Start spreading the news…I’m leaving today. Unfortunately, however, I’m leaving NYC not heading to the city which is what the Frank Sinatra classic is all about. But what a great 6 days it has been. It truly is the city that never sleeps – although I’ve been so tired by the end of the day that 8 hours minimum has been a requirement.
My time here in NYC has involved visits to universities, one VR expo and an afternoon at VR World – the biggest VR experience in the city. And as I reflect on what I’ve seen and experienced here in the Big Apple I can’t help but think of Formula 1.
Let me explain.
Your daily commute, if you use a car, has been directly influenced by Formula 1 car racing – and not just if you’re driving an expensive, high-powered Ferrari or Mercedes Benz. Any car that has tyres, suspension, brakes and rear view mirrors has car racing to thank. (A side note, if your car doesn’t have tyres, suspension, brakes or a rear view mirror, I think you should seriously consider trading up!) To succeed in car racing your team needs to have an edge. And generally this edge comes from developing new technology. New tyre developments helped the racing car grip better through corners and in the wet. Better brakes made the car slow down faster, allowing for more time at top speed. And rear view mirrors (this actually came from racing) allowed a driver to see his competitors as they were coming up behind him. How about suspension, engine air intakes or being able to start your engine with the push of a button? If any of these are part of your car, you can thank the racing technology teams that thought up and designed these additions that we now take for granted.
But what does this have to do with VR?
As mentioned in my previous blog VR technology is just starting out. It’s at the relative beginning of things and there are other related “branches” of technology that will play a huge part in the progression of AR and VR, namely photography and gaming. Both of these activities are hugely popular and a great deal of money is being invested into them. Photographic companies are developing new lenses, greater resolution sensors and new ways of viewing images. Gaming companies are creating new, exciting and immersive games and experiences for traditional game play and for VR. And as the technology develops AR and VR will develop, and with it new and exciting opportunities for the education sectors.
NYVR expo was held in Manhattan last week and I was luckily enough to attend. I must say, however, it was a little underwhelming. It was part of a combined Photography/VR expo and while it was held in a huge convention centre, 95% of the space was taken up by photography stalls and only one small strip was for VR. This was just another example of how much in its infancy VR technology is currently. During my time there, I was able to play around with some headsets and discuss software and experiences with the stall holders who were present. A great idea that I hadn’t seen before, was a long, time-line poster that teachers could stick up on their walls and, through AR, link different historical events. Students would scan the poster with either their phone or tablet and the embedded information would show up on their screen. I’ve seen similar ideas to this before but none linked to a timeline through history. And at only $150 for the poster, which can be used again and again, some more investigation into this resource is definitely warranted.
My time at the New School in Manhattan was eye opening. This “school” is actually a university and they are developing a VR stream within their media component of the institution. The university itself was actually co-started by John Dewey – who came up with the library cataloguing system that was named after him. Through my time here, I was able to discuss with Maya Georgieva – the Director of Digital Learning, how their VR program came about and how the students are investigating this technology. I also was to play with a Google VR program called Tiltbrush. It’s phenomenal! It’s a painting program where you actually get to paint in 3D space. It’s really easy to pick up and so much fun to play with and, since it’s from Google, it’s also free to use. I can’t wait to bring this back the CAPA faculty at MHS.
My last visit in New York was to VR World. This place is the largest mixed reality centre in the USA and has over 50 immersive experiences. Shooting games, scary games for Halloween, racing simulators and “beat” games – similar to “Guitar Hero”. The place is very well supervised and they have a number of staff on hand to help you in and out of the equipment and also with how to play the games. While they are all “games” as such they also offer “field trips” to schools in the area to come and utilise their equipment. They have set up specific programs that link with the NYC school curriculum in areas of maths, physics and art. Here I got to experience the true immersiveness of VR through a range of games but from one experience in particular. Richie’s Plank Experience (watch this YouTube clip).
Basically there’s a plank of wood on the ground and you walk across it, however, you have a VR headset on and the plank appears to be 30 stories in the air. I kept telling myself that it was on the ground yet it was petrifying walking out on the plank. Somehow your brain could know, both at the same time, that the experience was perfectly safe yet extremely dangerous.
And that’s the potential benefit and drawback of VR. Experiences that feel so real that you react with actual bodily emotions. I was actually shaking as I walked out on the plank. There was a guy from the centre next to me that had to help me balance the whole way, even though I knew that I was actually only 3cm above the ground. As this technology improves, and with it the range of immersive education experiences, students will be able to, perhaps, feel empathy for a displaced people group that they view during a war time situation or anger for a historical injustice that they’ve just witnessed, even though the event happened perhaps decades earlier. Maybe they’ll be able to walk on the moon in a VR suit that mimics the weightlessness of space. Who knows?
We don’t know what the future holds for this technology in the education space, but technology in the fields of photography and computer gaming will, quite likely, be the precursor to these developments. We need to let the “major” technologies spend the money on research and development and watch the new discoveries and inventions find their way into VR and into the education sphere. We need to learn the lessons from Formula 1.
And as it happened, at VR World, they had a Formula 1 VR simulator. You sat in a racing seat and drove using a wheel and pedals, all the while wearing VR goggles for the full on immersive experience.
And the lesson I learnt from this Formula 1 experience? That VR can cause motion sickness.
I think I’m going to throw up!
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