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ABSTRACT
Advanced displays and natural user interfaces (NUI) are a very suitable combination for developing systems to provide an enhanced and richer user experience. This combination can be appropriate in several fields and has not been extensively exploited. One of the fields that this combination is especially suitable for is education. Nowadays, children are growing up playing with computer games, using mobile devices, and other technological devices. New learning methods that use these new technologies can help in the learning process. In this paper, two new methods that use advanced displays and NUI for learning about a period of history are presented. One of the methods is an autostereoscopic system that lets children see themselves as a background in the game and renders the elements in 3D without the need for special glasses; the second method is a frontal projection system that projects the image on a table in 2D and works similarly to a touch table. The Microsoft Kinect© is used in both systems for the interaction. A comparative study to check different aspects was carried out. A total of 128 children from 7 to 11 years old participated in the study. From the results, we observed that the different characteristics of the systems did not influence the children's acquired knowledge, engagement, or satisfaction. There were statistically significant differences for depth perception and presence in which the autostereoscopic system was scored higher. However, of the two systems, the children considered the frontal projection to be easier to use. We would like to highlight that the scores for the two systems and for all the questions were very high. These results suggest that games of this kind (advanced displays and NUI) could be appropriate educational games and that autostereoscopy is a technology to exploit in their development.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the following for their contributions: The “Escola d’Estiu” and especially Juan Cano, Miguelón Giménez, and Javier Irimia. The other two Summer Schools that participated in this study. This work would not have been possible without their collaboration. Ignacio Seguí, Noemí Rando, Encarna Torres, Sonia, Juan Martínez, José Antonio Gil, and M. José Vicent for their help. The children’s parents who signed the agreement to allow their children to participate in the study. The children who participated in the study. The ETSInf for letting us use its facilities during the testing phase. The reviewers for their valuable comments.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on Contributors
Juan-Fernando Martín-SanJosé received his M.Sc. degree in Computer Science in 2013, and from this year he has been working as a researcher in the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV). In 2015, he received his Ph.D. degree from the UPV. He also collaborated as a visiting student in Politechnika Wrocławska (Poland) and Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal). His research interests are: Computer Graphics, advanced user interfaces and their application to education.
M.-Carmen Juan is Full Professor at the UPV. From 1996 she has been lectured at the UPV. She received her M.Sc. Degree in Computer Science in 1994, and from this year she has been working as a researcher in the UPV. In 2000, she received her Ph.D. degree from the UPV. Her research interests have been mainly: Computer Graphics, specifically Augmented Reality, advanced user interfaces and their application to education, medicine and psychology.
Ramón Mollá received his M.Sc. degree in Computer Science in 1993. He is Associate Professor and researcher at the UPV. He was a Lecturer and obtained his Ph.D. in 2000. His research interests are: Computer Graphics, especially, video games, real-time graphic applications and simulation.
Roberto Vivó is full professor at the UPV. He has been involved in computer graphics research and development in Spain leading the Computer Graphics Group at UPV since 1986, when he received his M.Sc. degree in Industrial Engineering. In 1992, he received his Ph.D. degree from the UPV. His research interests have been mainly Computer Graphics, specifically Graphical Simulation of Industrial Processes, Light Transport Modelling and Natural Scenes Rendering.
