Development of Augmented Reality Mobile Application in Physics to

Study the Electric Circuit

Oleksandr V. Kanivets

1 a

, Irina M. Kanivets

1 b

, Tetyana M. Gorda

2 c

and Oleksandr Yu. Burov

3 d

Poltava State Agrarian Academy, 1/3 Skovorody Str., Poltava, 36003, Ukraine

Poltava Polytechnic College, 83a Pushkin Str., Poltava, 36000, Ukraine

Institute for Digitalisation of Education of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, 9 M. Berlynskoho

Str., Kyiv, 04060, Ukraine

Keywords:

Electronic Model, Augmented Reality, Mobile App, Unity3D, Vuforia, Electric Circuit, Physics.

Abstract:

Using the virtual teaching aids with AR technology in different spheres of education, including physics, has

been analysed. The analogy between physical and electronic models has been drawn and the development of

mobile app to study simple electric circuit has been substantiated. The reasonability of creating the technique

of the augmented reality mobile apps has been given. The milestones in the development of the augmented

reality app have been outlined: development of electronic models, installation of the game engine Unity3D,

development of all program scenes, operation testing and demonstration. Using the scenarios for electronic

models rotation and movement has been particularly focused on. Own developed augmented reality mobile

app for mobile devices “Augmented reality program to study the simplest electric circuit” has been presented.

The created mobile app reads, recognizes the designer marker and displays the product electronic model on

the screen. It is established that the augmented reality program developed by the team of authors as the mobile

teaching software can be used to do the tasks for the students’ individual work, as well as for the classroom

studies at the universities.

1 INTRODUCTION

Rapid development of information computer tech-

nologies and their mass use in all spheres of everyday

life and professional activity mainstream the need in

their use in the educational process. Recently, the dig-

ital technology has made a great leap in development

and expansion of the spheres of use. One of the teach-

ing aid to help students in learning physics is the aug-

mented reality (AR). AR is an attempt to combine the

real and virtual world created with the help of com-

puters so that the line between them becomes too ﬁne

(Chena et al., 2015; Nechypurenko et al., 2018). Sim-

ply to interpret, the AR can be deﬁned as a real en-

vironment added to the virtual objects (Ismail et al.,

2019).

At the outset of creation of the augmented real-

ity, it was mainly used in the military and computer

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https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0733-1120

ﬁelds. Today this technology has entered virtually

all spheres of social activity of a man: economics,

medicine, education, architecture, advertising, etc.

(Andrea et al., 2019). The tourist mobile apps (mo-

bile tour guides) where the tips and interesting facts

from the modern life and the past are displayed on

gadgets by GEO tags and GPS have become common

(Lu and Liu, 2015).

In its turn, each augmented reality mobile app uses

virtual electronic models. A number of researches

(Alvarez, 2011; Mon and Cervera, 2013; la Torre Can-

tero et al., 2013; Saor

ın et al., 2017) show the compar-

ative data of the used physical and electronic models.

3D physical models (ﬁgure 1) are used in the

learning of physics to study the electric circuit et al.

The use of physical models also has several dis-

advantages, such as: high cost, which leads to the

purchase of models only from the basic topics of

the discipline. In the process, models wear out and

break their parts, and sometimes, due to inadvertence

and difﬁculty in moving, entire models are destroyed.

Usually, physical models belong to educational in-

stitutions and require special storage, which in turn

Kanivets, O., Kanivets, I., Gorda, T. and Burov, O.

Development of Augmented Reality Mobile Application in Physics to Study the Electric Circuit.

DOI: 10.5220/0010927000003364

In Proceedings of the 1st Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology (AET 2020) - Volume 1, pages 653-664

ISBN: 978-989-758-558-6

653

Figure 1: 3D physical models in teaching physics to study the electric circuit.

makes it impossible for a student to constantly have

free access to objects. These and other factors limit

the possibility of the full use of models in the educa-

tional process. To solve these problems, it is advisable

to use virtual models of products. They are easily us-

ing on mobile Internet devices with AR.

