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Immersive Technologies at the UR Posts

January Newsletter

Doing Augmented Reality well is going to require significant improvements in optical technology.

I still think we are further away from a successful consumer product than most think.

 

Digital Storytelling with VR technology becoming mainstream. Google’s Virtual Reality Spotlight Story ‘Pearl’ Gets Oscar Nomination. 

I highly recommend experiencing both “Pearl” and a short animated VR experience (it’s more than a movie) Allumette with the Vive. Both experiences give you a glimpse of how this new technology can be a beautiful storytelling tool.

 

Designing for Virtual Reality

Designing for virtual reality presents new challenges to a UX designer because good VR prioritizes presence over simplicity and function. How can we design for presence?

The devices that formerly relied on more external cues now rely heavily on how our minds are built and wired. Although user-experience designers have traditionally accounted for cognitive science in how they design mobile and desktop interfaces, the user-experience of virtual reality is different because it does not prioritize function but instead prioritizes displacement.

As a neuroscientist, I don’t know if I 100% agree with the author’s conclusions about the brain on virtual reality but I think they are onto something with how impactful sublime experiences are in VR (i.e. Google Earth).

 

Samsung on the Possibilities of VR in Education

An immersive experience in a virtual reality classroom, however, would be a fundamentally different proposition. The study of anatomy could go beyond frogs to embrace large mammals and even humans, whose computer-imaged insides could be examined in detail. (emphasis is mine)

I’m really looking forward to the day when we can start writing and reading articles that address actual VR education software/hardware instead of hypotheticals.

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December Newsletter

My Thoughts

It’s hard to believe that the fall semester has come to a close. This semester has brought exciting VR developments to the University of Richmond. We’ve created a new VR@UR interest group, hosted VR technology open houses at our new VR space in Jepson, and supported a number of classes using Google Cardboard. I’m excited to get started on new projects and efforts for next semester. If you are interested in joining the VR@UR group and/or using VR technologies in the classroom next semester please get in touch: abell4@richmond.edu.

 

News

Using augmented reality technology to help train crime scene professionals

I suspect we will see more and more of these training/simulations initiatives as hardware devices (i.e. Hololens, Magic Leap) become more mature and ubiquitous.

 

Advocates cite research that shows virtual reality can push the boundaries of empathy and influence decision-making

While this article summarizes the research rather than actually reporting the data, it is a great summary of ways both content creators and distributors are experimenting with VR technology/content.

“Over the past two years, technology giants and Hollywood have poured millions of dollars into virtual reality in the hope that the medium will transform gaming and entertainment. But a growing crop of filmmakers, policymakers, researchers, human rights workers and even some law enforcement officials see a broader societal purpose in the emerging medium’s stunning ability to make people feel as if they have experienced an event firsthand.”

 

Want to Know What Virtual Reality Might Become? Look to the Past

Great look back at the technological and cultural driving forces that push innovators to develop new devices and experiences.

“Everyone knows the old saying “Necessity is the mother of invention,” but if you do a paternity test on many of the modern world’s most important ideas or institutions, you will find, invariably, that leisure and play were involved in the conception as well.”

 

 

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