Blurring the Lines of Reality - 2016 Update

I was fortunate to attend Magnify recently, a two day Virtual and Augmented Reality conference hosted as part of Auckland Tech Week. Although focus was directed at the entertainment, media and marketing sectors with speakers like Academy Award winning stunt coordinator Guy Norris from Proxi VR, Ian Taylor from Animation Research, and New York advertising heavyweight Catherine Patterson, responsible for Dell Computers Golf the City AR campaign, I came away with plenty of ideas how this technology can benefit the eduction sector.




Vendors had plenty to show off. Nokia was unveiling its $100,000 Ozo professional VR camera and at the consumer end of the market Samsung's Gear 360 Camera and Headset could well be this Christmas's Hoverboard. To experience being inside a cinematic movie experience courtesy of Proxi VR film technology, where action is taking place all around you rather than in front of you and actors communicate to you as if you were actually in the scene is an unreal experience. 

Immersive technology is seen by those in the know as crossing over into the mass market this year.  There are big clues as to what is becoming possible for us in the education sector. True VR is still out of reach to most institutions but experiences such as the Quake History Demo developed by New Zealand company Sensorium, demonstrate the educational possibilities this technology will offer. 

YouTube, Vimeo and "visual expressionist" kings GoPro now support 360 video (to experience this, watch the example videos at the bottom of the post) and with Samsung investing heavily in consumer products, like it or not, the flood of user generated content is almost upon us. With its applications ranging from advertising, media, tourism, medicine real estate...... and yes education, VR and AR is being touted as a significant new development.


Quake History Demo from Sensorium VR on Vimeo.

Its easy to come away from an event like this and think that there is no way this will happen in education. Think again. It wasn't long ago that the idea of filming your own video resources and posting them online seemed like science fiction. AR and 360 video technology will appear first. Products the Gear 360 put surround video production in the hands of anyone and software like Aurasma assist with AR content and is already being used in schools. Stay tuned for the first AR resources coming to Waiariki Bay of Plenty Polytechnic in the next few months.


Here are three quite different examples of 360 degree video. I particularly like the Chernobyl example as it skilfully incorporates historical footage into the ruins of the former Soviet nuclear power station.

360 Degree Tornado - use the arrow controls to navigate around, or even better download the latest version of the YouTube app and watch on your phone




Primary School Age 360 Solar System Tour



360 Chernobyl Documentary Trailer


...... and as a first day of winter bonus - an amazing video of the soon to be released Omni from GoPro. Click here

The Increasingly Blurred Line of Reality.

The idea of Virtual Reality (VR) is not new, in fact the first VR machine, The Sensorama was invented way back in the digital Jurassic of the 1950's.
Those of you lucky enough to grow up in the pre-digital era will remember arguing with siblings over who got to watch Disney cartoon strips through the awesome Viewmaster, who's early versions pre-date the Sensorama and will be relaunched later this year based on Google's $25 Cardboard VR headset. And of course lets not forget the universe was saved from the forces of the Dark Side by an imploring Princess Leia hologram to Obe Wan Kenobi.

So what's VR got to do with education?

In some fields of study, it will be truly game changing. At Case Western Reserve University for example, the Medical Faculty is using new Microsoft technology called Hololens. Not only can anatomy students project a human body in front of them, they can use hand movements to interact and manipulate the hologram. Think Chemistry students inside a virtual atom, Automotive students studying an engine with specific parts removed, Architecture students developing 4D buildings and doing walk throughs as not so unrealistic future examples.

To see Hololens in action, take a look at the video below.

With heavyweights like Microsoft, Google and Facebook (who bought startup VR headset maker Oculus Rift for $2 billion earlier this year) all developing VR hardware, expect to see this technology trickle into educational, industry and entertainment applications in the very near future.
For your own completely free VR like experience download this app from VR company DAQRI (iOS and Android versions available). . Follow the instructions and be amazed.