Having analysed the opportunity to replace the

physical (material) model with the 3D electronic

model in the course of learning, the researchers noted

that the students felt comfortable with the electronic

models.

Representation of digital models on tablets and

smartphones is usually built upon the options of the

augmented reality that is attracting the educational

community more and more because it not only in-

cludes the most advanced technology but also helps

the user protect against information overload. In con-

trast to multimedia and virtual reality, the AR rep-

resents the electronic objects as holograms superim-

posed on the real world (Mona and Muninder, 2013).

The augmented reality partially supersedes the physi-

cal world that includes the additional digital informa-

tion (for example, virtual ﬂat and three-dimensional

objects) to expand and simplify the perception of real

models (Hung et al., 2016).

Even today the computer software and virtual lab-

oratories give new opportunities for teachers and stu-

dents in presenting the learning material and organis-

ing the educational process. Such technologies as vir-

tual (VR) and augmented (AR) reality are leading in

this area. They not only transform the abstract learn-

ing material in the interactive knowledge but also rep-

resent the information in the form of visual, voice and

dynamic content (Cai et al., 2017; Dunleavy et al.,

2009; Radu and Schneider, 2019).

Some studies show that using the AR technology

in education can signiﬁcantly increase the learning ef-

ﬁciency (Garz

on and Acevedo, 2019; Garz

on et al.,

2019).

As shown in (Morales et al., 2019), the augmented

reality in the higher education is used in various ﬁelds

of knowledge. In mathematics, it makes it easier to

explain abstract models, visualizes mathematical ob-

jects and simpliﬁes understanding their place and lo-

cation in the space; in such subjects as physics, it

helps modelling virtual laboratories reproducing the

physical phenomena; and also promotes learning mo-

tivation in computer studies (Majid et al., 2015). Such

programs are used by students both in classrooms, and

outside.

The augmented and mixed realities have be-

come common in technical sciences as well. In the

(Kanivets et al., 2019), we have demonstrated own de-

velopment for teaching students of technical faculties

in the discipline “Engineering Graphics”.

Cai et al. (Cai et al., 2014) have shown the use

of the AR technology in studying chemistry for vi-

sualization of microscopic world of atoms, molecules

and crystal lattices. Lu and Liu (Lu and Liu, 2015)

describe the learning model on the basis of digital

games that includes the augmented reality technology

for primary pupils on the issues of marine ecology

and water resources. They point out more qualitative

memorizing of new information, better mastering the

AET 2020 - Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology

654

competencies and higher success level of pupils with

low academic performance.

In social sciences, the augmented reality is used

in studying history and subjects reproducing the pat-

rimony. Such technologies make it possible to get

to know about historical and cultural events of the

region, promote for better memorizing of historical

dates and events (Lim and Lim, 2020).

For the Altmeyer et al. (Altmeyer et al., 2020), the

AR seems to be especially applicable for giving infor-

mation during experiments as it can be used for inte-

grating both the physical and virtual laboratory work.

The efﬁcient use of AR technology, including

in physics, is veriﬁed by researchers from different

countries of the world. Thus, according to the Ismail

et al. (Ismail et al., 2019), branches of physics, such

as electrics and magnetism, are explicate and the stu-

dents face difﬁculties in studying even the basic no-

tions, as a result, the students treat physics as difﬁcult

and dull. The authors note that to develop basic under-

standing, it is better to use the information technology

in the form of multimedia or software that gives an

opportunity for the students to visualize the learning

material.

nez et al. (Ib

nez et al., 2014) show the ex-

periment with senior pupils on checking the good

inﬂuence of mastering knowledge in physics when

the AR mobile app is used. As a result, the pupils

that used the AR technology perceived the obtained

knowledge better and quicker. In their turn, Akc¸ayır

et al. (Akc¸ayır et al., 2016) studied the inﬂuence

of using the AR on practical skills of students and

proved that this technology had helped them to im-

prove their knowledge and skills after doing relevant

laboratory works. Most recently, Fidan and Tuncel

(Fidan and Tuncel, 2019) found out that the problem-

based learning integrated with the AR had improved

the success level of pupils and promoted their better

attitude to physics.

