My co-creator and I, Laura Rodriguez/LROD, aimed to create an Augmented Reality application used as an educational supplement to Brenda Dixon Gottschild’s Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance: Dance and Other Contexts.

Methodology
We chose ten pages that we would augment in the book. Each being accountable for five, we discussed ways that would most effectively visualize the textual content. We also were looking at different ways to activate our selected pages resulting in a blueprint containing a motion capture example of poly-rhythm, several reliefs of video examples of the pieces discussed in the book with sound and including the capability to stop and restart the video with a button, one relief picture of a definition with sound to clarify the pronunciation of the word ephebism and one relief of a black and white picture that changed to color.

Discoveries and Looking Ahead
As we collected assets and artifacts for the project (i.e. video of Pearl Primus, a video of Earl “Snake Hips” Tucker, a photo of Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, etc.) we realized this project would run into copyright issues. This was also brought up in our first user test and demonstration during our Grad Day Showing in OSU’s Dance Department. However, using materials without permissions to create a proof of concept was successful. We also have discussed converting the app for cross platform use as it is currently only Android based.

In addition, Vuforia only recognizes images not text unless graphically designed, so using Gottschild’s “Digging” posed some problems in that the content that we wanted to highlight only had text on the pages and all the photos for the whole book were located in the center. For the pages that didn’t have imagery, we used found photos and created inserts to the parts of the book. Although effective, it was most satisfying when the photographs printed on the books pages came to life. If designing an educational tool for augmented reality again, I would prefer to work with the writers as the book is being designed to keep Augmented Reality in the design process creating a more cohesive visual and educational experience.

Advisor on the project: Shadrick Addy ACCAD