Mixed Reality System for Virtual Chemistry Lab

Abstract

This paper presents a new method for improving teaching aids with the design and development of a chemistry education platform - the Mixed Reality (MR) Chemistry Lab. Our system provides a new educational experience in which students can simulate a chemistry experiment in a virtual lab and interact with objects using Oculus Helmet-Mounted Displays (HMD) and hand controller devices. The proposed system aims to familiarize students with experimental procedures and safety knowledge before conducting actual experiments. Moreover, students will be able to observe microscopic atomic structure models in three dimensions. Our research also includes a five-part, quantitative evaluation system user tests perform using a quantitative questionnaire consisting of five items, including hardware equipment, immersion, education, interaction sense of control, and degree of difficulty. The evaluation results confirm that this system will be helpful to the educational experience of conducting chemistry experiments with scientific evaluation methods, and the proposed system is also expected to have a broad range of applications in many other subjects.