Therefore, physics as the discipline has been al-

ready focused on the augmented reality, and the re-

searchers are common in developing the literature and

AR software (Cai et al., 2021).

The literature review showed that the AR in the

learning process of different countries had become

widely used. The operation principles of mobile

apps, their inﬂuence on qualitative indicators of the

knowledge mastered by the students are described,

but the basic instructions on development of similar

programs are not given. That is why the objective of

our research is to consider the method of creation of

mobile app in physics to study simple electric circuits

with the use of the AR technology.

2 STUDY RESULTS

The AR mobile app was developed on the PC with the

following characteristics: Intel Core i5-4440, RAM

16 Gb, video card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti,

network card, external universal webcam, installed

Windows 10 (64-bit version).

The AR app is developed with the use of the AR

platform Vuforia (Vuforia, 2020). In the Target Man-

ager account, we create a new database and upload a

target image (ﬁgure 2) that is the electric circuit dia-

gram with QR code being of practical value and used

for program installation on mobile device.

The target image is processed by computer vi-

sion aids and assessed according to the rating. The

best images have 5 stars. They are quickly and qual-

itatively recognized by the application. Minimum

recommended value is 3 stars. The database is up-

loaded from target images to Unity3D (Katsko and

Moiseienko, 2018).

In these researches, we use Version 2018.4.15f1

(64-bit) Unity3D (Unity, 2020) for which installation

we made additional settings of Android SDK (devel-

oper.android.com, 2020) and JDK by Oracle (Oracle,

2020). These applications are necessary for proper

compilation of the Android mobile apps.

At the initial stage of the mobile app develop-

ment, we design the electronic models. These mod-

els are displayed on the screen of the mobile gad-

get when the program is in operation. According to

the electric circuit diagram (ﬁgure 2), the models of

rheostat, amperemeter, voltmeter, current-controlled

switch, incandescent lamp on pedestal, accumulator

and connecting wires have been produced. Each elec-

tronic model consists of several parts that will interact

when the mobile app works. For example, the rheo-

stat model (ﬁgure 3) consists of ceramic base 1 with

wire 2 wound. The base is attached to two supports 3

by bottom bar 5. Slider 4 moves along the top bar 5.

Clamps 6 with washers 7 are intended to connect the

connecting wires.

The electronic model of voltmeter (ﬁgure 4) is

built in a similar way and consists of housing 1, glass

2, grade 3, pointer 4, magnetic and electric system 5,

clamps 6, washers 7, plus 8 and minus 9 signs.

Such complicated models should have been devel-

oped in order the rheostat slider can move along the

bar and the voltmeter pointer can go at relevant angle

when the mobile app works. The glass is made trans-

parent, and when the pointer goes, the grade values

can be seen.

All electronic models for mobile app were de-

signed in Kompas-3D (Ascon, 2020) and then saved

in the OBJ format. To make the models, other CAD

Development of Augmented Reality Mobile Application in Physics to Study the Electric Circuit

655

Figure 2: Target image recognition system in Vuforia.

Figure 3: Electronic model of rheostat.

programs, such as AutoCAD, Inventor or Solidwork,

or 3D modelling programs, such as 3ds Max, Cin-

ema4d, Maya, Blender, can be used.

The mobile app development is started with the

main menu scene. In the hierarchy window, the stan-

dard cam is changed for AR, ImageTarget and com-

ponent Canvas are uploaded. At own discretion, the

following frame parameters are set: position, size,

colour and transparency. By the Button command,

we add the future menu buttons. We move, scale and

rename them as shown in ﬁgure 5.

