Luca Simeone

Anthropological Conversations: Augmented Reality Enhanced Artifacts to Foster Education in Cultural Anthropology

This paper presents a prototype for an application based on a CMS (Content Management System) connected to an augmented-reality engine that allows final users to publish, read and experience multimedia content tied to specific components of physical artifacts. When the physical artifacts are placed under a webcam, a pre-trained 3D feature recognition system scans the entire figure trying to identify some specific components. If any of these elements are recognized, the system retrieves and shows educational content from selected sources (texts, videos, pictures). We created a first instance of this framework and applied it to the Minkisi, artifacts from Congo that are claimed to possess spiritual qualities. Studies on Minkisi play a crucial role in the history of cultural anthropology and in the current ethnographic agenda. The aim of this research project is then to create a learning tool that empowers anthropological scholars and students allowing them to publish their own content on the Minkisi and to access some of the stories that make these ethnographic artifacts alive and powerful.

Toys++ AR Embodied Agents as Tools to Learn by Building

This paper presents a prototype for an augmented-reality based toy. Toys++ is grounded on the concept that the actual activity of building tangible artifacts can speed up learning processes. Toys ++ aims at assembling a framework that will allow the use of existing physical components of the toy as triggers. When the toy is placed under the webcam, a pre-trained 3D feature recognition system scans the entire figure, trying to identify some specific components. If any of these elements are recognized, the system will retrieve and show educational content from selected sources (texts, videos, pictures).

As We May Remix: REFF Book and the Augmented Press Experience

This paper explores augmented reality as a set of technologies and processes to weave hyper medial content into printed publications thus fostering new educational practices. In particular this paper focuses on augmented reality as a bridge to extend traditional hyper mediality to paper-based educational tools, analyzing a book recently released by the Italian publisher Fake Press as a case study. The book addresses the concept of remix as a political and educational practice and is based on an extensive use of QR codes and fiduciary markers that act as triggers to retrieve and show additional content published by both authors and readers through an open CMS (Content Management System). The QR codes and the fiduciary markers work as gates to hyper medial remixes that extend the limits of traditional educational text books.