Situated Simulations

Designing a Mobile Augmented Reality Genre

Project leader: Prof. Gunnar Liestøl
gunnar.liestol@media.uio.no

The INVENTIO-project, Dept. of Media & Communication, University of Oslo, Norway

Background

A situated simulation currently requires a smartphone/tablet with substantial graphics capabilities, GPS-positioning, accelerometer, electronic compass and gyro. In a situated simulation there is approximate identity between the users visual perception of the real physical environment and the users visual perspective into a 3D graphics environment as it is represented on the screen. The relative congruity between the real and the virtual is obtained by letting the camera position and movement in the 3D environment be conditioned by the positioning and orientation hardware. As the user moves in real space the perspective inside the virtual space changes accordingly.

A situated simulation is closely related to mixed and augmented reality. While mixed reality is characterized by different combinations of virtual and real representations along the reality-virtuality continuum, a situated simulation is a 'clean screen' solution where there is a distinct (although minor) difference between the virtual perspective via the device and the real perspective of the user. Current the system is optimized for Apple's iPhone4 and iPad2 (other platforms are under consideration).

The project is developed in close collaboration with Tomas Stenarson at CodeGrind AB. The research is funded by the VERDIKT-programme, Norwegian Research Council; EngageLab at Intermedia, University of Oslo; Dept. of Media & Communication, University of Oslo; Norway Opening Universities; and Arts Council Norway (ABM-utvikling).

Sitsim App!

‘Borrehallen’ is now available for free download on Apple’s App Store!

Video DEMO

Two video demonstration of sitsims in use are available on YouTube:

Sitsim DEMO II (July 2010), and Situated Simulation DEMO (November 2009).

Publications

Liestøl, G., Rasmussen, T. and Stenarson, T. ‘Mobile Innovation: Designing & Evaluation Situated Simulations’ in Digital Creativity 2011, Vol. 22, No. 3, pp. 172–184. Abingdon: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group (2011).

Liestøl, G. ‘Situated Simulations between Virtual Reality and Mobile Augmented Reality: Designing a Narrative Space’ in B. Furht (Ed.) Handbook of Augmented Reality, Springer (2011).

Liestøl, G. 'Learning through Situated Simulations: Exploring Mobile Augmented Reality.' (Research Bulletin 1, 2011). Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, 2011 (open access, registration required)

Fredheim, H. 'Emphasized Landmarks for Mental Calibration in a Mobile Augmented Reality Application' in Kinshuk et. al. (Eds.) Proceedings of Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA 2010), IADIS Press.

Fleischer Orkelbog, V. 'Situated Simulation as a Learning Tool – Experiencing Forum Iulium with the iPhone' in Kinshuk et. al. (Eds.) Proceedings of Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA 2010), IADIS Press.

Liestøl, G and Rasmussen, T. 'In the Presence of the Past. A field trial evaluation of a situated simulation design reconstructing a viking burial scene' in Szücs, A. and Tait, A. W. (Eds.) Media Inspirations for Learning. Proceedings of EDEN 2010. Budapest: EDEN Secretariat, ℅ Budapest University of Technology an Economics 2010.

Liestøl, G. 'Situated Simulations: A Prorotyped Augmented Reality Genre for Learning on the iPhone' in International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies (iJIM), Vol 3 (2009) - Open access.

Liestøl, G. 'Augmented Reality and Digital Genre Design - Situated Simulations on the iPhone' in Proceedings of ISMAR 2009 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality - Arts, Media and Humanities. 19-22 Oct. 2009, pp 29-34.

Presentations

The project has so far been presented at the following conferences: IMCL 2009, EISTA 2009, ISMAR 2009, ICCE 2009, EDEN 2010, MLearn 2010, CELDA 2010, ScandAR 2010, WARM 2011, ScandAR 2011.