How can XR & AI enable curiosity-based learning?
Context
For my Master's thesis, I'm building a platform to support curiosity with XR. Learners would be able to learn math concepts such as the volume of a cylinder when looking at a cup to biology concepts on how plant cells look like when near a plant.
Supervised by Dr. Alexis Morris, Dr. Ian Clarke
Tools
Meta Quest Pro & Hololens 2, Unity, OpenXR, Oculus SDK, Socket.io, PyTorch
Project Timeline
2022 - 2023
Research Summary
This research aimed to explore how Context-aware agents could support curiosity and knowledge recall through Mixed Reality. This question was explored through different sub-questions that investigated topics such as acquiring context from mixed reality devices, creating curiosity-support agents, and evaluating the effectiveness of mixed reality in supporting interactive learning experiences.
Learning about mitochondria with a hand interactive 3D model
Prototypes
During this thesis, a series of iterative prototypes were designed, built, and analyzed to address various sub-questions that ultimately contributed to answering the main research question. Through this process, a range of contexts was explored, which informed the selection and integration of relevant educational content. Additionally, agents were designed and analyzed to deliver diverse forms of learning content that supported learners' curiosity.
An important aspect of the project was the analysis of the prototypes based on parameters that were deemed relevant to mixed reality educational environments. Through this evaluation, I was able to refine and improve the design of the system, taking into account considerations such as design solutions and interactions.
Learning about filters in the context of a water bottle
Analysis
To measure the effectiveness of CuriosityXR in terms of knowledge recall and curiosity support, a user study was conducted. Although the results were limited due to time constraints and a small sample size, the study provided valuable insights into the system's capabilities, challenges, and benefits and helped analyze the design solutions. It is important to note that the study did not provide a concrete answer to the main research question directly; however, it offered valuable guidance for future work in this area, particularly in terms of design approaches, architectural frameworks, and curiosity-support agents that could be used to achieve these goals.
Mixed Reality experience with passthrough on Quest Pro
