UPDATE: The Aurasma phone app is now known as HP Reveal.
The students in Andrew Rippeon’s “Unpacking My Library” course visited the library today to learn about Aurasma, an easy-to-use phone application for augmented reality. We’re hoping to use this app to link digital images, video, and 3D scans into the book the students are creating for the course. Of the various ways this could be possible, we think Aurasma might be the best for us: it’s accessible to anyone with a phone, free, and fairly simple.
Anyone will be able to follow the Aurasma account for the book, and by holding their phone above the book as they read, will see the images, video, and 3D objects appear on the page — and perhaps wander across it! A cool feature of Aurasma is that anyone could make their own augmentations on the same images and “remix” the book.
You can try it out with the test images we used in class, made by Educational Technologist Kyle Burnham in Illustrator. To see the images transform, download Aurasma (iTunes, Play Store), search for #unpackingmylibrary, tap and “follow” the two images below. If no “auras” appear after searching, or you can’t find where to search, Aurasma has documentation that can help you find and follow auras. You can also follow Kyle’s Aurasma account, kburnham3, and follow their Public Aura’s channel.
You can get hands-on and augment these images yourself, by taking a photo of them within the Aurasma app, or uploading them to Aurasma’s online studio.
The group of students working on the AR component of the book will meet again with Kyle in a few weeks to bring their ideas for this to life!
