Course Description:

This course is designed to expand the student's augmented reality knowledge and introduce relevant topics necessary for developing more meaningful applications and conducting research in this field. The course addresses the fundamental concepts of visual perception and introduces non-visual augmented reality modalities, including auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory applications. The following sessions discuss the importance of integrating user-centered design concepts to design meaningful augmented reality applications. A later module introduces the basic requirements to design and conduct user studies and guidelines on interpreting and evaluating the results from the studies. During the course, students conceptualize, design, implement, and evaluate the performance of augmented reality solutions for their use in industrial applications, teaching, and training, or healthcare settings. Homework in this course will relate to applying the theoretical methods used for designing, implementing, and evaluating augmented reality applications.

Course Goal:

By the end of this course, the students will be able to conceptualize, design, and implement augmented reality applications considering fundamental concepts of perception and user-centered design. The students will also be able to design and implement user studies to evaluate the performance of these applications.

Objectives:

Upon successful completion of this course, the students will be able to:

• Recognize the importance of developing augmented reality applications that stimulate multiple sensory systems.
• Conceptualize, and design augmented reality applications that integrate fundamental concepts of user-centered design and perception.
• Understand the minimal requirements necessary to design and conduct user studies.
• Collect, analyze, and disseminate results obtained from user studies involving augmented reality applications.

Course Topics:

• Module 1: Perception
  • Fundamental concepts of visual perception
  • Visual perception and augmented reality
  • Non-visual augmented reality: auditory, tactile, gustatory, and olfactory
• Module 2: User-Centered Design for Augmented Reality
  • Fundamental concepts of user-centered design
  • Fast prototyping for augmented reality
• Module 3: User Studies in Augmented Reality
  • Institutional Review Boards
  • Usability
  • Data Collection
  • Qualitative and quantitative variables
  • Dependent and independent variables
  • Statistical tests
  • Data visualization
• Module 4: Scientific Dissemination
  • Preparation of scientific manuscripts
  • The submission process
  • The review process
  • Presentation and dissemination of results