Category Archives: MimasAR

Leeds College of Music AR Project

Over the past couple of months Jisc Mimas have been involved in leading the technical development of a new Augmented Reality resource around the music production studios in Leeds College of Music working with Craig Golding and Ruth Clark. It hopes to support students  working/studying in the music studios by displaying 3D visual overlays, technical documentation and other … Read more

Introducing the Fabulous Frogs App: Splendid and Native

Leaf frog

What can children learn? The development of the Fabulous Frogs App: Splendid and Native completes the second phase of the Mapping the Museum Project. Developed using Junaio this app is an interactive AR tool which is targeted at 7 – 11 years and maps to Key Stage 2 of the National Curriculum in England and … Read more

Initial thoughts of wearables in Education

I have been fortunate enough over the last few weeks to get hold of a pair of Google Glass and do some initial research of potential use cases in education. As stated in previous posts, at present there are some serious limitations on their use in an AR capacity, probably the most worrying is that … Read more

Posted on behalf of Andrew Gray: Curator of Herpetology at Manchester Museum

At the moment Adam and I are working on providing information to Gail Millin-Chalabi at Mimas to support a superb new project which is currently underway called ‘Mapping the Museum’. It aims to enhance collections through the use of Augmented Reality (AR) and 3D mapping visualisation. The first phase of the project is focusing on amphibian and reptile species found in the Vivarium and there will be 2 new applications developed.

The first will be called ‘Virtual Vivarium’ – Developed using Google Earth the Virtual Vivarium is the app any visitor will be able use to find out more about the amphibians that are currently both on display and behind the scenes. The Virtual Vivarium will provide exciting new content on:

    • Where in the world all the amphibian species in the vivarium are located – it visualises the most up-to-date distribution maps from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and our expertise here using the 3D Google Earth globe.
    • Detailed species descriptions including photographs, videos and relevant links.
    • All the in-situ costa rican conservation work we are involved in.

Issues surrounding the threats amphibians are facing, using a case study of Madagascar which shows how their habitat has changed over time due to deforestation using satellite image animation

Virtual Vivarium

Virtual Vivarium developed using Google Earth

Fabulous Frogs App: Splendid & Native Developed using Junaio the Fabulous Frogs App: Splendid and Native is an interactive Augmented Reality (AR) tool which is targeted at 7 – 11 years and maps to Key Stage 2 of the National Curriculum in England and to the “responsible citizens” and “successful learners” capacities of the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence: specifically the AR app helps to develop children’s capabilities to evaluate environmental issues and to use technology for learning independently. The app will include the following learning objectives and features based around the Splendid Leaf Frog:

  • Where the Splendid Leaf Frog lives in relation to the learner
  • Understanding the anatomy of frogs (see below).
  • Frog life cycle – comparison between the Splendid Leaf Frog and the native Common Frog, including quick quiz questions for each stage of the life cycle
  • Viewing our Splendid Leaf Frogs with David Attenborough
  • In-depth  exploration of related Frog Blog Manchester content
  • How you can help – Sponsor a Frog
Fabulous Frogs App: Splendid & Native

Fabulous Frogs App: Splendid & Native

Both these 2 exciting new apps are planned for release this summer and will be accessed exclusively through taking a photo of a Splendid Leaf Frog on Frog Blog Manchester with your phone or iPad.

AR horizon scanning and Big Data

Augmented Reality has established itself over the last few years as an emerging technology without appearing to generate enough momentum to galvanise mainstream adoption, that is until now. I predict this will rapidly change as “Big Data” becomes increasingly prevalent and easy to integrate with developing technologies and hardware. If we look at the themes … Read more

Mapping the Museum – A new collaborative AR project (#MappingtheMuseum)

I would like to introduce an exciting new project which is underway called ‘Mapping the Museum’.  The initial idea for the project came to my mind just before Christmas and since then I have been brainstorming the different directions or ‘phases’ the project could take. My interest is to incorporate the geospatial context behind museum … Read more

insideAR 2013

insideAR is one of the biggest AR conferences in Europe showcasing the latest developments in industry, advertising, marketing and education. It was the first time I had been to the conference and I was pleasantly surprised to see how far AR has evolved in the last year, both in terms of software functionality and real … Read more