{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,18]],"date-time":"2025-12-18T13:37:49Z","timestamp":1766065069957,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":57,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2015,8,31]],"date-time":"2015-08-31T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1440979200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In this paper, we present Virtual Touch, a toolkit that allows the development of educational activities through a mixed reality environment such that, using various tangible elements, the interconnection of a virtual world with the real world is enabled. The main goal of Virtual Touch is to facilitate the installation, configuration and programming of different types of technologies, abstracting the creator of educational applications from the technical details involving the use of tangible interfaces and virtual worlds. Therefore, it is specially designed to enable teachers to themselves create educational activities for their students in a simple way, taking into account that teachers generally lack advanced knowledge in computer programming and electronics. The toolkit has been used to develop various educational applications that have been tested in two secondary education high schools in Spain.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s150921760","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2015,9,1]],"date-time":"2015-09-01T10:55:58Z","timestamp":1441104958000},"page":"21760-21784","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":32,"title":["Developing Mixed Reality Educational Applications: The Virtual Touch Toolkit"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Juan","family":"Mateu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Universidad Aut\u00f3noma de Madrid, Madrid 28049, Spain"}]},{"given":"Mar\u00eda","family":"Lasala","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"IES Ernest Lluch, Cunit 43881, Tarragona, Spain"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5607-6165","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xavier","family":"Alam\u00e1n","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Universidad Aut\u00f3noma de Madrid, Madrid 28049, Spain"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2015,8,31]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"105","DOI":"10.1080\/01587910303047","article-title":"Teaching in 3D: Pedagogical affordances and constraints of 3D virtual worlds for synchronous distance learning","volume":"24","author":"Dickey","year":"2003","journal-title":"Distance Educ."},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"Cole, M., John-Steiner, V., and Scribner Sand Souberman, E. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes, Harvard University Press."},{"key":"ref_3","first-page":"46","article-title":"The evolution of constructivist learning environments: Immersion in distributed, virtual worlds","volume":"35","author":"Dede","year":"1995","journal-title":"Educ. Technol."},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"Reigeluth, C.M. (1999). Instructional-Design Theories and Models: A New Paradigm of Instructional Theory, Lawrence Erlbaum Associate."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Babu, S., Suma, E., Barnes, T., and Hodges, L.F. (2007, January 10\u201314). Can immersive virtual humans teach social conversational protocols?. Proceedings of the IEEE Virtual Reality Conference, Charlotte, NC, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/VR.2007.352484"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"79","DOI":"10.1080\/09588220600804087","article-title":"Learning interaction management in an avatar and chat-based virtual world","volume":"19","author":"Peterson","year":"2006","journal-title":"Comput. Assist. Lang. Learn."},{"key":"ref_7","first-page":"27","article-title":"Creating presence and community in a synchronous virtual learning environment using avatars","volume":"3","author":"Annetta","year":"2006","journal-title":"Int. J. Instr. Technol. Distance Learn."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"33","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-8535.2008.00900.x","article-title":"Use of three-dimensional (3-D) immersive virtual worlds in K-12 and higher education settings: A review of the research","volume":"41","author":"Hew","year":"2010","journal-title":"Br. J. Educ. Technol."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Dalgarno, B., and Lee, M.J.W. (2012, January 25\u201328). Exploring the relationship between afforded learning tasks and learning benefits in 3D virtual learning environments. Proceedings of the 29th ASCILITE Conference, Wellington, New Zealand.","DOI":"10.14742\/apubs.2012.1581"},{"key":"ref_10","unstructured":"Creelman, A., Petrakou, A., and Richardson, D. (2008, January 2\u20134). Teaching and learning in Second Life\u2014Experience from the Kamimo project. Proceedings of the Online Information 2008 Conference: Information at the Heart of the Business, London, UK."},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"AVALON Project. Available online: http:\/\/avalonlearning.eu\/."},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"AVATAR Project. Available online: http:\/\/www.avatarproject.eu\/."},{"key":"ref_13","unstructured":"NIFLAR Project. Available online: http:\/\/niflar.eu\/."},{"key":"ref_14","unstructured":"TILA Project. Available online: http:\/\/www.tilaproject.eu\/."},{"key":"ref_15","unstructured":"CAMELOT Project. Available online: http:\/\/camelotproject.eu\/."},{"key":"ref_16","unstructured":"ST.ART Project. Available online: http:\/\/www.startproject.eu\/."},{"key":"ref_17","unstructured":"TALETE Project. Available online: http:\/\/www.taleteproject.eu\/."