Tile laying in virtual reality

Until a few years ago, virtual reality glasses were still an expensive niche product, but they have now become widespread. "For less than 50 euros, it is already possible to purchase holders into which a normal smartphone can be inserted and which thus become genuine virtual reality glasses," describes Prof. Ludger Schmidt.

Together with a team of colleagues from his "Human-Machine Systems Engineering" department, he has developed an application for these types of glasses that will help train craftsmen in the future.

"For our study, we shot a 3D-360° learning video demonstrating the creation of a kitchen tile mirror," explains Johannes Funk, who played a key role in supervising the implementation of the project in Prof. Schmidt's work area.

This 3D 360° learning video was then prepared with an interactive gaze control system so that it runs on a standard smartphone and can be viewed with an appropriate eyeglass mount. "We then divided 20 trainees into two groups - while one group used the 3D 360° video, the other group got to watch a conventional learning video on a laptop," Funk describes.

After the training, both groups were able to produce a tile backsplash on an instructional job site at about the same level, as judged by independent evaluators. "However, participants from the virtual reality group showed much higher motivation," Funk reports. "At the same time, however, the distraction factor was also significantly higher in this group - this is possibly due to the appeal of the new medium," speculates Funk.

"With the project, we were able to show that there are interesting potential uses for the use of virtual reality in the training of craftsmen as well," concludes Prof. Schmidt. "Digitization will also become increasingly important for the skilled trades - with this form of application, we can familiarize future experts with the technology in a meaningful way," Prof. Schmidt is certain.

The "VR/AR-Learning" working group of the Gesellschaft für Informatik (German Informatics Society) was also impressed by the study and, in cooperation with the Stifterverband der deutschen Wissenschaft (Donors' Association for the Promotion of Sciences and Humanities in Germany), awarded the project a special prize in the "Interactive 360° Videos" category in the "Successful VR/AR Learning Scenarios" competition and has now presented it as Project of the Month: https: //www.uni-potsdam.de/vrarl/index.php/2019/12/02/einsatz-einer-3d-360-lerneinheit-in-der-praktischen-ausbildung-von-handwerkern/

Contact

Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ludger Schmidt
Department of Human-Machine-System Technology
University of Kassel

Tel. 0561 804 2704
Mail. L.Schmidt@uni-kassel.de
www.mensch-maschine-systemtechnik.de