds the translation, it draws it in place of the original word. The application is ideal for those who travel a lot and need to quickly know the meaning of a word. At the moment, the program offers English - Spanish and Spanish - English translation, although its creators Otavio Good and John DeWeese indicated that the next step is the translation into other languages, such as French, Italian or Portuguese.[29].
Its application in early childhood and primary education occurs from the use of books with AR that allows contributing to the creation of enriched reading experiences, by incorporating an immersive component that structures the content in an innovative way.[30].
In secondary education, the visual detection of information quickly represents direct access to empirical knowledge in the field of this stage. In aggregate, it is presented as a communication channel, which provides immediate information about any concept, through interaction with it, generating 3D maps, which include visual layers superimposed on reality, allowing the possibility of manipulating a digital model in three dimensions in a similar way as we would do with a physical model.[31].
AR can be applied to transversal projects with the involvement of different subjects at this stage, as pointed out by the Polytechnic University of Madrid in:[32].
For all this, considering the effectiveness of the use of visual information, its use at this stage represents an enrichment of the methodological construction, favoring the teaching-learning process of the contents regardless of the area of study.[33].
In 2016, Murat Akçayır and Gokçe Akçayır used as a source of information the published literature, which deals with augmented reality in the educational field up to that point, to carry out a study about the advantages and challenges of using AR in education.[34].
[35].
The Magic Book project, belonging to the active group HIT, from New Zealand, is one of the best-known applications in augmented reality education.[36] High school students read a real book with a hand-held display and real virtual content is reflected in it.
Magic Books are also intended for the early childhood education stage, as they promote reading and improve fluency.[37].
In higher education, the FutureLab research group, made up of members from different universities, has created an augmented reality model that facilitates access to virtual reconstructions of different symbolic monuments in 3D.[38].
[40].
Tourism
[48].
Applications such as Mexico City, in the Time of ILLUTIO, have managed to take users to tour the city in its different historical periods through augmented reality and geolocation.[49].
Platforms such as Junaio or Layar allow third parties to develop applications, with virtually no technical knowledge, through their servers.[50][51].
The Austrian company Mobilizy has developed WikiTude. By pointing the mobile camera at a historic building, the GPS recognizes the location and displays information from Wikipedia about the monument. In Japan, Sekai Camera, from the company Tonchidot, adds people's comments about addresses, stores, restaurants, etc. to the real world. Acrossair, available in seven cities, including Madrid and Barcelona, identifies the closest metro station in the image. Bionic Eye and Yelp Monocle, in the US, are similar examples.[21].
[48].
Medicine
For some time now, augmented reality has begun to contribute to numerous fields in our society. This is the case of medicine, in which both computer science and its derived branches have allowed professionals in the sector to have certain tools to perform their skills quickly and effectively.[52].
One of the most popular examples is the use of augmented reality in prenatal ultrasound. 4D ultrasound allows us to see the baby in movement thanks to the accumulation of different 3D ultrasounds over time, using the same principle as cinema. Since 2016 we have found news of the latest trend, 5D ultrasound, which adds a difference in lighting and sharpness making the image more realistic. In addition, the use of virtual reality glasses has been incorporated to see the image of the baby as if we were in front of a movie screen.[53].
But perhaps the greatest advance in augmented reality in medicine is the invention of glasses that can distinguish cancer cells from healthy ones. These glasses were created at the University of Washington School of Medicine. This discovery could mark a before and after in surgical procedures to remove tumors from patients suffering from cancer, since it will significantly favor the work of surgeons.[54].
[55].
Augmented reality must have computer models of places and sounds that relate to physical reality; as well as determining the exact situation of each user and being able to show them a realistic representation of the environment that has been added virtually. It is very important to determine the exact orientation and position of the user, especially in applications that require it. One of the most important challenges when developing augmented reality projects is that the visual elements are very well coordinated with real objects, since a small orientation error can cause a perceptible misalignment between virtual and physical objects.
In very large areas, orientation sensors use magnetometers, inclinometers, inertial sensors and others, which can be seriously affected by magnetic fields and, therefore, efforts must be made to reduce this effect as much as possible. It would be interesting if an augmented reality application could locate natural elements (such as trees or rocks) that had not been previously cataloged, without the system having to have prior knowledge of the territory.
As a long-term challenge, it is possible to suggest the design of applications in which augmented reality would go a little further, what we can call feedback augmented reality, that is, that the lack of coordination resulting from the use of position/orientation sensors would be corrected by measuring the deviations between the measurements of the sensors and those of the real world. Imagine an augmented reality system that, based on pairs of stereo images obtained from two cameras on a mount on the user's head and the user's position, would be able to determine the exact position and orientation of the viewer.