In the program test run in Unity3D using the Play

button, we will see the same image as given in ﬁg-

ure 5. Once the button clicked, they are animated but

no response occurs. For correct work of any objects

(buttons), it is necessary to add a new component – a

scenario to indicate which action is to be performed

Figure 4: Electronic model of voltmeter.

when activated. Switching between program scenes

is implemented by the SceneManager script:

public class LoadScene : MonoBehaviour {

public void SceneLoader(int SceneIndex){

SceneManager.LoadScene (SceneIndex);

}

This code has the derived public class LoadScene.

The public method Public void SceneLoader() de-

scribes the variable int SceneIndex that makes the

script universal for switching between all program

scenes by specifying the relevant scene number. Once

the Button clicked, the SceneManager command is

activated and implements switching to the speciﬁed

scene number.

This mobile app has three work areas:

1) theoretical training;

2) theory checks (tests);

3) practical training.

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656

Figure 5: Main Menu.

Each area is implemented in the form of individual

scene.

The development of the ﬁrst scene is started by

uploading the Canvas component. The color and

transparency of the Panel tool are set. Using the

Button command, the buttons of theoretical informa-

tion about the lamp, amperemeter, voltmeter, rheostat,

current-controlled switch and accumulator are added.

We move, scale and rename them as shown in ﬁgure 6.

The theoretical information about each element

of the diagram is given in the ScrollView compo-

nents. By default, the ScrollView components are lo-

cated outside the scene and invisible for viewer. The

effect of ScrollView displaying from the top to the

mid-screen once the relevant button is clicked is im-

plemented by the Animator component. To do this,

two animations for displaying and hiding the theoret-

ical information were recorded. For each ScrollView,

the Animator component was added and the Scrol-

lViewHL animation controller responsible for anima-

tions was selected (ﬁgure 7).

In order the program understands that once the

required button is clicked, the proper theoretical in-

formation is displayed in the scene, it is necessary

to select Animator.Play in the button settings in sec-

tion On Click () and upload the displaying object,

for example, the ScrollViewHL(Animator) compo-

nent containing information about the lamp, as well as

to write the displaying animation ScrollViewHLOpen

(ﬁgure 8).

The hiding effect of the ScrollView components is

implemented in a similar way once the “Back” button

is clicked.

The next development stage of the application is

scene design based on the theory checks. Figure 9

shows the test scheme. This scheme is activated by

the information button

The operation principle of the theory checks sec-

tion is as follows: the buttons with conventional sym-

bols of the electric diagram elements are to the right

of the screen. Once the button is pressed, the list with

equipment images drops down from the top part of the

screen. The equipment image corresponding to the

conventional symbol can be selected using the slider.

Once the selected image is clicked, there can be two

options:

1) incorrect answer – appears on the screen of the

gadget and there remains an option to continue se-

lecting the equipment to correspond to the con-

ventional symbol;

2) correct answer – appears on the screen of the

gadget; the list with equipment images is hidden

in the top part of the screen, and the electronic

model of the device is displayed in the proper

point of the scheme.

Designing the theory checks scene is similar to the

theoretical information scene. The development was

started with uploading the electronic models of ta-

bles and ﬁgure of the electric diagram. The electronic

models of rheostat, amperemeter, voltmeter, current-

controlled switch, lamp on pedestal and accumulator

were uploaded to the diagram. All models, after be-

ing scaled up, were placed according to their sym-

bols. By default, the models are inactive, that is in-

visible. Then, the Canvas component is added and

Development of Augmented Reality Mobile Application in Physics to Study the Electric Circuit

657

Figure 6: Scene of theoretical training.

the transparency of the Panel tool is set. Using the

Button command in the Canvas right part, the buttons

are added and the conventional symbols of the elec-

tric diagram elements superimposed on them. The

displaying effect of ScrollView with equipment op-

tions is implemented by animation according to the

above method. The equipment images in ScrollView

are made via the Button command. Figure 10 shows

the Button settings in section On Click () by the ex-

ample of the correct answer.

