Using augmented reality to train students to visualize three-dimensional drawings of mortise–tenon joints in furniture carpentry

ABSTRACT

Furniture carpentry uses spatial structure and geometry, e.g. mortise–tenon joints, which require cognitive judgments of hidden views and spatial understanding. For the furniture carpentry novice, the idea of spatial geometry in the mortise–tenon joint is difficult to understand because furniture carpentry drawings are usually two-dimensional (2-D) graphics. A great deal of cognitive effort and furniture design drawing practice is required to accurately visualize these 2-D objects as three-dimensional (3-D). Novices unfamiliar with 3-D spatial concepts often make mortise–tenon joint errors when making furniture. Augmented reality (AR) has helped train carpentry novices to understand the conceptual manifestations of 3-D space. In this study, we recruited 40 freshmen for a basic general carpentry class with an Experimental (n = 20) and a Control (n = 20) group. Both groups were asked to make, using their hands and a wood saw, mortise–tenon joints at three levels of difficulty: preliminary, mid-level, and advanced. The Experimental group was given AR training; the Control group was not. After the three phases had been completed, we found that the AR training helped Experimental group students improve their 3-D visualization and indirectly improved their grasp of furniture carpentry skills and of the complicated mortise–tenon joint structure.

KEYWORDS:

• Augmented reality
• spatial skills
• interactive learning environments
• implicit structure
• vocational education and training
• 2-D to 3-D transition

Acknowledgements

The author wish to thank various people for their contribution to this project and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments; I would also like to express my deep gratitude to Professor Ten-Li Chen and Mr. Ting-Chun Hsu, for their patient guidance, enthusiastic encouragement and useful critiques of this research work. Finally, I would also like to extend my thanks to the technicians of the Industrial Design department for their help in offering me the resources in running the program.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Dr I-Jui Lee is assistant professor in the Department of Industrial Design, National Taipei University of Technology, Taiwan. His research interests focus on Ergonomic and Interaction Design supported workplace based learning.