Augmented Reality at UD
I chose to augment the outside of Memorial Hall and the writing center inside it because I think they are both important to the UD English Department. The Memorial Hall building itself is basically the symbol for the UD English department since most English classes are held in this building. The writing center is a very useful tool for all students of the university to use because it contains people who work to help others with their writing. The UD writing center is an important resource because it helps students become better writers.
The overlays that I chose were the WWI memorial for Memorial Hall and a pamphlet from the writing center for the UD writing center. The war memorial is in the middle of the entrance room as soon as one walks into the building from the green entrance. The memorial is a book commemorating 270 Delawareans who died in World War I. I think this is one of the most unique and historical buildings on this campus for because of this reason. I chose the writing pamphlet for the writing center because it gives information about the writing center such as the times that they are open and what they do.
The overall process of this project was quite easy and simple; however, the only part that was somewhat challenging was trying to navigate the HP Reveal application. I, like most people in the class have never used this app before so I was quite new to it and was unaware of the setup and functions of it. I tried playing around on it to try to figure it out and, for the most part, I learned how the app worked but I still had a few difficulties. One difficulty I had, was trying to see mine and other people’s overlays. The overlays only occur if the background is EXACTLY similar to the original augment. One of my overlays does not show up because I took it outside of Memorial Hall on a windy day and the banners were flying, so later when I tried to look at my overlay when the banners were not flying, the overlay would not appear. I also have trouble viewing others’ overlays for the same reason. My other qualm with the app is that I could not edit the title of my overlay after I posted it. I forgot to use the hashtag #UDMemorialHall on my overlays and I tried to go back to edit them, so I could add the hashtag, but I was unable to, which is quite frustrating. I also cannot see my followers on my profile like you can usually see on social media apps. Again, overall, the project was fairly simple and easy, I just mainly had many difficulties with the HP Reveal app.
In general, I think augmented reality is really cool and fascinating and that much can be done with it such as advertising, gaming, social media uses, and much more. I think that having the ability to augment reality is one of the many ways that technology is advancing and that we have so much more to discover in regard to advances in technology. I think that eventually, there will be a setting built into phones that will allow users to view overlays that companies have created in the area. Going off of this idea, when people find the overlays, they can click on them and learn more about the companies from their overlays. This could also be used for museums and historical monuments to give history on artifacts and locations. I think the current state of augmented reality that we are currently using is just the beginning of what can be done with AR.