},{"key":"ref_18","first-page":"52","article-title":"A Programming Experience of High School Students in a Virtual World Platform","volume":"27","author":"Rico","year":"2011","journal-title":"Int. J. Eng. Educ."},{"key":"ref_19","first-page":"129","article-title":"The development of a virtual learning platform for teaching concurrent programming languages in Secondary education: The use of Open Sim and Scratch4OS","volume":"10","author":"Pellas","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. E-Learn. Knowl. Soc."},{"key":"ref_20","unstructured":"The River City Project. Available online: http:\/\/muve.gse.harvard.edu\/rivercityproject\/."},{"key":"ref_21","unstructured":"EcoMUVE. Available online: http:\/\/ecomuve.gse.harvard.edu\/."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bailey, F., and Moar, M. (2002, January 21\u201326). The Vertex Project: Exploring the creative use of shared 3D virtual worlds in the primary (K-12) classroom. Proceedings of the ACM SIGGRAPH 2002 Conference Abstracts and Applications, San Antonio, TX, USA.","DOI":"10.1145\/1242073.1242090"},{"key":"ref_23","first-page":"103","article-title":"Constructing a successful cross-national virtual learning environment in primary and secondary education","volume":"14","author":"Ligorio","year":"2006","journal-title":"AACE J."},{"key":"ref_24","unstructured":"Sheehy, K., Ferguson, R., and Clough, G. (2010). Controversial Issues in Virtual Education: Perspectives on Virtual Worlds, Nova Science Publishers."},{"key":"ref_25","first-page":"26","article-title":"Web removes social barriers for those with autism","volume":"2610","author":"Biever","year":"2007","journal-title":"New Sci."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Fitzmaurice, G., Ishii, H., and Buxton, W. (1995, January 7\u201311). Bricks: Laying the Foundations for Graspable User Interfaces. Proceedings of the CHI\u201995 SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Denver, CO, USA.","DOI":"10.1145\/223904.223964"},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ishii, H., and Ullmer, B. (1997, January 22\u201327). Tangible Bits: Towards Seamless Interfaces between People, Bits, and Atoms. Proceedings of the CHI\u201997 the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human factors in computing systems, Atlanta, Georgia.","DOI":"10.1145\/258549.258715"},{"key":"ref_28","unstructured":"Papert, S. (1980). Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas, Basic Books, Inc."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Stringer, M., Toye, E.F., Rode, J., and Blackwell, A. (2004, January 5\u20139). Teaching rethorical skills with a tangible user interface. Proceedings of the 2004 Conference on Interaction Design and Children: Building a Community, Lisbon, Portugal.","DOI":"10.1145\/1017833.1017835"},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Africano, D., Berg, S., Lindbergh, K., Lundholm, P., Nilbrink, F., and Persson, A. (2004, January 24\u201329). Designing tangible interfaces for children\u2019s collaboration. Proceedings of the CHI04 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Vienna, Austria.","DOI":"10.1145\/985921.985945"},{"key":"ref_31","unstructured":"Stanton, D., Bayon, V., Neale, H., Ghali, A., Benford, S., Cobb, S., Ingram, R., O\u2019Malley, C., Wilson, J., and Pridmore, T. (April, January 31). Classroom collaboration in the design of tangible interfaces for storytelling. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Seattle, WA, USA."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Horn, M.S., and Jacob, R.J.K. (2007, January 15\u201317). Designing tangible programming languages for classroom use. Proceedings of the 1st international conference on Tangible and embedded interaction, Baton Rouge, LA, USA.","DOI":"10.1145\/1226969.1227003"},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gallardo, D., Julia, C.F., and Jord\u00e0, S. (2008, January 2\u20133). TurTan: A tangible programming language for creative exploration. Proceedings of the Third annual IEEE international workshop on horizontal human-computer systems, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.","DOI":"10.1109\/TABLETOP.2008.4660189"},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wang, D., Qi, Y., Zhang, Y., and Wang, T. (2013, January 24\u201327). TanPro-kit: A tangible programming tool for children. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, New York, NY, USA.","DOI":"10.1145\/2485760.2485841"},{"key":"ref_35","unstructured":"Ullmer, B., Ishii, H., and Jacob, R. (2003, January 22\u201327). Tangible query interfaces: Physically constrained tokens for manipulating database queries. Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer-Human Interaction, Crete, Greece."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Langner, R., Augsburg, A., and Dachselt, R. (2014, January 16\u201319). CubeQuery: Tangible Interface for Creating and Manipulating Database Queries. Proceedings of the Ninth ACM International Conference on Interactive TableTops and Surfaces, Dresden, Germany.","DOI":"10.1145\/2669485.2669526"},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Girouard, A., Solovey, E.T., Hirshfield, L.M., Ecott, S., Shaer, O., and Jacob, R.J.K. (2007, January 15\u201317). Smart Blocks: A tangible mathematical manipulative. Proceedings of the 1st international conference on Tangible and embedded interaction, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.","DOI":"10.1145\/1226969.1227007"},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"268","DOI":"10.1504\/IJART.2008.022363","article-title":"On stage: The reactable and other musical tangibles go real","volume":"1","year":"2008","journal-title":"Int. J. Arts Technol."