ARchaeology
Dig, Discover, and Learn: An Educational Dinosaur AR Experience
ARchaeology is an augmented reality application designed for Meta Quest to bring paleontology to your own backyard! The app's hands-on gameplay allows the user to step into the role of an archaeologist by uncovering, digging, cleaning, and assembling dinosaur skeletons.
Our Mission
Engagement
Create an immersive, hands-on learning experience
Education
Provide an elevated educational experience through interactive storytelling
Scale
Leverage AR technology to show real world scale of game objects
target users
ARchaeology is designed for learners of all ages, but specifically targeted towards middle school aged students and above, museum visitors, and anyone curious about dinosaurs and archaeology. This application is best suited for educational settings like science centers, museum exhibits, and classrooms where users can learn and engage with the content. Our clear instructions and easy to use features make this ideal for younger audiences, but ARchaeology can provide educational value for older students and adults as well! We aim to spark curiosity and enhance the learning experience.
You'll enter the dig site and read a brief tutorial on how the tools and interface works
Use the brush tool to gently remove the dust and residue from the fossils
Read some fun facts about the species and repeat the process for the next 2 levels
Using your chisel, hit the hardened cast until all of the bones are revealed
Assemble the dinosaur by matching the bones to the visual outline on the skeleton
Congratulations! You have completed your ARchaeology adventure!
Your ARchaeology Adventure...
components
The hierarchy for the T-Rex Scene. The building blocks are the gameobjects that handle the integration with the headset, and allow it to be an AR experience. The Dusty and Clean gameobjects hold the variations of the bones. The canvases are the panels that contain the information about each bone/dinosaur.
These are the scripts that are attached to the game objects that the user can grab. The grabbable and grab interactable script allows the user to use the controller to pick up the objects. The On Grab script is a custom made script that activates objects of choice, in this case, the panel.
The Rigidbody component handles the physics of the game object, which allows it to respond to forces, collision, and motion in Unity. The Box Collider component defines the game object's physical boundaries and allow it to interact with other objects.
For the placeholder bones on the dinosaur skeleton, a separate material was placed on them to signal the user which areas need the bone. The material is a default material, with the opacity lowered.
using AR to enhance traditional learning
Our project uses augmented reality to turn learning into a fully interactive experience. Instead of simply reading about dinosaurs or watching videos, the user is able to interact with them in the real world, using natural movements and tools. This creates a more memorable and engaging experience, allowing the user to connect with the material on a deeper level.
key ar features
space interaction
Dinosaur bones and tools appear in the real world environment, allowing for more realistic interaction
tool use
Brush and chisel respond to controllers, which mimics real archaeology techniques in the 3D space
true to scale
Users assemble bones on an outlined dinosaur skeleton at a real life scale to gain a better understanding of size, structure, and form
Why AR is important here
AR makes this experience more than just a game. The user is transformed into a paleontologist, able to learn by doing. This application helps to improve curiosity, engagement, and learning. When the user interacts with the life sized dinosaur fossils, they gain a spatial understanding of dinosaur anatomy that simply can't be understood via textbook learning. Our application bridges the gap between education and experience, allowing the user to truly see, touch, and build a dinosaur skeleton.
Design Evolution
At first, our design was relatively simple, including only panels, a chisel, and the dinosaur bones. After progressing on the project, we decided that more detail was needed to fully immerse the user in the experience. We added the brushing mechanic to show the user cleaning the bones and added sound effects to help deeper immerse the user in the application.
In our original project discussion, we talked about the user walking into a large pit and having to search for the bones to dig up. However, for simplicity, we decided to use a more compact sandbox that shrinks as it is chiseled. This way, the development ran smoother and the user is able to play with limited room boundaries.
We also used some trial and error when choosing the 3D models. Some dinosaurs and tool files were too large that they crashed the app, so we tested different assets until the game was able to run smoothly.
One of the most important improvements was designing the dinosaur skeletons to scale. Letting the users assemble life sized dinosaurs extremely enhances the experience and spatial understanding.
evaluating success
In order to evaluate the success of ARchaeology, we focused on key areas of usability, engagement, and educational value. After developing the application, we each tested it to see if it met our standards. Then, we did informal testing with some peers to see if others understood the instructions and function as well. We checked to see how easily they could understand each step from chiseling bones to assembling the dinosaur skeleton.
Players were able to easily understand the game instructions and said that the augmented reality and physical interaction aspects made the experience more immersive. Additionally, each player was able to recall at least one dinosaur fact after the game ended.
Goals met
User could easily operate tools
User understood the game's goal
User could recall at least one dinosaur fact
Implementation Issues
Challenges
We struggled with setting up AR Foundation. Unity's AR template worked fine, but it was difficult to customize.
Another challenges was detecting when the user grabbed an object in the game (chisel, brush, etc.). Meta SDK didn't provide a built in way to add grab events.
Fixes
We ended up switching to Meta All in One SDK which provided us building blocks to easily implement and create the project.
We added colliders to the controllers and a detection script to the object. This way, when a new object was grabbed, a new canvas was activated to instruct the user how to proceed.
Since the project worked with life sized dinosaurs, it was difficult to test the game in indoor spaces. The dinosaur often clipped through the walls or in areas that were impossible to walk to.
We ended up moving the testing to outdoor spaces. This way, we had a lot more open space to work with the dinosaurs and explore the full experience.
The T-Rex model used was very detailed and used many bones, unlike the other dinosaurs.
In order to solve this problem, we created a GameObject parent and put the bones used as a child of it. Then, tweaked the Scripts used for material change to include an array of Renderers, not just one.
We had a problem with gravity and collision controls. The project used gravity and a terrain, with bones fit inside this terrain, each with a RigidBody component. The terrain models in Unity use a Terrain collider that interacts with the bone objects every frame, within every polygon of the terrain, creating a giant frame problem.
We made it so each bone’s RigidBody component is deactivated until the player mines the entire terrain.