Augmented Reality Books: An Immersive Approach to Learning
Abstract
Learning from books is a very mundane and passive process. The user has to do all the learning merely with the help of a static text, which makes the learning process tedious and tiring. More importantly, there are no means for the user to learn more about unknown concepts or jargons given in those books. In spite of these pitfalls, most of the education systems today are based on learning from these stale books. In this paper, the authors present a unique solution that uses augmented reality to make the learning process more interactive and interesting. A system is developed for the students wherein they have to just hover a camera over the text or image present in the book. In turn, the system shows the related graphical data augmented over the identified text or image. The system helps the students learn new concepts by simply using a smartphone and the intended book. Apart from the usage in education, it can also be used in the field of advertisement, medicine, gaming and entertainment.
Overview
This paper presents an augmented reality system that transforms traditional textbooks into interactive learning experiences. Students hover their smartphone camera over a page and the system overlays related 3D models, videos, or explanations directly on the identified content — no typing or searching required.
The system supports both image recognition (marker-less, using Vuforia feature points) and text recognition (printed English words matched against a word list), making it work with a wide range of textbook content.
System Architecture
A 2-tier client-server architecture keeps the mobile app lightweight. The client handles camera input, autofocus, and content tracking, while the server stores image targets and maps them to corresponding 3D models or videos.
Results
The system demonstrates three core augmentation capabilities:
3D Model Augmentation — When the camera identifies a keyword like “Ceramic Resistors”, a 3D model of the component is rendered directly over the text.
Video Augmentation — Hovering over an image target plays an explanatory video with full playback controls.
Interactive Learning — The fully deployed system running on a smartphone, augmenting a 3D resistor model on identified text in a real textbook.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{mehta2017augmented,
title={Augmented Reality Books: An Immersive Approach to Learning},
author={Mehta, Soham and Jain, Pratish and Vora, Aayushi and Joshi, Abhijit and Dalvi, Harshal},
booktitle={8th International Conference on Computing, Communication, Control and Automation (ICCUBEA)},
year={2017}
}