Once the Button is clicked, the ﬁrst lime of com-

mands is activated – animation of ImageTrue, symbol

(ImageTrue (Animator)) in Animator.Play. Ac-

cording to the animation, the picture is scaled up to

normal sizes varies and scales down to invisible sizes.

After the ﬁrst animation is completed, the second line

of commands is activated – the program refers to set-

tings GameObject.SetActive of the object Lampa and

displays (represents) it in the scene. Then, the third

line of commands is activated – the AnimScrollView-

Close is implemented to provide hiding of Scrol-

lViewHL(Animator) to the top part of the screen.

The result of successful passing of all tests is

the representation of electronic models in the correct

symbols of the scheme (ﬁgure 11).

The last part in the application development is

scene design based on the practical training. The

purpose of this stage is: to show the sequence of

the equipment connection in the simple electric cir-

cuit, as well as modelling of the lamp voltage, current

and light intensity change in different positions of the

rheostat slider.

The operation principle of the last part of the ap-

plication is as follows: the observer sees the displayed

electronic models of the electric circuit equipment

placed on the table. There is a prompted button in the

right top part of the screen advising what is performed

at this step. By clicking the buttons, the red connect-

ing wires to be connected to the relevant terminals of

the equipment gradually appear. In case of repeated

connection of the circuit, there will be an inscription

on the button offering to close it. At this step, the

current-controlled switch goes back to the horizon-

tal position, and the slider will appear under the but-

ton. By moving the slider to the right, the rheostat

slider will also move along the upper guide. At this,

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658

Figure 7: Implementation of displaying the ScrollView component.

Figure 8: Setting the displaying button for the Scrol-

lViewHL component.

the voltmeter and amperemeter pointers are deﬂected

from their initial positions, and the light intensity will

increase. The made electrical circuit of the program

is shown in ﬁgure 12.

The development of the practical training scene is

started by loading the electronic models of tables and

components of the electric circuit. All the equipment

is scaled up and placed as shown in ﬁgure 12. Connect

the clamps of each device in series using the red con-

necting wires. By default, the wires are inactive, that

is invisible. The Canvas component is added and set

up. The information button

is activated by the But-

ton command that includes the display of the Panel

tool with the instruction on the section operation. The

“Back” button operates via the SceneManager script

and forwards the user to the main menu. In the right

part of the Canvas, using the Button command, the

buttons for in-series connection of all elements of the

diagram are added. The ﬁrst button “Connect battery

to lamp” is active and visible for the observer. Other

buttons, such as “Connect voltmeter to lamp”, “Con-

nect lamp to amperemeter”, “Connect amperemeter

to rheostat”, “Connect rheostat to switch”, “Connect

switch to battery” and “Close the circuit”, are super-

imposed and inactive. The operation principle of the

buttons is as follows: once the active button “Connect

battery to lamp” clicked, the commands of On Click ()

are activated (ﬁgure 13).

The ﬁrst line of commands refers to the settings

GameObject.SetActive of the object Kabel1 (con-

necting wire from the battery to the lamp) and dis-

plays (represents) it in the scene. The second line

of commands also refers to the settings GameOb-

ject.SetActive of the object ButtonLampa-Voltmeter

only (the button “Connect voltmeter to lamp”) and

also represents it in the scene. According to the

same principle, the last line of commands inactivates

the button ButtonAcum-Lampa (“Connect battery to

lamp”). In a similar way, other buttons for connection

of the electric circuit with the connecting wires are set

up.

The click set-up of the last button “Close the cir-

cuit” is shown in ﬁgure 14.

