Space Wormhole (Einstein-Rosen bridge)

thingiverse

The project is a common representation of a wormhole or an Einstein-Rosen bridge; it will be brought in the physical world for a better understanding and it will be also related to the augmented reality via software and plug-ins as the Ar-media’s products or any kind of software for augmented reality which has the possibility to use a 3D model as trigger. How I Designed This The model is been created in Autodesk 3ds Max. It's obtained by low poly modeling basic shapes which are successively smoothed. Project: Space Wormhole (Einstein-Rosen bridge) Objectives Better understanding of any kind of things, especially the complex ones, through the interaction Audiences In this case the audiences are the High school students or higher, but it would be nice to engage even the middle school students, which could be inspired from the complexity and the beauty of our Universe. Preparation The student must have a basic knowledge of how the Universe and its fabric work (It’s good that after the discovery of gravitational waves we know little more about this). Also the students must have a smart-phone with the app of the chosen AR software on it, at least one smart-phone every two students (it will good to approach by step to the augmented reality, because as the 3d print is relatively new). The construction of the model and the implementation of the AR, under the guidance of a teacher. It could be an interesting lesson for every student since this two technologies represent, according to the experts, our future. Steps The focus of the project is bring to live an abstract concept as the wormhole, make it tangible and have the possibility to interact with it; more different kinds of information are shown to the user about the same thing, more it will be absorbed (an example are the video adv whom bring together images, sounds and written words). The first step is to create the 3d model of the wormhole, with any kind of 3d software and export it as .stl for 3d printing and export it in the format requested for the chosen AR software eventually. The second step could be done simultaneously with the print; this step is variable and depends on the software used for the implementation of the AR content, but anyway thats the point when the 3d print shows its power; in fact tracking a real object for the AR can be difficult and it can be slow because you have to create a digital 3d model for the use, it should be exactly the same as the real one; obviously if you print a model you already have the digital model, so everything become easier. After this you have to add the AR content, produced or taken somewhere, on the model and the job is done, now you can use the smart-phone to bring the 3d model to live and explore it. Results Since I will put the 3d model on Thingiverse the students must only add the AR to it, but it will be cool to apply this work-flow and structure to different classes and themes, and push the students to create every piece of the project. From this specific object they will learn more about an interesting theoretical phenomenon that, with the recent discoveries, isn’t so impossible anymore and I hope that they will be caught by the incredible beauty of the Universe. In general I would like to communicate to every educator the importance of trying to make things more attractive for the students, not because they aren’t unable to understand with the “classic method”, but because with the pro-active learning is easier to learn and to be attracted by the learning itself. Knowledge is power, even in dark times.