SUGISAKAMASANORI

Journal of Robotics, Networking and Artificial Life
Vol. 10(3); December (2023), pp. 270–274
ISSN (Online): 2352-6386; ISSN (Print): 2405-9021
https://alife-robotics.org/jrnal.html

Research Article

Basic Research on Virtual Technology for Educational Support
Video Production
Satoshi Ikeda1, Kodai Miyamoto1, Kaoru Ohe1, Makoto Sakamoto1, Amane Takei1, Masahiro Yokomichi1, Kenji Aoki1,Tsutomu Ito2, Takao Ito3
Faculty of Engineering, University of Miyazaki, Miyazaki-City, Miyazaki, Japan
National Institute of Technology, Ube College, Ube-City, Yamaguchi, Japan
3
Graduate School of Engineering, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan
12ARTICLE INFO
Article History
Received 14 December 2022
Accepted 06 April 2024
Keywords
Chemistry
Education
Physics
ScienceSimulation
Virtual reality

ABSTRACTIn 2016, we conducted a survey of high school students regarding science classes, and found thatthe percentage of high school students who answered that they "like science" or "science isimportant" was lower than for other subjects. However, more than 80% of elementary and juniorhigh school students answered that they ``like experiments and observations.'' Additionally, a2019 smartphone penetration rate survey found that approximately 90% of students use
smartphones. Additionally, recent advances in VR technology have been remarkable. Based on
the above, I thought that creating a simulation app using VR technology using smartphones couldchange the way high school students think about science classes. In this paper, we developed anew simulation application for science experiments. The subjects were asked to experience thenewly created app and answer a questionnaire. The average score was 4 out of 5, which was poor.
However, a problem was also discovered at the same time. The problem is that this app is asimulation app, so the user experience is not very good, so I would like to develop an app that isa little more user-friendly in the future. I would like to create apps for other fields while improving
the problem.
© 2022 The Author. Published by Sugisaka Masanori at ALife Robotics Corporation Ltd.
This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

1. Introduction
In 2016, the Science Subcommittee surveyed materials
on science and found that the percentage of high school
students who answered that they ``like studying science''or ``studying science is important'' was lower than forother subjects. However, more than 80% of elementaryand junior high school students answered that they "likeexperiments and observations." A 2019 smartphone
penetration survey found that approximately 90% ofstudents own a smartphone. Most schools have computerclassrooms. Additionally, each classroom is equippedwith a computer for teachers. Under these circumstances,
it is thought that the educational effects of various classes
can be further enhanced. Based on the above, thisresearch aims to contribute to education by creating ascientific simulation application that utilizes VR
technology (Fig. 1) [1], [2], [3].

2. Physics experiment app

Fig. 1 Image of cargo handling training at a container
terminal using VR (Sakamoto Lab.)

Corresponding author E-mail: saka2000@cc.miyazaki-u.ac.jp.

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In this study, we attempted to create a physical simulationof "projection motion" and "falling object motion." Since
these experiments require large-scale experimental
equipment and it may be difficult to obtain accurate
numerical values, we thought it would be appropriate toconduct the experiments in a virtual environment.
2.1. Development environment
This survey was conducted in the environment shown in
Table 1[4], [5].
Table. 1 Development environment
operating system

Windows10

Programming language

C#software

Unity 2019.2.15f1

Fig. 3 Created Falling exercise app
3. Chemical experiment app

2.2. Implemented function

In this study, we tried to make prototypes of chemical
experiment simulations of "flame reaction" and "silver
mirror reaction". Since these experiments use manysolutions and experimental tools, it may be difficult toprepare and clean up, and since the experiments take time,
we thought that they were suitable for solving theshortage of class time.

In this study, we implemented the following two physics
experiment simulations.
1. Projectile motion
2. Falling exercise
2.2.1. Projectile motion
Projectile motion moves from the initial position. After
deciding the angle and speed and pressing Start Button,
the object will be fired and the distance will be displayed.
If it is difficult to check the current situation, you canzoom in and out on the ball with the zoom below (Fig. 2).

3.1. A. Development environment
This survey was conducted in the environment shown in
Table 2.
Table. 2 Development environment

operating system

Windows10

Programming language

C#software

Unity 2019.2.15f1
Blender 2.81

In this study, we implemented the following two
simulations of chemical experiments (Fig. 4).
1. Flame reaction
2. Silver mirror reaction
Fig. 2 Created projectile motion app
2.2.2 Falling exercise
I made a slope that controls the falling speed by rolling the ballwhile changing the angle of the slope. Determine the angle oftilt and press Start to start spinning the sphere. The tilt angle,ball speed, and ball position are displayed (Fig. 3).

Fig. 4 Created scientific experiment simulation app.
4. Evaluation experiment
An evaluation experiment was conducted to verify
whether the developed science experiment simulation
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app was useful. We conducted a questionnaire to 10people, including students in the laboratory, andevaluated the usefulness and usability of the system. The
contents of the questionnaire are the following four points.
Evaluation item 1: Was it easy to operate?
Evaluation item 2: Was the result of the experiment easy
to understand?
Evaluation item 3: Was it easy to imagine a physicalphenomenon?
Evaluation item 4: Opinions and points to be improved(free description)
Evaluation items 1 to 3 will be evaluated on a scale of 1
to 5 points, and evaluation item 4 will be freely described.

Fig. 6 Examples of questionnaire improvement points

4.1. Experimental result

5. Consideration

The figure below shows the average of the evaluation
results for evaluation items 1 to 3.
The average score for evaluation item 1 and evaluation
item 2 was 4.4 points.
The average score for evaluation item 3 is 4.8 points,
which is higher than that of evaluation item 1 andevaluation item 2.

