DARA (Dijkstra’s Augmented Reality Animation)
DARA has been designed to facilitate learning Dijkstra’s algorithm, which finds the shortest paths between nodes in a weighed graph. The application captures the specific Java source code of the book* through the smartphone camera and incorporates text explanations and visualizations of its behavior. In addition, it allows tracing the behavior of the code.
The use of the tool begins by displaying the problem statement and an explanation of the greedy scheme. Subsequently, the smartphone camera is activated and allows focusing Dijkstra’s algorithm source code in Java printed on the book or other physical or digital medium. Depending on the code fragment focused at each moment, two possible visualizations can be activated automatically: 1) several textual explanations that the tool inserts in the display of the source code captured by the camera, and 2) 3D visualization of graph.
(*) Sahni S (2008) Data Structures, Algorithms, and Applications in Java. Sillicon Press, New Jersey
