Reality Labo

Reality Labo is a platform and community designing and collaborating in learning experiences using augmented reality. Rapidly prototype augmented reality games, puzzles, escape rooms, and other learning experiences to play and share.

What does it mean when we can connect anything real to anything digital? The concepts of mixed reality, digital twins, and virtual worlds will play an increasing role in the future of work, play and human inquiry. Reality Labo is a sandbox to play with these concepts.

Augmented Reality for Learning and Engagement - Reality Labo is an immersive learning platform that is free, easy to use, and doesn't look to take all your data. It's designed to be a simple, fast and easy way to deploy augmented environments for teaching and learning. Rapidly prototype augmented reality games, puzzles, escape rooms, and other experiences to play and share.

This application will require the use of a special set of playing cards. This card set is a standard 52 card deck that has been designed specifically for augmented reality. Reality Labo will recognize these cards and display digital contents on top of them in real time.

There are many projects to experience in the app. Each project connects a new set of digital contents to the playing cards. Different projects pose different augmented, gamified experiences such as puzzles, games, escape rooms and others. Most of the experiences are made for individuals but others are made for groups or teams. Browse and try projects in the app to find one for you and your friends or classmates to try.

As a teacher, Reality Labo can be used to provide gamified learning experiences in the classroom and facilitate collaborative learning projects. There is a community of teachers and students using Reality Labo to learn a variety of subjects from science to humanities. It also is a great way to create media projects to give experience and skills for future creators using augmented and virtual reality.

Here are some examples of augmented learning experiences available in Reality Labo:

- Library Scavenger Hunt – Students find hints with Reality Labo cards, this took them on a hunt from which by the end, students were orientated to the library, its facilities, and how to find books.
- AR Quiz Rally – Tourists in a small town in Japan use these cards to guide tourists to points of interest.
- Cultural Heritage Preservation - Students in Kyoto, Japan using this app to give cultural and historical perspective to key locations.
- Escape Rooms - Workplace team building experiences using augmented reality much like an escape room.
- Card games - Re-imagining classic card games by adding various types of new media.

A great deal of opportunity for learning lies in the integration of technology into the education environment. Teachers and students can both benefit from technology by being more efficient and effective. Learning, teaching, and social organization issues can be addressed by technology, in addition to pedagogical changes.

This project was created by Eric Hawkinson, a learning technologist living in Japan. The goals of this project are to find new and creative uses for augmented reality in learning, refine best practices of AR for fun and engagement, and research the use of AR in learning environments. You can find research and projects related to Reality Labo at https://erichawkinson.com

Reality Labo has also partnered with Together Learning to provide courses and other learning content that utilizes this application. These courses are being utilized by colleges and universities to teach immersive design principles. You can find more information about these courses at https://togetherlearning.com

There are possibilities to create your own projects or get assistance in creating custom learning experiences for your needs. Find out more at https://realitylabo.com