Interactive Physics: A New Tool for Students

Students in any classroom around the world could soon be able to reimagine the standard diagrams in any physics textbook by using an iPad to create 3D simulations that run, jump, or spin across the page, according to a team of computer scientists at CU Boulder led by Ryo Suzuki.

Usually, those diagrams are fixed. We have to imagine what happens.

Ryo Suzuki, Assistant Professor, ATLAS Institute and Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado Boulder

His work at the 37^th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology in Pittsburgh this October earned him and his colleagues a “Best Paper” award.

When a picture of a skier teetering at the top of a jump appears in the high school physics textbook, kinetic energy, such as the energy of a skier speeding down a hill, is one of the subjects the diagram aims to teach. The skier, however, never moves up until now.

Suzuki’s team developed a tool for the new study that allows students to record the diagram using their iPads. After users adjust some settings, the tool uses artificial intelligence to move the skier across the screen. He speeds down the hill, hits the jump, and soars. It is also scientifically accurate: students can adjust the friction on the snow, causing their skier to zoom faster or slower with a few swipes.

Suzuki sees the project as an opportunity to reimagine the textbook, allowing students to witness concepts like electrical currents and momentum in action in addition to reading about physics.

Suzuki stated, “We believe the future of education and learning should be more interactive and personalized.”

It is Alive!

The study’s first author, Aditya Gunturu, recalls his own physics learning. In high school, he would sit through science class thinking there had to be a better way to illustrate concepts to show motion.

I was so frustrated. I wanted to visualize these concepts.

Aditya Gunturu, Study First Author and Master’s Student, University of Calgary

He is not the only one; Gunturu’s mother teaches biology in India and frequently illustrates concepts on a blackboard, such as how cells divide, a phenomenon that textbooks can only depict in pictures.

Augmented Physics, the team’s invention, might be useful.

The tool is based on a Segment Anything model developed by the tech firm Meta. This computer visualization tool allows users to click on an image to highlight objects like a dog or a face.

In a similar vein, teachers and students use Augmented Physics to assign roles to different objects within a diagram, like the skier and the ski jump. After that, the AI uses fundamental physics, like gravity, to move those objects.

It also works with a variety of diagram types. They include diagrams of electrical circuits so that students can see currents zip along wires and optics diagrams so that students can model how a prism refracts sunlight, for example. In a complete circle, the researchers used some of the same diagrams from Gunturu's old physics textbook to test their tool.

Beyond Physics

The team collaborated with science teachers and real physics students to design their product. The tool’s capacity to assist students in conducting their “own little experiments” impressed one educator.

Suzuki pointed out that the tool is not flawless just yet. Currently, it can only convert a fresh diagram into a useful simulation roughly 60% of the time. However, the group is trying to raise those success rates.

Finally, the researcher and his colleagues hope to expand beyond physics by using similar technology to transform any diagram in any type of document into a vivid, 3D world that students can explore using augmented reality glasses.

Suzuki added, “That is our goal—to escape from static 2D into the interactive 3D world.”

Gunturu’s mother, meanwhile, cannot wait for him to create a tool that works with biology textbooks.

He concluded, “That would be her dream come true.”

The new study's co-authors were Yi Wen from Texas A&M University, Nandi Zhang and Jarin Thundathil from the University of Calgary, and Rubaiat Habib Kazi from Adobe Research.

Video Credit: University of Colorado Boulder