Framework for Augmented Reality Scenarios in Engineering Education

The goal of the presented approach is to show a method suitable for better integration of real-time sensor data into practical education, without leaving the students to sort out the digital content by themselves. The authors want to empower teachers on-site to show their students relevant sensory data, effectively controlling the content the students can use and explore themselves. The students are enabled to find individual approaches towards the learning scenario, take different perspectives of the plant into account and try several virtual steps before the experiment is undertaken by themselves. The two main functions of the presented framework are the authoring of augmented reality content and controlling the augmented reality content of the student’s smart devices via the teacher’s master view. The authors created a simple setup phase, which is usable on-site, utilizing only one device in the master view mode. For students, the usage is even simpler, as their content is controlled via the master view. The framework technically supports an unlimited number of student clients to be controlled by one teacher view. The functionality has been established and validated with two experimental setups, both situated within the context of chemical engineering education.