The Virtual Haptic Device In Smart Class-Rooms - Example

Abstract With the recent radical technology revolution, the use of technology has become a basic requirement within many fields, education notwithstanding. In the last ten years, demand for the use technology has grown in education with the need to enhance the education process while providing efficient learning. The aim of this enhancement will be to drive this sector to achieve its objectives. Technology has therefore found home in the education sector in the form of smart rooms; these have transformed the class room perception of many educators of different levels, and have brought with it new means through which education can be imparted to students. A smart-classroom involves a number of devices including; interactive boards, projectors, speakers, screens, PCs, and e-podiums. All other devices are together connected to the e-podium (computer base) and work together to make the classroom environment better suited for teaching and learning. To improve on this concept, the addition an interactive tool as an option will be tested. The additional feature will serve to lend to the smart-classrooms a student-centred learning method together with the other tools. The purpose of this study is to come up with a means by which this can be achieved by the use of a sensible commercial technology known as Leap-Motion. The virtual haptic device helps to improve the interactivity in classroom thereby enhancing education efficiency. In addition, it also involves evaluating the need for standardizing all devices to meet the requirements to be functional on one button. Furthermore, it describes the characteristics, benefits, and integration developments of this device. Last of all, this experiment will be carried out by surviving tertiary students, faculties and processing the result. Key words: Leap-Motion, Virtual haptic, e-podium. chapter 1: Introduction background to the study The use of technology is today paramount in many sectors one of which is education. Thus, the use of modern technology has replaced the use of traditional methods of learning and teaching. Information technology has been combined into education systems for various reasons such as delivery of automated information in the classroom, facilitating information access to instructors, facilitating students’ information access, and its transformation of learning spaces into continuous virtual spaces. Moreover, it has encouraged broader learning by allowing students able and willing to do so to learn all they can without actually attending a lecture. There have recently been many innovations in terms of educational enhancement including hardware, and software. Hardware devices in smart-rooms include interactive boards, projectors, speakers and E-podiums while software applications are comprised of, for instance, Learning Management System (LMS), Blackboard, digital content and Virtual Class Room (VCR). The need for better studying methods will necessitate the adoption of virtual haptic; this is a new technological method of study whose technical name is Smart-Interactivity-Sensor-Classroom. The method entails the impartation of knowledge to students through a computer-based technology which is connected to more than four devices at the same time in the class room and interacts with learners and instructors. The objective of this study is to create a new approach toward the enhancement of the education process. This will be done via smart room facilities through integrating a new innovative device called Leap-Motion. The purpose of this is to improve interactivity, and mobility inside the classrooms and consequently education efficiency. In addition, the study also explores the need for standardization of all devices to meet those of the Smart-Room’s Infrastructure in order to function on one button. Figure1: Smart Room structure, AHA I&C Co., Ltd. (KITA, 2013) Terms/ Key words Smart Device: An innovative electronic device which has numerous features and facilities in order to process the information in an intelligent way. In addition, it shares information with other devices among variant device systems and provides personalised communications. Moreover, it also has the ability to integrate with other applications by using accessing Application Programming Interface (API) and the internet network for efficiency usage among handlers. Virtual Haptic (Sensor device): A type of device that receives a signal or stimulus and responds to it in a unique manner, such as devices sensitive to light, temperature, radiation level. It is also known as a detective tool which responds to certain physical conditions or impressions that provide information. This device has been built to serve demand of using virtual interactions by usages. For instance, recently, a new type of sense device which is called Leap-Motion has been created. This kind of type provides real life things that could be done on computer by the users instead of using physical tools, such as keyboard and mouse. E-podium: E-podium (Electronic-podium) is a device located in a modern class room which is used to link different devices in an established communication within internal network, such as interactive boards, projectors and other devices. These sorts of devices are connected to the podium in order to manage and control class room by using a particular application tool. In this way, it allows educators to communicate and use different tools, and at the same time to improve teaching techniques. Furthermore, the interactivity feature in the E-podium serves to motivate students to obtain knowledge in modern forms. justification Recent technological advancements have led to the need to improve on education methods in many educational institutions in Saudi Arabia. Since the development of Smart-Rooms, the approach gained some institutions’ attention and has been applied across their academic field. The idea to support smart-rooms by involving interactive feature was developed through research, and will thus be the centre of focus for this research. This innovative method should serve to increase the motivation level of instructors and students alike. Moreover, it should grow the need for using modern technology in the education environment development at King Saud University. As a result, it should inspire other institutions to implement the Virtual Haptic Device (VHD) idea into their own educational settings. Aims The research focuses on three main elements which are: Students:- Engaging and motivating students with an innovation tool. Improving students’ skills and promoting high level thinking by using interactive tool. Facilitating technological skill development among students that could provide insight on future methods. Instructors: Facilitating the addition of a new value to the smart-classroom for operation and organisation by adding innovation interactive device. Creating customised classrooms materials based on the existing system to adopt with instructors’ demand to be more likely to transfer lessons inside classrooms. Engaging instructors in professional development to address future needs. Institutions: Gaining profits from this experience and motivating other institutions to get the benefits from this experiment. Research questions Are the instructors able to achieve professional teaching goals using the new option tool? What is the enhancement reality of communication and organization? Is collaboration made effective by the implementation of the new interactive tool? What are the instructors’ and students’ technology skills that can predict their current and future requirements? What are the advantages of using virtual haptic devices, and how can the idea be shared with other institutions in order to experiment on the research returns? Objectives: The research will centralise on these objectives: To evaluate instructors’ ability to achieve professional goals of teaching by using a new option tool. To determine the enhancement reality of communication and organisation methods between instructors and students. To estimate the effectiveness of collaboration by implementing new tool and teaching idea in smart-classrooms. To determine instructors’ and students’ technology skills that can be used to predict their current and future requirements. To determine the advantages of using virtual haptic devices and sharing the idea with other institutions in order to experiment research’s returns. Significance The addition of the new feature to the smart-rooms helps to increase the interactivity between instructors and students in order to meet the new educational goals. This sort of technologies will do away with the instructors’ previous restriction behind the podium. This therefore increases communication between the two parties anywhere within the smart classroom. The new feature also aids instructors to better meet their education goals as they will have tools that ease the process of delivery. It will be easy to adopt the tool into the system as it offers the much needed interactive services to the education system. Once the idea is tested and fully implemented, the institution will benefit from the returns gained through the export of the idea to other learning institutions and through the improvement of its education system at the same time. Read More