Regarding evaluation item 4, there were many opinions
regarding the expansion of functionality. Expansion toVR was also mentioned as an expansion of functionality.
When applied to VR, we can expect benefits such as asense of immersion and ease of imagining physicalphenomena, but since it requires VR-specific equipment,
it is necessary to devise ways to make it easy for anyone
to use.

For evaluation item 4
 good point“Physics experiment”
 Easy to understand the trajectory of the sphere“Chemical experiment”
 Easy to understand the flow of the experiment
There were opinions such as.

6. Future tasks
If we can create a simulation app that is similar to theteaching materials that students normally use, it will bepossible to support education in a variety of subjects, notjust science. Also, before creating an app, it is necessary
to think about what kind of app can support student
education. Although it was not possible to expand to VR
this time, if expansion to VR is possible, it would bepossible to achieve a more realistic feeling by actually
representing the acoustic room and science room during
the experiment. This will be a future issue.

 Improvements“Physics experiment”
 Display of the distance of the object that wasskipped one before
 Change the trajectory of the ball from a point to aline“Chemical experiment”
 Addition of tutorial Change the touched part to make it easier tounderstand
There were opinions such as Fig. 5 and Fig. 6.

7. Summary
As mentioned at the beginning, VR technology has maderemarkable progress in recent years. In this research, weattempted to create an application that allows science
experiments using virtual reality, but as mentioned in thefuture work section, special equipment is required toreproduce VR, so we only attempted CG images. .
However, the results of evaluation experiments revealed
that a useful application had been created. The ultimate
goal is to create a system to support education (Fig. 7).

Fig. 5 Questionnaire average score272

Dr. Makoto Sakamoto
He is a professor in the Faculty ofEngineering, University of Miyazaki.
His first interests lay in hydrodynamics
and time series analysis, especially thedirectional wave spectrum. He is atheoretical computer scientist, and his
current main research interests areautomata theory, languages, and computation. He is alsointerested in digital image processing, CG, VR, AR,MR, AI, complex systems, and so oDr. Amane Takei
He is working as a professor forDepartment of Electrical and systems
Engineering, University of Miyazaki,
Japan. His research interest includes
high performance computing forcomputational
electromagnetism,
iterative methods for the solution ofsparse linear systems, domain decomposition methods
for large-scale problems. Prof. Takei is a member ofIEEE, an expert advisor of IEICE, a delegate of IEEJ, adirector of JSS

Fig. 7 Extension to VR
References

1. Explorers Lab, "[Part 1] First Time with Unity! Start by
Making the Object Fall Freely", in Japanese, 2018 [Online].
2. National Institute for Educational Policy Research,“FY2015 National Academic Achievement/Learning Status
Survey, Key Points of the Survey Results”, in Japanese,
2015 [Online].
3. UNIMEDIA INC., "Smartphone Ownership Rate is 85%,
Rapidly Increasing in 5 Years...LINE Usage Rate is 75%",
Tsuhantsushin EDMO, in Japanese, 2020 [Online].
4. Aimi Kitamura, "Unity 5 Textbook 2D & 3D Smartphone
Game Introductory Course", SB Creative Co., Ltd., inJapanese, 2016.
5. Takenao Oshima, Hiroki Matsushima, Nobuhiro Kono,"Introduction to Unity VR app development that you cancreate and learn", Gijutsu-Hyohron Co., Ltd., in Japanese,
2018.

Dr.. Masahiro Yokomichi
He is an associate professor of Facultyof Engineering at University ofMiyazaki, Japan. He received his D.
Eng. degree in Precision Enngineeringfrom Hokkaido University in 1995. His
research interest is Robotics andComputer Vision.

Authors Introduction

Dr. Kenji Aoki

Dr.. Satoshi Ikeda
He received PhD degree fromHiroshima University. He is anassociate professor in the Faculty ofEngineering, University of Miyazaki.
His research interest includes graphtheory, probabilistic algorithm, fractalgeometry and measure theory

He received Ph.D. of Engineering from
Kagoshima University in 2010. He iscurrently working in Information
Technology Center at University ofMiyazaki as an associate professor, since2010. His research interests include bioinformatics, evolutionary computation, information
system and Intelligent systems. He is a member of IPSJand JSET.

Mr. Kodai Miyamoto
He received a master's degree fromDepartment of Computer Science andSystem Engineering, University ofMiyazaki. He is currently working at
Panasonic Corporation. His current
research topic is a fundamental study
on educational support using VR
technology.

Dr. Tsutomu Ito
He is an associate professor of theDepartment of Business Administration
at National Institute of Technology, Ube
College, Japan. His current researchinterests include internet of things (IoT),
mechanicalengineering,artificial
intelligence (AI), automata theory, quantitative analysis
of Japanese Keiretsu. He earned his doctor degree ofEngineering from Hiroshima University, Japan in 2018

Dr. Kaoru Ohe

She received her Ph.D. degrees fromUniversity of Miyazaki, Japan, in 2014.
Currently she is an associate professorof the Center for Science andEngineering Education, Faculty ofEngineering. Her
research isseparationengineering
especiallyadsorption hazardous heavy metals and oxyanions.

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Dr. Takao Ito

He is a professor of Management ofTechnology (MOT) in Graduate Schoolof Engineering at Hiroshima University.
His current research interests include
automata theory, artificial intelligence,and systems control, quantitative
analysis of interfirm relationships using graph theory,and engineering approach of organizational structuresusing complex systems theory.

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