Oculus Quest hand-tracking turns one apartment into an XR playground. 

Remember that scene in Minority Report where Tom Cruise’s character cycles through a bunch of important police data by swiping his hands across a massive holographic display? Imagine having that same type of interactivity while sitting on your couch; or your dining room table; hell, maybe even your toilet.

XR wizard Greg Madison, an interaction designer for spatial computing, has made science-fiction a reality by turning his own home into a mixed reality playground using the Oculus Quest.

In a short video posted yesterday to Twitter, Madison shows off a custom-built VR environment layered perfectly over his real-world apartment. This means the virtual table in his dining room could actually be leaned on; the sofa in his virtual living room is, for all intents and purposes, a real sofa.

However, these are no ordinary pieces of digital furniture. VR should be better than reality, and Madison’s project definitely fully embraces that ideology. Like an early-2000’s science fiction film, several of the chairs, tables, and other amenities of Madison’s mixed reality apartment feature various interactive displays that can be controlled via the Quest’s built-in hand-tracking.

In the video, Madison can be seen navigating a tabletop version of Google Maps paired to his dining room table, scrolling through sheet music above an electronic keyboard, interacting with the Bigscreen app on the living room TV, and scrolling the web from the comfort of an armchair. 

Given the Quest’s generous guardian-boundary limit, it’s encouraging to see developers continue to build VR experiences that take advantage of this exciting technology. We recently covered the alpha release of an ambitious location-based shooter for the Quest that pushes the boundaries of standalone VR. Hopefully, Madison motivates Oculus, as well as other VR developers to continue exploring the Quest’s potential as a mixed reality, location-based platform.

To check out more of Madison’s unique spatial reality projects, make sure to drop by his official Twitter. 

Feature Image Credit: Greg Madison

The post This Oculus Quest Mixed Reality Apartment Is Straight Out Of Minority Report appeared first on VRScout.

Consumer electronics giant Lenovo announced a 3DoF standalone VR headset for the education market.

UPDATE: This article previously focused on an FCC filing pointing to a low cost VR headset from Lenovo and then GamingScienceTeacher pointed out the recent announcement.

Called VR Classroom 2, the headset resembles Facebook’s Oculus Go, but with large padding on the backstrap. This is likely to balance the weight of the frontbox for a more comfortable experience.

Like Oculus Go and Oculus Quest, this is a standalone headset. That means the processing is done on the headset, so no PC is required.

Specifications

No cameras are visible on the headset and no positional tracking system is listed so this is most likely a 3DoF headset like Oculus Go. That means it likely only tracks the rotation of your head, not the position. This means the world feels locked to your head when you lean forward, backward, or to the side.

The headset uses the Snapdragon 835 chipset, the same as is used in the Oculus Quest.

The resolution is listed as 1920×2160 per eye, meaning the headset uses a 4K panel. This should give comparable panel sharpness to the HP Reverb, which should allow even small text to be read — which is an important feature for educational apps. The refresh rate is 75 Hz, slightly higher than the Go’s 72 Hz.

Unlike the Go or Quest, Lenovo’s headset supports microSD cards to expand the storage. 64GB of onboard storage is provided.

Integrated audio means students won’t need to plug in headphones, and a 4200 mAh battery means that assuming the software is not badly optimized, the headset should run for even longer than Facebook’s standalone products.

No price is listed, and there’s no indication of Lenovo offering this outside the education market.

Lenovo’s Fourth VR Headset

This isn’t Lenovo’s first VR headset- or even their first standalone. Back in 2018 the company partnered with Google to deliver the Mirage Solo, which launched during the same week as Facebook’s Oculus Go. The headset featured positional tracking, but the controller (like Go’s) was only 3DoF, acting as a laser pointer.

By all accounts the Mirage Solo did not sell large volumes on the market. This is likely due to the fact that it was twice the price of the Oculus Go while not providing the 6DoF tracked controllers of PC VR and Oculus Quest or any ports of major PC VR titles.