Once the Button is clicked, the ﬁrst lime of com-

mands is activated – animation SwitchClose of the

object (Electric Knife switch (Animator)) in Anima-

tor.Play. According to the animation, the handle of

the current-controlled switch rotates around the axle

and closes the electric circuit.

The second line of commands refers to the set-

tings GameObject.SetActive of the object Point Light

(point light of the lamp) and makes it active. There-

fore, now we can turn on, change the light intensity

and turn off the light.

The third line of commands refers to the settings

GameObject.SetActive of the object ButtonStart (the

button “Close the circuit”) and represents it in the

scene.

In a similar way, the last line of commands acti-

vates the Slider.

At this development stage, nothing occurs when

the Slider moves. For proper settings of the slider, the

following tasks should be solved when it moves:

1. Synchronous movement of the rheostat slider.

2. Rotation of the voltmeter and amperemeter point-

ers to the required indications.

3. Change of the light intensity using the Point Light

aids.

The movement of the rheostat slider when the

Slider moves is implemented as follows. The slider

Development of Augmented Reality Mobile Application in Physics to Study the Electric Circuit

659

Figure 9: Operation scheme of the theory checks scene.

Figure 10: Button settings with correct answer.

consisting of two parts, a carriage and a contact, was

taken from the electronic model of the rheostat as-

sembly. The positions of these parts were set so that z

axes were directed along the rheostat and the follow-

ing script was written:

using System.Collections;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using UnityEngine;

public class Karetka : MonoBehaviour

{

public GameObject ReostatKaretka;

public GameObject ReostatKontakt;

public void Slider_Change(float

newValue) {

Vector3 posKaretka =

ReostatKaretka.transform.localPosition;

posKaretka.z = newValue;

ReostatKaretka.transform.localPosition =

posKaretka;

Vector3 posKontakt =

ReostatKontakt.transform.localPosition;

posKontakt.z = newValue;

ReostatKontakt.transform.localPosition =

posKontakt;

}

Writing the scenario on movement of the rheo-

stat slider is started by writing public class Karetka

and introduction of two public GameObject – Re-

ostatKaretka and ReostatKontakt. In the pub-

lic method public void SliderChange(), the pa-

rameters are speciﬁed in the form of ﬂoat data

with the data name newValue. Local coordi-

nates of the carriage of the rheostat slider Re-

ostatKaretka.transform.localPosition are saved as the

coordinates Vector3 named posKaretka. The object

ReostatKaretka will move exclusively along the z

axis, that is why this coordinate posKaretka.z has

a new assigned data value newValue. The new co-

ordinates for ReostatKaretka.transform.localPosition

are saved as posKaretka. The similar line of

the script is also written for the second part of

the rheostat slider – the contact (ReostatKontakt).

As the Slider is the Canvas object, the script is

added to this component and the public objects Re-

ostatKaretka and ReostatKontakt are assigned. In the

settings Slider, section On Value Changed (Single)

for the script Canvas (Karetka), the relevant func-

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660

Figure 11: Successful theory checks results.

Figure 12: Operation of the practical training scene.

Figure 13: Button settings to connect the connecting wires

to devices.

tion Karetka.SliderChange is selected Now, when the

slider moves to the right, the rheostat slider will also

change its position along the rheostat.

When the rheostat slider moves, the electric cir-

cuit resistance changes and the amperemeter and volt-

meter pointers are deﬂected from their initial values.

This effect can be implemented in the mobile app as

follows. The electronic models of the amperemeter

and voltmeter pointers are taken out of the assemblies

and set in the required place of the scene. At this,

Figure 14: Button settings to close the electric circuit.

the centres of coordinates of each pointer go from the

centers of the axes of rotation, and the axes match the

axes of rotation. The pointers are rotated by the fol-

lowing script:

using System.Collections;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using UnityEngine;

public class VoltAmmRotate : MonoBehaviour

{

public GameObject Voltmeter;

public GameObject Ammeter;

float angleVolt;

float angleAm;

void Start() {

angleVolt = -41f;

angleAm = -41f;

