Creative Learning Sandbox - Experimental AR Course Reflection

Demo Video:

For my creative learning design class rather than write a final reflective essay I choose to do a creative reflection project instead. I decided to use the opportunity to make an AR sandbox activity to try out some new AR software (ARKit through AR foundation) and play with an idea I had about holding the device, using it to mimic real life physical motions and seeing the affect in AR.

For my capstone project I had been used image target based AR but I wanted to try out plane based AR (the objects show up in a fixed position relative to a place, ie. the floor, rather than a specific image). I would like to use this more in the future as it can support larger models outside the frame and is more stable, where as the image target AR can be shaky if the target is not in camera view.

I made a sandbox (the balls simulate sand, I wanted there to be more but the app would crash when there were too many). Inside the sandbox were 3D models I made in TinkerCAD of lego objects that I built in class throughout the semester representing my answers to questions like what is creativity and where does creative learning happen? I put a shovel model on the camera so that wherever you move the device the shovel follows and then idea is that you scoop up the lego models with the shovel and drop them into the bucket. Once a model falls in the bucket there is a pop-up window with some of my reflections on the creative learning design course. This type of movement and interactivity with the environment is not something I have seen done much before in AR so I wanted to experiment with it. Because I only had a few days to complete the project I didn't have time to fix all the small technical issues so the physics of the 'sand' and lego objects isn't perfect, sometimes they fall through the shovel or bounce out of the sandbox. But I think the concept I was testing out has a lot of potential for other possibilities in the future.