For PC VR, in 2017 Lenovo released a low cost PC VR headset based on Microsoft’s Windows MR reference design, which interfaces with the Windows MR platform. Last year, Facebook released the Oculus Rift S PC VR headset, which is built by Lenovo.

The post Lenovo Announces Oculus Go Competitor For Classrooms appeared first on UploadVR.

Mojo Vision is revealing a smart contact lens with a tiny built-in display that lets you view augmented reality images on a screen sitting right in front of your eyeballs. It’s an achievement that just makes me say, “Wow. This is the future!”

I didn’t think we would really get to see this kind of technology in 2020, as it still seems like something out of science fiction. Steve Sinclair, senior vice president of marketing at Mojo Vision, calls it Invisible Computing, a platform that overlays information on what you see in the real world — without requiring you to wear a huge gadget on your head.

Back in May, Sinclair showed me a screen that could display 14,000 pixels per inch, making it the smallest and densest dynamic display ever made. I saw a monochrome picture of Albert Einstein sticking his tongue out, but I still wondered why this display had enabled the company to raise $108 million in funding.

Science fact

Above: The Mojo logo on a sign.

Image Credit: Mojo Vision

But this week, Sinclair invited me to the company’s headquarters in Saratoga, California and showed me the contact lens with the little display. I didn’t get to wear it, but I saw a prototype and demos of what you would see through the contact lens if you were wearing it. The demo showed simple green words and numbers hovering over objects in the real world. This would allow you to, for example, use an AR overlay to recall the name of someone who was approaching you.

“We have figured out how to take that world’s most dense display,” Sinclair said. “We have a medical-grade contact lens, supply power, and data. And eventually we will get to the point where we’ve got all sorts of cool gadgets to show.”

The display uses MicroLEDs, a technology expected to play a critical role in the development of next-generation wearables, AR/VR hardware, and heads-up displays (HUDs). MicroLEDs use 10% of the power of current LCD displays, and they have five to 10 times higher brightness than OLEDs. This means MicroLEDs enable comfortable viewing outdoors.

Big plans for a little device

Above: The Mojo Lens is a contact lens with an augmented reality display.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

Mojo Lens promises to deliver the useful and timely information people want without forcing them to look down at a screen or lose focus on the people and world around them. In terms of mass production, Mojo’s Invisible Computing platform won’t be ready for a while, but the prototypes are coming together.

Over time, the company is striving to create lenses that look exactly like the cosmetic contact lenses that make your eyes look a different color. The lens will have tiny little displays, batteries, and other components to fit a whole computer on top of your eyeball.

The company wants to enable a platform that makes information instantaneous, unobtrusive, and available hands-free.

“It’s a rigid, gas-permeable lens,” he said. “It is super comfortable because it sits on the white part of your eye.”

Above: Drew Perkins is CEO of Mojo Vision.

Image Credit: Mojo Vision

That’s like the hard contact lenses some people wear because they find the soft ones uncomfortable. The harder lens rests on your eye, rather than on your cornea (that is, it rests on the white part of your eye, rather than the part you see with). Mojo Vision plans to tailor each contact lens to fit the wearer’s eyes.

“We want it to sit perfectly like a puzzle piece, and it doesn’t rotate and it doesn’t slip,” Sinclair said. “And that’s … one of the secrets that makes this whole thing work, and why anyone who’s trying to do this … with the soft contact lens is probably going to be miserable, because normal contact lenses are always moving around and sliding around and slipping and rotating.”

Mojo Vision holds patents for the development of an augmented reality (AR) smart contact lens dating back more than a decade. The company is currently demonstrating a working prototype of the device.

“We’ve had to invent almost everything we put in the lens,” Sinclair said. “As you can imagine, we’ve invented our own display. We’ve invented our own oxygenation system, we’ve invented our own power data, we’ve invented our own ASICS (custom chips) and power management tools. We’re inventing our own algorithms for eye-tracking.”

