The AR Reading Lamp - augmenting paper-based reading

The AR Reading Lamp - augmenting paper-based reading

Hermsen, P.E.H.

Pasman, G.J. (mentor)
Van Mourik, F. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Industrial Design

Integrated Product Design

2012-04-04

Waag Society is in institute for art, science and technology that tries to bridge the gap between upcoming technologies, society and art. Waag Society is a non-profit organisation which is is only marginally subsidised. Most of their budget comes forth out of project financing. By coming up with new ideas, experiments and initiatives different investors and authorities see opportunities for society and finance their projects. Early 2010 the Creative Learning Lab (CLL), Waag Society’s educational branch, started the AR Lens Lamp project. One of the developers posed the idea of a magnifying lamp – a lens lamp - that replaces the magnification with augmentation. CLL then adopted the idea and analyzed it for the opportunities in education. They came up with an interaction format that combines finger tracking, optical character recognition (OCR) and Augmented Reality. With this combination people can call for digital information based on printed texts. Once the first prototype was built, the concept received a lot of positive feedback from people in education. With this positive response CLL and Waag Society were interested in taking this project a step further and try to take it ot the market. This AR Reading Lamp project worked out the continuing steps, and upgraded the interaction format into a product format. The project started with thorough analyses on the concept, the technology and all the stakeholders. The analyses showed that there are interesting opportunities for the concept, but also revealed that the concept needs to be taken back to the drawing board. There are interesting opportunities in reading education. The Dutch government makes all kinds of budget cuts in education, except for reading education and mathematics. Schools are forced to improve their performance on these subjects and therefore receive extra budgets. The concept of the AR Lens Lamp has the ability to aid the reading skill when it is being developed, and should therefore focus on this opportunity. Especially dyslectics can benefit a lot from multisensory support during the development of their reading skill. With this clear focus, the original AR Lens Lamp concept was taken back to the drawing board. The synthesis phase investigated a diversity of means to present digital content on to printed text. The diverging process showed where the core of the concept is: the interaction with the book. With direct competitors like tablets and smart phones, the AR Lens Lamp should keep the focus on the original source: the book. This led the development of the AR Reading Lamp. The AR Reading Lamp augments paper-based reading by projecting digital information directly on to printed text. It is a device that can be hooked up to a computer or future tablets. These devices run the software. When the user reads a text and does not understand a word, he or she can simply point out that particular word and receive projected digital support. The camera - that is placed next to the projector - scans the text through OCR and registers the position of the finger with a finger tracking algorithm. When the indicated word is present in the support database the user will receive the digital support.There are different levels of support possible. Depending on the challenge (developing the reading skill, dealing with a reading disorder or simply creating more reading fun) different types of support can be provided. The first user test showed that children who are developing the reading skill, react best to animated support that establishes a visual character-sound connection. This means that the software highlights the characters that are being pronounced by the audio support. The AR Reading Lamp uses the metaphor of a reading lamp. The concept design communicates this metaphor by refering to the traditional “bankers’ light”. This type of reading light was one of the first electric lights that was specially built to serve the purpose of reading. Its characteristic shape is so strong that it is still used in current lamp designs. The AR Reading Lamp thankfully adopts this shape to house the important components and express its liability. With the deliverance of a concept design, a software architecture, the hardware setup and two prototypes this project succeeded in translating the AR Lens Lamp into the AR Reading Lamp product format. Further steps however, still need to be taken in order to take this concept toe the market. To validate the concept a new research needs to be conducted on the long-term effects of this concept. This project can also find a partner in Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) LuminAR project. This project shows quite some overlap with the AR Reading Lamp and it is interesting to see how these two projects can complement each other.

Augmented Reality
Finger Tracking
Optical Character Recognition
Spatial Augmented Reality

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:939f1a15-48a9-43f7-961e-e9b24141f619

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2012 Hermsen, P.E.H.