ReadAR - Augmented Reality Children's Book

4A03 with Danny Papagiannis at McMaster University
by Software Engineering Student Jason A. Paolasini
Description and Inspiration
Childhood is a very confusing time for kids and parents alike. Parents have already developed their life skills and are trying to guide their offspring through the hurdles of modern day society. One of the most challenging goals parents must achieve is teaching their child to read. Most kids advance at different rates and there are proven methods to aid children to become literate. Jeff Wilhelm argues “students need to be actively assisted and prompted to develop sets of reading strategies that they can use to make meaning and to solve difficulties they might encounter, both in general, and with specific kinds of texts.” [Wilhelm, 2001] BeginnAR books is a mobile application that allows young readers to immerse themselves into their literature. Using an augmented reality to retroactively outfit existing children's books, 3-D helpers emerge from the pages to guide the children throughout the story. These assistants read to the users. ReadAR is designed to take strain off of parents and allow for new readers to become immersed in reading. “Learning how to do things is especially important for at-risk students.” Providing confidence and accomplishment to young users leads to reduction in bullying and social isolation. [Wilhelm, 2001] Performance and ease of use was considered as the average user of this application will range ages 2-7. Avoidance of advanced interfaces and nested design will improve usability by increasing visibility. [Norman,2013]
Technologies
Unity’s iOS development kit with Vuforia
Resources
Wilhelm, J. (2001). Getting kids into the reading game: You gotta know the rules. Voices from the Middle, 8(4), 25-36.
Norman, D. A. (2013). The design of everyday things: Revised and expanded edition. Basic books.