| Abstrakt: |
This work presents on the one hand, the specifications and design of an educational haptic device and an educational platform and on the other hand, the educational trial of the applications that specially constructed in order to use this advanced virtual reality system. ? new haptic device designed especially for educational purposes and a prototype were implemented, under the framework of an IST European program called MUVII. This device is called Haptic-3D-Interface (H3DI). The novelty on this device is the tactile feedback that provides minute detailed information about the nature of virtual objects handled, in addition to force and torque feedback. The device was integrated into an innovative platform called Interactive Kiosk Demonstrator (IKD). IKD's aim was to demonstrate new interactive paradigms forming a novel integration of the following modalities: 3Dvision, 3D-audio and haptic (force, torque, and tactile) feedback. Besides, interactive educational software especially designed for IKD platform was developed. Then the educational trial of the IKD system, as well as the educational software, took place. All schools that participated in the trial were randomly selected. A total of 163 students participated in the educational trial, 64 of which were primary school students, 74 were lower-secondary school students, and 25 were upper secondary school students. For the educational trail all the international accepted practices concerning research in education were followed. The "exercises" for each group of students were chosen in accordance to their age. The educational results of this teaching approach, as well as the feedback derived from the users are presented in this work. Furthermore, some interesting results concerning important requirements for the specifications for haptic devices are also presented. Overall, we can state that the opportunity of having a natural "look and feel" environment for teaching purposes proves extremely promising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
