A joint research team led by Professor Woohun Lee from the Department of Industrial Design and Professor Geehyuk Lee from the School of Computing has announced the development of an “appcessory” — a device that can be interfaced with a mobile application — that can display layers underneath the surface of an object using augmented reality (AR). Their appcessory, “WonderScope”, is expected to be widely employed in public science exhibitions, museums, and interactive teaching. 

While AR is already widely used in museums and science exhibitions, conventional technologies are limited in that observers must be at a certain distance from the screen to view the exhibits clearly. WonderScope eliminates this constraint, using radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags and multiple sensors to determine the distance and orientation of the device from the exhibit. Not only is it more convenient, but it also ensures that the audience will not be distracted from the exhibit by the AR device.

The technology was tested and validated at three major exhibitions: underground volcanic activity and the insides of volcanic rocks was displayed at the Geological Museum of the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources in 2020, the surface of a bronze mirror with fine linear design was displayed at the National Science Museum in 2021, and a moon landing simulation was displayed in 2022, again at the National Science Museum, using this technology.

In addition to the appcessory, the researchers have developed project templates and other support tools to allow other apps to use WonderScope’s features. WonderScope is connectable with Android devices via Bluetooth. Its compact design — cylindrical with a 5 cm diameter and 4.5 cm in height — allows it to be attached easily to a smartphone and used to observe most exhibits. 

The research team presented WonderScope at this year’s Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (ACM SIGGRAPH), one of the most major international conferences on computer graphics and interactive technologies. It received an honorable mention as an upcoming technology and one of the judges expressed hopes that WonderScope would greatly improve the experience of museum and exhibit visitors.