Your Face, Your Anatomy: Flashcard Lenses Enriched with Knowledge Maps for Anatomy Education

Traditional anatomy flashcards, with their recognizable static illustrations on the front side and comprehensive lists of concepts on the back, are a long-standing tool for memorizing and refreshing anatomical concepts. This study repurposes such established tool by introducing two key elements: (i) Augmented Reality (AR) lenses acting as magic mirrors enabling users to view anatomical illustrations mapped onto their own faces, and (ii) a knowledge map layer acting as the card’s backside to visually and explicitly illustrate conceptual connections between anatomical reference points. Using Snapchat’s Lens Studio, we crafted a deck of interactive facial anatomy flashcards to assess the potential of AR and knowledge maps for retaining and refreshing anatomical concepts. We conducted a user study involving 44 university-level students. Divided into two groups, participants utilized either flashcard lenses with knowledge maps or traditional flashcards to quickly grasp and refresh anatomical concepts. By employing an approach that integrates anatomical quizzes for objective assessment with surveys and interviews for subjective feedback, our results indicate that anatomy flashcard lenses with knowledge maps offer a more engaging educational experience, yielding higher user preferences and satisfaction levels compared to traditional flashcards. While both approaches showed similar effectiveness in quiz scores, anatomy flashcard lenses with knowledge maps were favored for their usability, significantly reducing temporal demand. These findings underscore the engaging and effective nature of anatomy flashcard lenses with knowledge maps, highlighting them as an alternative tool for the quick retention and review of anatomical concepts.