A Development of 3D Augmented Reality Mobile Application to Facilitating Ecotourism-based Herbal Learning in MFU Botanical Garden

Abstract

Visiting a botanical garden to study plants is difficult for tourists to understand according to their scientific information and contexts truly. With ecotourism-based learning, the tourists can enjoy learning with the guiding support; moreover, the traveling experience becomes more interesting. In this perspective, Augmented Reality technology could help enhance this learning experience by providing beautiful graphics and sound effects. 2D and 3D graphics could describe herbal plants' characteristics in this botanical garden. The visitors can study the plants through both the real herbal plants and augmented reality data technology. Before conducting this project, all requirements were gathered from botanical garden officers and visitors, who mostly preferred the freedom to learn by their own paths while enjoying the garden. Therefore, the mobile application was designed and developed. The visitors can use the developed mobile application and walk through the garden in a self-learning environment. To ensure that visitors can seek the herbal plants they want to study, the application creates a realistic 3D plant model, making it more convenient to match the data with the real trees. The plant's information could present its characteristics and how the plant has been used by local people. This enables visitors to study the garden through the application's graphics and sounds. This mobile application can be further developed in the future to create more engaging and meaningful learning activities in the gardens. Visitors could have fun while learning at the same time through the mobile learning activity.