Abstract
In the educational process, the support for the presentations displayed at courses, seminars and laboratory hours are the PowerPoint slides. Usually, a simple on-screen slide is not enough for students to understand complex information, requiring additions like verbal explanations and sometimes, to complete the presentation, there are needed drawings, sketches, charts, flowcharts or arrows.
To create a presentation, there are used various methods today, from the simplest ones (projecting the slides on the whiteboard and the usage of water-based markers to overwrite) to some more complex, like using interactive whiteboards which can be written directly with special pens.
However, there are cases when the screen size is too large and the reader is not even near it. The same thing happens when there is not used a projection screen and the presentation is displayed on a white wall. In these cases, it is required a new approach for teaching methods, especially for emphasize and addition of information in real time.
This paper presents the new methodology for using a Natural User Interface (NUI) dedicated device (e.g. Microsoft Kinect) in PowerPoint presentations, considering the following actions: achieving additions and changes in real time, on the same screen with the PowerPoint presentation. Kinect is a peripheral low-cost device that allows users to interact with data, using body gestures and voice commands.
We propose a series of intuitive NUI actions based on body postures, gestures and voice commands used to make additions to the classical presentation such as underline, highlight, drawings, diagrams, various smart-arts. The GUI of the developed program is similar to the one of the classical Windows Paint program. There were performed tests and calibration of equipment, in order to modify / correct the positions / movements attached to each action.
The advantage of the developed application is the usage of low cost equipment to create an intuitive human computer interface that improves the traditional presentations. |