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As long as there is a classroom presence, students faithfully cross the “T” and spread their “I” on paper with pen, pencil or paint. But a group of researchers in Taiwan envision a very different learning approach through their AI edge computing program.
The platform allows students to draw handwriting and artworks in the air with their fingers, while motion tracking technology writes it to a computer screen in front of the classroom. This method was described in a study published on April 10 in April 10 IEEE Canadian Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineeringcan help teachers manage and teach a large number of students more effectively, for example, by viewing real-time results of multiple students working on a large screen at the same time.
Liang-bi Chen is an associate professor and chairman of the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Penggu University of Science and Technology, Magong City, Taiwan. He noted that there are several different challenges that can hinder teaching efficiency in the classroom, especially when individual teachers are responsible for a large number of students.
“These [challenges] Including students who have limited interactions between teachers and students, as well as those who work hard to understand the content of the course in real time. Additionally, classroom supplies can be expensive, and sharing of classroom supplies may be unhygienic.
AI Education Tools
The new system proposed by Chen and colleagues can help solve all of these problems. Each student has a device with a screen and webcam, which can track 21 different links of the hand in detail through MediaPipe’s gesture tracking library. The AI model identifies a specific gesture and confirms when the user wants to switch modes (e.g., switch from writing to select color). The work of individual students appears on the screen in front of them, but can also be transferred to the larger screen in the front of the classroom.
Student raises fingersEnter Draw Mode and clench your fist when you want to select another color. If the system detects a finger movement toward the virtual menu area of the edge of the canvas, a menu operation is triggered. When each student performs manual movements in the air, their virtual writing or art is projected onto the large screen in the front of the classroom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbuelkgh2biWatch a novel, a demonstration of an interactive platform that allows students to draw handwriting and artworks in the air with their fingers, while motion tracking technology writes it to a computer screen that writes it to the front of the classroom.IEEE Spectrum/YouTube
“The teacher receives live videos and drawing results from each student, which are integrated and displayed on the large screen to facilitate synchronous teaching and interaction,” Chen explained. He added that students’ writing results will be automatically uploaded to the cloud platform, and their handwriting can also be evaluated after class.
In their study, Chen and his colleagues explore the accuracy of the system, which means it can be used more and more students. The results show that when 5 to 10 students use the program, the system’s performance is 100%. This accuracy dropped to 96% when 30 students used it at the same time. But overall, Chen said these results indicate that “real-time performance and scalability are very suitable for practical classroom applications.”
How does AI improve classroom hygiene?
Chen noted that the overall cost of the system is low, with the total cost of 30 students being around $6,250 and would prescribe the need to regularly purchase classroom supplies. He added that touchless systems can also promote better hygiene in classrooms.
Chen said the limitation of the current system is that its response time gradually decreases as the number of users increases. Currently, it is also limited to virtual writing and drawing features, but his team is working to develop more interactive teaching features such as quizzes or group discussions.
Researchers have patented the system and hope to work with educational institutions or hardware manufacturers to introduce it to Taiwanese schools. They hope to build on the system and its functions by developing automatic scoring systems and facial expression recognition to assess students’ attention.
“We believe that education is one of the most promising areas for digital transformation. Although the system was originally designed to support handwriting and drawing teaching, its core concepts and architecture could adapt to a wider range of teaching programs,” Chen said. “Our goal is to continuously refine and promote the system to ensure that every child has access to a safe, interactive and affordable learning environment.”
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