TRACK 9. A world of digital competences: mobile apps, e-citizenship and computacional systems as learning tools Authors: Jorge Joo, José Rafael García-Bermejo and Fernando Martínez-Abad https://youtu.be/uZdyJaVpM48

1. Augmented Reality Sandbox:
a platform for educative experiences
Sergio Álvarez Laura Delgado Camilo Ruíz
seralsa@usal.es laura@usal.es camilo@usal.es
M. Ángel Gimeno Teresa Martín Fernando Almaraz
gimeno@usal.es teresam@usal.es falmaraz@usal.es

2. AR SANDBOX
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3. Introduction
The Augmented Reality Sandbox as a platform for educative
experiences.
The project from three points of view
• Technical
- Hardware and Software
- Alignment and calibration
• Institutional and nancial
- Medialab USAL
• Educational
- Interdisciplinary
- AR in Education
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4. Augmented Reality Experiences
Add a virtual layer of information by computer-generated sensory inputs
Figure 1: Pokemon Go: The
interface is the screen of the
mobile device
Figure 2: AR Sandbox: Here the
interface is real sand
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5. AR Sandbox at Universidad de Salamanca
AR Sandbox. What? Why?
• The original idea was developed by Oliver
Kreylos at UC Davis.
• Several installations of this kind have been
made in institutions and science museums
around the world
• The AR Sandbox was conceived as a Master
thesis in the MSc in Teaching Education
(Secondary) with Qualied Teacher Status
(QTS) at the Universidad de Salamanca.
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6. AR Sandbox: How does it works?
Figure 3: Schematics of the AR
Sandbox. The Kinetic camera reads
the surface while the beamer add the
virtual digital layer
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7. Viability
The AR sandbox has several advantages for its implementation:
1. Cheap and accessible hardware: The kinetic is a sensor sold with
the Xbox videoconsole that is cheap and aordable. The beamer
needs some specications but any general-purpose beamer can be
used for the project.
2. Open software: the full software for the installation is open source
which means there is no fee or payment to use it and the most
important thing is that the code is open and therefore can be
modied to the needs of the user.
3. A community around it. As the installation has been performed in
several places, a community has been created which is helpful to
obtain resources and help the installation. Also, the community
improves the software and implementation constantly to produce a
better experience
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8. MEDIALAB USAL
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9. Adventages of the AR for the teaching of the science
Methods of teaching with AR have demonstrated to help in the teaching
of complex science or mathematical subjects.
One interesting application of this AR Sandbox is the illustration of
mathematical abstract concepts such as topographic maps and contour
lines.
• The AR Sandbox is a perfect
implementation of this
concept. Varying the surface
on the sand, the student can
observe that this denition is
general and how this concept
of isosurface or contour line
evolves as the surface changes.
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10. Natural Science Contents
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11. Thank you for your
attention
Sergio Álvarez Sánchez
Facultad de Educación
Universidad de Salamanca
seralsa@usal.es
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