Wednesday, December 5, 2018

AR

Augmented reality is different from virtual reality in one key way - it incorporates the technology into the existing environment.  The best example and probably the most famous is Pokemon Go, where people were "catching" Pokemons with their phones and on a map, it said there were Pokemon all around the city, but they really just used the app and the phone's location to simulate this environment.

Teachers are beginning to use augmented reality in the classroom to further allow students to simulate and explore 3D models, whether they are of the solar system, the skull, or an aquarium.  Some great resources for this purpose include the Merge Cube and the CoSpaces app.


The Merge Cube is an inexpensive foam block that can be purchased on Amazon.  I also found this printable one here.  I have one as well so if you are interested in using it, just let me know.

Image result for merge cube

For further reading, check out this article with apps that can be used with the Merge Cube for AR and VR.