Enhancement in Online Laboratory Learning Principal Investigators: Drs. Richard Chiou and Yongjin Kwon Research Assistants: Sweety Das Agarwal and Yueh-Ting Yang Applied Engineering Technology Goodwin College of Professional Studies, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA In recent years, many universities across the nation began offering online lab courses over the Internet. Despite some educational advantages, online lab courses suffer from fundamental deficiencies due to (1) lack of realistic, visual communications with a remote site, (2) lack of instruction and feedback from instructors, and (3) lack of technical sophistication in implementing laboratories that contain real-world, advanced manufacturing systems. This will be achieved by providing convenient laboratory experiences over the Internet to a wider audience, especially for the benefits of minority and underrepresented students. To attain the objectives, this project involves the developments of: (1) Adequate means of transmitting a high degree of realism over the Internet, which will narrow the gap between the presence system (i.e., a regular lab on the campus premises) and the tele-presence systems (i.e., an online lab); (2) Intelligent, interactive mechanisms in lieu of instructors in the form of an agent-based tutor system; and (3) Online learning assessment ABSTRACT STEP 3: 3D SYSTEM SETUP AND FINE TUNING The cameras are fixed on the twin camera bar, which is mounted on a tripod. The outputs of the cameras are given to the projectors. The filters and polarizer’s are placed back to back. It is placed in front of the projectors. The outputs from the projectors are projected on a silver screen. There are some factors which should be taken care of so that the 3D image gets the right depth. This 3D video now can be viewed with the help of the shutter glasses. The stereo cameras need to be setup correctly to give a proper depth perception to 3D displays and to reduce the amount of distortion. In addition, to present the life-size of the remote objects as the focal length of cameras changes, the parallax equations will be integrated in the schemes Results and Future Work : INTRODUCTION This is a collaborative project between Drexel University (DU) and University of Texas at El Paso(UTEP). DU will enhance the realism of the remote laboratory by integrating a high fidelity three- dimensional (3D) display system with stereoscopic 3D cameras. UTEP will develop an agent- based tutor system to provide remote users with instructional guidance and feedback. The End -System will be tested at the UTEP to view the lab and control it over the internet. OBJECTIVES How to better represent remote systems over the Internet for enhanced learning effectiveness; How to better educate students without the face-to-face presence of instructors; How to assess online laboratory learning in such settings. Web-enabled Production system at DU and agent – based tutor system at UTEP Collaboration for online Laboratory Learning SYSTEM DESCRIPTION The work according to the proposal for Drexel University was to set up a high quality laboratory which could not only be viewed in 3D environment but could also be controlled online. To achieve this goal the task was divided into various parts : 1.Acquisition of 3D Equipment 2.3D System Setup and fine tuning. 3.Experimental Results. STEP1: ACQUISITION OF 3D EQUIPMENT In order to create a 3 D display system, cameras, projectors, silver screen, polarized glasses, stacker unit, twin camera bar, were used. 3 D image is generally created by overlapping 2 images which are called the left eye and the right eye. The set –up required to create this image is as follows: Two similar cameras are used, which are mounted on a sliding twin camera bar. The output of each camera is fed to a projector and in front of the projector is kept polarizing glasses. The images are projected on a silver screen. The image on the screen is a 3d image and can be viewed with the help of the colored glasses. System Set-up Robot size (in pixels) in the camera field of view: SR(Pixels)=[CD-D].[F+D] -1 Transformed Robot size (in inches) in the tele- presence system (α: scaling factor ) SR (inch)=α[F. No of Pixels -1 ].[SR (pixels The Radius of circle (stereoscopic field of view): R=[T 2 +D 2 ].[2D] -1 A smaller R denotes a larger distortion of task space in the 3D display: Maximize R→ Max ∑ T Student Viewing the 3D display system. After the 3 D viewing the students were asked to fill out some evaluation forms. Below are the some of the results of the questionnaire. From the results we can conclude students really preferred the 3D view over the 2 D view. For the Future we need to make it transfer online at a good rate. Webcams can be used but the rate of transmission isn’t that great. How do you rate this 3D representation scheme compared to the 2D viewing windows using web cameras? The 3D representation scheme appeared intuitive and natural in observing the remote robotic system