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Roberto, R., Freitas, F., Sim\u00f5es, F., and Teichrieb, V. (2013, January 28\u201331). A dynamic blocks platform based on projective augmented reality and tangible interfaces for educational activities. Proceedings of the 2013 XV Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality (SVR), Cuiaba, Brazil.","DOI":"10.1109\/SVR.2013.11"},{"key":"ref_40","unstructured":"Mur\u00f3, B., Santana, P., and Maga\u00f1a, M. (2012, January 3\u20135). Developing reading skills in Children with Down Syndrome through tangible interfaces. Proceedings of the 4th Mexican Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, Mexico DF, Mexico."},{"key":"ref_41","first-page":"108","article-title":"Use of Tangible Interfaces to Support a Literacy System in Children with Intellectual Disabilities","volume":"Volume 8867","author":"Guerrero","year":"2014","journal-title":"Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence. Personalisation and User Adapted Services"},{"key":"ref_42","unstructured":"Farr, W., Yuill, N., and Raffle, H. (2009, January 4\u20139). Collaborative benefits of a tangible interface for autistic children. Proceedings of the Human Factors in Computing Systems conference (CHI 2009), Boston, MA, USA."},{"key":"ref_43","first-page":"1321","article-title":"Taxonomy of Mixed Reality Visual Displays","volume":"12","author":"Milgram","year":"1994","journal-title":"IEICE Trans. Inf. Syst."},{"key":"ref_44","unstructured":"Gardner, M., Scott, J., and Horan, B. (2008, January 20\u201321). Reflections on the use of Project Wonderland as a mixed-reality environment for teaching and learning. Proceedings of the ReLIVE 08 Conference, Milton Keynes, UK."},{"key":"ref_45","unstructured":"Tolentino, L., Birchfield, D., and Kelliher, A. (2009, January 29\u201330). SMALLab for Special Needs: Using a Mixed-Reality Platform to Explore Learning for Children with Autism. Proceedings of the NSF Media Arts, Science and Technology Conference, Santa Barbara, CA, USA."},{"key":"ref_46","unstructured":"M\u00fcller, D., and Ferreira, J.M. (2003, January 20\u201321). MARVEL: A mixed-reality learning environment for vocational training in mechatronics. Proceedings of the Technology Enhanced Learning International Conference, (TEL\u201903), Milan, Italy."},{"key":"ref_47","first-page":"93","article-title":"An Innovative Educational Format Based on a Mixed Reality Environment: A Case Study and Benefit Evaluation. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences","volume":"138","author":"Fiore","year":"2014","journal-title":"Soc. Inf. Telecommun. Eng."},{"key":"ref_48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"93","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-540-24674-9_11","article-title":"A Mixed Reality Learning Environment for Geometry Education","volume":"3025","author":"Nikolakis","year":"2004","journal-title":"Lect. Notes Comput. Sci."},{"key":"ref_49","first-page":"6","article-title":"The magicbook\u2014Moving seamlessly between reality and virtuality","volume":"21","author":"Billinghurst","year":"2001","journal-title":"IEEE Comput. Graph. Appl."},{"key":"ref_50","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mateu, J., and Alam\u00e1n, X. (2012, January 3\u20135). An Experience of Using Virtual Worlds and Tangible Interfaces for Teaching Computer Science. Proceedings of the 6th Ubiquitous and Ambient Intelligence Conference, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-35377-2_66"},{"key":"ref_51","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mateu, J., Lasala, M.J., and Alam\u00e1n, X. (2013, January 2\u20136). Tangible Interfaces and Virtual Worlds: A New Environment for Inclusive Education. Proceedings of the 7th Ubiquitous and Ambient Intelligence conference, Guanacaste, Costa Rica.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-03176-7_16"},{"key":"ref_52","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mateu, J., Lasala, M.J., and Alam\u00e1n, X. (2014, January 2\u20135). Virtual Touch Book: A Mixed-Reality Book for Inclusive Education. Proceedings of the 8th Ubiquitous and Ambient Intelligence conference, Belfast, Northern Ireland.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-13102-3_22"},{"key":"ref_53","unstructured":"Phidgets. Available online: http:\/\/www.phidgets.com\/."},{"key":"ref_54","unstructured":"Kinect for Windows. Available online: http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/kinectforwindows\/."},{"key":"ref_55","unstructured":"Arduino. Available online: http:\/\/www.arduino.cc\/."},{"key":"ref_56","first-page":"54","article-title":"The future of multimedia: Bridging to virtual worlds","volume":"32","author":"Dede","year":"1992","journal-title":"Educ. Technol."},{"key":"ref_57","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R., and Nacke, L.E. (2011, January 28\u201330). From Game Design Elements to Gamefulness: Defining Gamification. Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments, Tampere, Finland.","DOI":"10.1145\/2181037.2181040"}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/15\/9\/21760\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T20:47:42Z","timestamp":1760215662000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/15\/9\/21760"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2015,8,31]]},"references-count":57,"journal-issue":{"issue":"9","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2015,9]]}},"alternative-id":["s150921760"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s150921760","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"1424-8220"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2015,8,31]]}}}