Abstract:

This research paper is grounded in the fields of architecture and technology and revolves around the creation of an immersive educational environment beyond the computer screen. The Hybrid Environmental Projection Platform is a collapsible, transportable installation that supports open-ended educational opportunities and challenges through interactive projection-based systems upon a 270 degrees surrounding screen. It is a user-centered installation that facilitates meaningful learning experiences for the students as well as for the teachers by connecting physical input measured with sensors to a visual output delivered by content-creation and image-layering design. It is a powerful interactive medium, much like a “gearless VR system” that can virtually “teleport” a whole group into any projected environment, by blurring the perceived limits of the classroom’s environment. The objective is to help the pupils feel another place’s “genious loci” rather than simply learn facts by heart. The novelty in this approach is the possibility of visually layering, inside the classroom space, the information pertained to the projected material, by deconstructing its context and re-constructing it spatially into active and passive environmental layers of varying educational importance. All the iterations of the prototypes have been tested with a variety of audiences. The first HEPP versions were designed to support tele-presence in the typical classroom. The latest version has evolved, both design-wise as well as technology-wise to support all kinds of learning activities, ranging from school education to context-based training. It includes a completely new interactive software that utilizes sensors like Kinect v.02 and Leap Motion in order to create a fully immersive user-experience. In addition, the prototype platform setting was designed from scratch, focusing on low-cost portability and adaptability. The next step of the project is to examine the degree in which HEPP, both as a platform as well as projected material, can increase the users’ capacity to understand and remember the content of the projections.

Keywords:

Interactive educational tool, augmented reality, visual layering, immersive learning environments, hybrid environmental projections.