junaio Creator: No programming skills required

junaio channel creator page

I just finished playing around with the new junaio’s channel creator, which allows the novice user to create his or her own augmented reality (AR) channel without any programming skills. This would be a great tool for teachers or students interested in quickly adding some 3D or video content for an interactive walking tour.

Before you begin, you have to sign up for a FREE Developer Account. Once that’s out the way, you can start defining you channel with categories, descriptive text, icons, and geographic data. You can actually restrict your content certain regions, which is a nice touch if you want to target a specific target audience.

Defining your channel

Initially, I though that junaio creator would act as a content management system (CMS) for any AR channel but I realized it’s restricted to junaio Glue. junaio Glue specifically allows you to connect virtual information to the real world using image recognition. As a result, the user will need to scan a poster, sticker, etc. in order to access any video or 3D models provided through your channel. This is great for anyone interested in creating an AR scavenger hunt.

Once you’ve defined the channel, you can begin adding content. You are currently restricted to two types of media (e.g., videos and animated 3D models). junaio Creator has some built-in interactions that are activated when the user click the model, such as descriptive text, homepage, phone, and email. In my first experiment, I created a quick model using Google Sketchup and quickly learned that it doesn’t support the M2d format. I’m stuck. If you have Blender, you should be able to export your model and texture into the application without any trouble.

Next, I’ll experiment with the video content. More to come….

OmmWriter: Rediscover the Joy of Writing

Photo by Gabriella Fabbri

I recently purchased OmmWriter for my laptop. I’m not one that likes to write, but this application inspires creativity and motivation to write something honest and pure. For example, I’m writing this post just so I can use the program again. What’s so great about it? The program launches and fills the screen with very minimalist background, plays soft music in the background, and places a single text box in the center of the screen. All you see is a cursor in the middle of this really nice background. Each keystroke is complemented with a really neat sound that makes you want to keep typing. It’s just you, your ideas, and the cursor. I love it.

Unlike Microsoft Word, you don’t have to deal with a complex interface, tabs, windows, and more. You can change the music, background picture, type, and keyboard sound. When you’re done formatting your layout, the interface fades into and background and disappears. Again, It’s just you and the text.

I would recommend this program to anyone who doesn’t like to write, but loves cool backgrounds, ambient music, and interesting interface sounds. The combination of all the elements and design make you want to write more. When you’re done creating your masterpiece, OmmWriter allows you to export your text in multiple formats accepted by any word processor.

If you’re looking for a program to help you get your ideas out in written form without the hassle of learning a new program. Look no further. You can download a FREE version from their site. I highly recommend that you make a donation and download the Dana II version. Try this new program and rediscover the joy of writing.

Minimum Software Requirements: Mac OS X 10.5 or higher.

Calling all Science Teachers!

Concept art for an interactive card game that combines chemistry and augmented reality technology

I’ve had an idea to combine Augmented Reality (AR) and education for a while. I specifically wanted to use it to create an interactive game to help students understand the relevance of the periodic table of elements. I’m not the best at chemistry and making compounds, but I remember having to memorize the table in the back of my Science book. It was no fun.

I’ve had the privilege of working with some amazing teachers over the last six months and they all seem concerned about finding ways to keep their students engaged. What if  you could create an interactive card game that used of audio, video, and 3D models to teach middle school students the basics of each element and how they interact using augmented reality?

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.