}

public void Slider (float speed) {

angleVolt = -41 - speed * 90 / 155;

Development of Augmented Reality Mobile Application in Physics to Study the Electric Circuit

661

angleAm = -41 - speed * 60 / 155;

}

void Update () {

Voltmeter.transform.rotation =

Quaternion.Euler(0, angleVolt, 0);

Ammeter.transform.rotation =

Quaternion.Euler(0, angleAm, 0);

}

Writing the scenario based on rotation of the am-

peremeter and voltmeter pointers at the speciﬁed an-

gle is started by writing the public class VoltAmmRo-

tate inheriting the basic class MonoBehaviour.

To upload the pointer models in the game en-

gine, two public objects Voltmeter (for the voltmeter

pointer model) and Ammeter (for the amperemeter

pointer model) are written.

Two variables “ﬂoat angleVolt and angleAm” that

deﬁne the numerical value of pointer rotation are en-

tered. In the method Start(), the coefﬁcients of initial

values of the pointer rotation that depend on the turn

of the coordinate system of the pointers relative to the

global coordinate system of the scene. In our case,

they represent -41f. Therefore, the pointers in both

cases will indicate zero values on the grade.

For slider operation, the method Slider() is written

for which the parameters are speciﬁed in the form of

ﬂoat data with the data name “speed”. In this method,

the pointer angles of rotation will be calculated de-

pending on the slider value. The formulas for calcu-

lation of the pointer angles of rotation are as follows:

for voltmeter – angleVolt = -41 - speed * 90 / 155;

for amperemeter – angleAm = -41 - speed * 60 / 155.

These formulas were obtained through the experiment

according to the data of the real electric circuit (ﬁg-

ure 1).

To rotate any GameObject, the quaternion sav-

ing the Transform rotations in the space should be

changed in the Transform properties. Turning the ob-

ject at the speciﬁed angle is made using the Euler

quaternion (Quaternion.Euler). In our case, the ob-

jects (the voltmeter and amperemeter pointers) turn

around the Y axes only, that is the angles of rotation

around the X and Z axes make 0 degrees. Therefore,

the line of script for turning the voltmeter pointer ap-

pears to be as follows:

Voltmeter.transform.rotation =

Quaternion.Euler(0, angleVolt, 0);

The similar line is also written for turning the am-

peremeter pointer:

Ammeter.transform.rotation =

Quaternion.Euler(0, angleAm, 0);

Enter these two lines into the function Update(). Now,

the voltmeter and amperemeter pointers will turn at

the speciﬁed angle after each movement of the rheo-

stat slider.

The last task on changing the light intensity while

the rheostat slider is moving is implemented by the

means of the Point Light object. The point light is

an internal Unity3d object and its properties have al-

ready contained the light intensity parameters. There-

fore, it is sufﬁcient to link the light intensity to the

Slider object. To do this, one more line to be per-

formed is added in the settings Slider, section On

Value Changed (Single), and then the Point Light is

added where the Light.intensity is selected.

Hence, when the Slider moves, the rheostat slider

is moving in the proper direction, the voltmeter and

amperemeter pointers are deﬂected at the speciﬁed

angle and indicate the effective voltage and current

values, and the light intensity also changes depending

on the indicators.

According to the above method, the last scene

with information about the mobile app authors is cre-

ated, and the installation ﬁle for Android is compiled.

The operation and main options of the mobile

app can be seen in the demo video “Augmented re-

ality program to study the simplest electric circuit”

(YouTube, 2020).

