Teaching Spatial Augmented Reality: a Practical Assignment for Large Audiences

Abstract

We present a new methodology to teach spatial augmented reality in a practical assignment to large audiences. Our approach does not require specific equipment such as video projectors while teaching the principal topics and difficulties involved in spatial augmented reality applications, and especially calibration and tracking. The key idea is to set up a scene graph consisting of a 3D scene with a simulated projector that "projects" content onto a virtual representation of the real-world object. For illustrating the calibration, we simplify the intrinsic parameters to using the field of view, both for the camera and the projector. For illustrating the tracking, instead of relying on specific hardware or software, we exploit the relative transformations in the scene graph. We implemented our teaching methodology in Unity3D and tested it within a three-hour assignment to 24 and 20 master-level students in two consecutive years. We show the positive feedback that we received and discuss our plans for further improvement.