Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google


Free Mixed Reality App Teaches Magnetic Field

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 09/24/19

A Japanese company has released an open source application that helps students visualize magnetic fields using Microsoft HoloLens. Wearing headsets, students can visualize how the magnetic field works in two or three dimensions by manipulating virtual bar magnets with their fingers and watching how compass needles respond to this invisible phenomenon.

Wearing headsets, students can visualize how the magnetic field works in two or three dimensions by manipulating virtual bar magnets with their fingers and watching how compass needles respond to this invisible phenomenon.

The code for the app was produced by Microsoft partner Feel Physics, which has tested the program with students in five countries, including the United States. According to Developer Tatsuro Ueda, the app has been applied up in science classes at 10 schools, three of which have confirmed "that the app is effective for learning the magnetic field."

Wearing headsets, students can visualize how the magnetic field works in two or three dimensions by manipulating virtual bar magnets with their fingers and watching how compass needles respond to this invisible phenomenon.

Ueda, president of Feel Physics, has published the HoloLens code to GitHub with the hope that the use of the program will be picked up by other teachers for their science classrooms as well as other education developers to port to other platforms, "such as Magic Leap One, Oculus Quest, iPad, Pixel3 and many others." Ueda noted in his GitHub readme file.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • tool icons with variety of business icons

    SETDA Releases Free EdTech Quality Action Toolkit

    The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) has put together a free K-12 EdTech Quality Action Toolkit that provides a framework for evaluating education technology products as well as guidance on regulatory compliance, templates for communicating with vendors, training resources, and more.

  • Young child

    When Technology Serves Learning, Not the Other Way Around

    A reflection on designing learning experiences where technology supports instruction rather than defines it.

  • abstract colored blocks

    OpenAI Letting Go of Sora Short-Form AI Video Platform

    OpenAI is reportedly getting rid of Sora, its generative AI model that creates short video clips from text prompts, images, or existing video inputs. The move upends the company's December partnership with The Walt Disney Company.

  • abstract generative AI technology

    Apple and Google Announce AI Deal to Bring Gemini Models to Siri

    Apple and Google have embarked on a multiyear partnership that will put Google's Gemini models and cloud technology at the core of the next generation of Apple Foundation Models, a move that could help Apple accelerate long-promised upgrades to Siri while handing Google a high-profile distribution win on the iPhone.