The next stage in the development of any program

is testing. The developed mobile app was tested on

the following Android-based mobile devices:

1. Samsung Galaxy A5 A520F – Android 8.0.0;

5.2” screen; 1920x1080 pixel; 8-core processor

Exynos 7880 Octa; 16MP cam; 3 GB RAM

2. Xiaomi Redmi Note 4x – Android 7.0; 5.5”

screen; 1920x1080 pixel; 8-core processor Qual-

comm Snapdragon 625; 13MP cam; 2 GB RAM=

3. Xiaomi Redmi 4x – Android 7.1.2; 5.0” screen;

1280x720 pixel; 8-core processor Qualcomm

Snapdragon 435; 13MP cam; 2 GB RAM

4. Lenovo S8 A7600 – Android 5.0; 5.3” screen;

1280x720 pixel; 8-core processor MT6592M;

13MP cam; 1 GB RAM

5. Lenovo A6010 Pro – Android 5.0; 5.0” screen;

1280x720 pixel; 4-core processor Cortex-A53;

13MP cam; 2 GB RAM

The correct representation of all scenes and their

components, models movement and rotation, proper

button activation by screen touching should be tested.

According to the test results, it can be concluded

that the program operates correctly on the phones

both based on Android 5.0, and on the newer systems

irrespective of the processor type, screen matrix and

memory capacity.

AET 2020 - Symposium on Advances in Educational Technology

662

Therefore, the mobile app “Augmented reality

program to study the simplest electric circuit” devel-

oped by us reads and recognizes the electric circuit

marker and displays the main menu on the mobile de-

vice screen. At this, the virtual object is correctly

located relative to the marker, and once the buttons

of sections clicked, the relevant scenes for theoretical

training, assessment of received knowledge and ac-

quired practical skills for making the simple electric

circuit are loaded.

The described mobile app development method

makes it possible to implement a number of chal-

lenges of the modern educational process for compre-

hensive learning. It is possible to learn the electronic

models design after studying such disciplines as “En-

gineering Graphics” or “Descriptive Geometry, Engi-

neering and Computer Graphics”. “Advanced Math-

ematics” is the basis for script writing. It is possi-

ble to learn reading the electric circuits and make the

electric circuits when studying the course “Physics”

(Gorda et al., 2018). This Instruction can be the foun-

dation for successful future professional activity of

the students of technical specialties in the electronic

model development; promote learning motivation and

individual work efﬁciency by making the learning

process attention-getting and interesting, especially

after development of own learning aid of new gener-

ation; and the mobile app provides the students with

the opportunity to master practical skills and research

experience by using own gadget.

3 CONCLUSIONS AND

PERSPECTIVES OF FURTHER

RESEARCH

The literature review has shown the wide use of the

AR technology both in social spheres of the human

activity, and during study. The scientists all over

the world give the research results where the AR im-

proves the performance of students in humanitarian

and technical disciplines. It appears that the most

common areas of use of the AR technology are math-

ematics, chemistry, physics, ecology, astronomy, en-

gineering graphics, history, etc.

Many researches show the reasonability of using

the electric models as learning aids, as a man equally

perceives physical and electronic models. However,

the electronic models have a number of advantages in

contrast to the physical models, thus proving the rea-

sonability of description of methodology and creation

of applications for mobile devices using the AR tech-

nology.

The analysis performed for the 3D modelling pro-

grams has given an opportunity to substantiate the

choice of digital product with open code. The main

steps of installation of the game engine and additional

components, including the Vuforia Augmented Real-

ity platform, have been demonstrated. The stages of

the scene development have been provided. Writing

scenarios (scripts) with detailed decoding of each line

has been particularly focused on. The ready program

has been tested by students on mobile phones with

different speciﬁcations while preparing for classroom

learning in physics on the topic of the simple electric

circuit. The demo video demonstrating the program

operation and main features has been also created.

The demonstrated experience in the development of

the augmented reality program in physics will be use-

ful for teachers in writing own applications.

This article describes the methodology of devel-

opment of the mobile app using the AR technology

only on the one topic of physics. In the future, we are

going to create a full-pledged electronic complex (vir-

tual physics laboratory) to include the theoretical part,

tests and exercises for modelling physical phenomena

and experiments.

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