A tangible augmented reality system to support comprehension of radiation shielding

A tangible augmented reality (AR) system was developed to visualize electromagnetic cascades through solid materials. 3-D cascade images calculated by the EGS4 simulation software are overlaid on a USB camera image almost in real time. Learners can observe electromagnetic cascades while handling blocks of real shielding materials. This system was demonstrated at a public science event. By way of a questionnaire survey, it appeared that it was the first time to hear about electromagnetic cascades for about the 90% of the child participants and that they felt the system made it easy for them to understand how cascades change with differences in both density of shielding materials and incident energies. Some teaching assistants, however, stated that some children had difficulty understanding the incident direction of photons. A new function called time evolution was added to show growing electromagnetic cascades. This system was improved to be suitable and effective tools for primary school educators to promote the radiation awareness by addition of the time-evolution function.