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Haptics technology in Educational Applications - nike_j2k - 08-16-2017 Haptics technology in Educational Applications, a Case Study [attachment=127] Abstract In this paper we study and introduce some ideas of applying Haptics technology in the field of Education. We argue that Haptics technology of virtually touching and feeling objects and forces, enhances the existing methods and procedures of teaching and learning and it is a valuable tool for pupils and students to apprehend certain aspects of knowledge. The effectiveness of Educational applications concerning school age children can be enhanced by the immersion that Haptics technology provides. During the proposed Haptics applications, children are able to experience nature laws, shapes and behaviours, using special input devices, like Gloves, Force-Feedback devices, etc. The objects that appear visually on the screen also exist physically in a virtual way in order to provide the impression that they can be touched and manipulated as if they were real objects. Integrating and using the haptic metaphor in the learning procedure, children better comprehend ideas concerning several subjects of Science, such as the Newtonian laws, space phenomena and mechanics assembly Introduction Background In the recent years, education has been influenced by technology evolution in several ways. Informatics has offered various tools and methodologies that led in applications with visual or acoustical interaction. Picture and motion aided in the apprehension of the Physic World and helped students acquire a better image of certain chapters of Science. It appears that there is a difficulty in understanding certain aspects of the Physic World because more than vision and hearing is required in order to fully perceive the physic phenomena and the laws that rule them. It is hard for a teacher to efficiently explain the fact that different planets have different gravity fields where different forces are applied on the objects or the Solar bodies that surround them. It is not easy, at least in our days, to leave the Earth and travel in the Solar system! Moreover, it is also very time consuming and expensive to bring students in front of certain mechanical constructions, like watermills and devices like differential gears, and allow them to study their function [2]. Learning procedures Throughout history, Education has evolved and new teaching methods have been acquired in order to improve the learning procedures. It has never been a static field but always tries to adapt the current cultural and technological status, and the intellectual requirements of society. One of the most important questions has always been how to make students participate in the learning procedures. Actually there are two ways of participating in the Learning Procedure, the Passive way and the Active way [1]. The Passive way of learning procedure is to obtain knowledge without interacting with the media that offers it. One such way is by reading books, where the student accepts the knowledge but has limited ways to test if he has fully perceived it. In the Passive way students read / listen / view but do not experience, and that leads to a low level of perception for part of the Physic World. Moreover, most of us have noticed the decreased interest and enthusiasm that most of participants have during the above procedure. The Active way of learning procedure is to gain knowledge by participating, investigating the physical scene and manipulating its elements. One of the first active ways of Learning Procedure has been the experiments performed at school, providing students with the ability to acquire practical knowledge that plays a great deal in cognition of science. In the last years several multimedia and on- line applications have been released allowing children to study Scientific issues. There are commercial applications concerning Physics and Chemistry, containing images, sounds, videos and animations that describe several phenomena and allow children to participate, interact and play with the content while gaining knowledge. In the Active way of learning, students experience the principles that rule nature in a more focused way and it becomes apparent almost instantly whether they have understood the theory that describes the Physic world correctly or erroneously. Haptics Technology Haptics involves the modality of touch and the sensation of shape and texture the user feels when virtually 'touching' an object. It is related and connected to Force feedback, which is the sense of force effects to the user hand and to Tactile feedback that is the sense of contours and surfaces on part of the hand (usually on fingertips). Haptic Applications allow people to interact with the sense of touch, along with visual and acoustic representations of objects and scenes. A Haptic Application requires a Haptic Interface Device through which the user interacts with the application. Haptic Interfaces, being developed as commercial devices, include: Force-feedback Joysticks The first commercial products with some elementary application of Haptics are the Force-Feedback Joysticks that provide the user with the sense of force effects (basically shaking ) while playing, known as force feedback. Logitech (Figure 1)[5] and Microsoft [4] have already produced such devices that come in prices proper for home usage and are games-oriented. They enhance the experience of playing video games by applying forces and vibrations on the user s hand, providing feedback from the game-application depending on its kind. E.g. by pressing a gun s trigger in a First Person Shooter game, the user feels the vibrations coming from the gun s firing. Working with the certain APIs one can build other than game applications that take advantage of these devices capabilities. |