Mojo is conducting feasibility clinical studies for R&D iteration purposes under an Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval. The Mojo Lens is currently in the research and development phase and is not available for sale anywhere in the world.

The company’s product development plans had previously been in stealth.

Possible use cases

Above: Steve Sinclair is senior vice president of marketing at Mojo Vision.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

The Mojo Lens is designed to span a range of consumer and enterprise use cases. Additionally, the company is planning an early application of the product to help people struggling with low vision through enhanced image overlays. This application of the Mojo Lens is designed to provide real-time contrast and lighting enhancements, as well as zoom functionality.

With its inconspicuous contact lens form factor, Mojo Lens is designed to serve as a low vision aid that could remain discreet for the wearer and allow a hands-free experience while delivering enhanced functional vision to assist in mobility, reading, and sighting.

The company says the Mojo Lens incorporates a number of breakthroughs and proprietary technologies, including the smallest and densest dynamic display ever made, the world’s most power-efficient image sensor optimized for computer vision, a custom wireless radio, and motion sensors for eye-tracking and image stabilization. The Mojo Lens includes the Mojo Vision 14,000-pixel-per-inch (ppi) display, which was announced in May 2019. The display delivers a pixel density of over 200 million ppi, making it the smallest, densest display ever designed for dynamic — or moving — content.

Mojo Vision CEO Drew Perkins said in a statement that the company’s goal for Invisible Computing is to give you the information you want when you want it without bombarding you or distracting you with data when you don’t want it.

Help for the visually impaired

Above: Mojo Vision is in the R&D stage now.

Image Credit: Mojo Vision

The company also announced today that it is working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) through the latter’s Breakthrough Device Program, a voluntary program designed to provide safe and timely access to medical devices that can help treat irreversibly debilitating diseases or conditions.

And Mojo Vision announced a new partnership with the Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, a Palo Alto, California-based nonprofit that offers rehabilitation services to more than 3,000 children and adults with blindness or impaired vision each year. Through the partnership, Vista Center clients will play a direct role in defining Mojo Vision’s innovative technology and providing input to the company’s team of scientists and engineers.

Karae Lisle, executive director of Vista Center, said in a statement that the technology partnership offers a chance to improve vision rehabilitation and improve the quality of life for the center’s clients.

In turn, the partnership will help Mojo Vision bring better, more user-friendly devices to market, contribute to vision rehabilitation, and improve the quality of life for Vista Center clients and others with similar needs. Sinclair also showed me a demo of that technology. By wearing these contact lenses, people with low eyesight can better make out shapes such as street signs because the display recognizes what they are and visually enhances them.

This kind of application is what prompted the Food and Drug Administration to put Mojo Vision on its “breakthrough device” fast track. By receiving breakthrough device designation for the development of the Mojo Lens, the company will work directly with FDA experts to get feedback, prioritize reviews, and develop a final product that meets or exceeds safety regulations and standards.

With this technology, Mojo Vision is working to help the 2.2 billion people who suffer from vision impairment. The company hopes people with visual impairments will be able to use the contact lenses to do everyday activities like crossing the street. This aspect of the business also means Mojo Vision will have a medical device division.

Building a company

Above: The vision for the Mojo Lens assembly.

Image Credit: Mojo Vision

Mojo Vision has raised over $108 million in investments from NEA, Shanda Group, Khosla Ventures, Advantech, Gradient Ventures, HP Tech Ventures, Motorola Solutions, LG Electronics, Liberty Global, Fusion Fund, and others.

The company was cofounded by Perkins, CTO Mike Wiemer, and chief science officer Michael Deering and is led by a team of Silicon Valley veterans from companies such as Apple, Amazon, Google, HP, Microsoft, Motorola, Infinera, Agilent, and Marvell. The team includes medical device and optometry experts from companies like CooperVision, Abbott, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Philips Healthcare, and Zeiss Ophthalmology.

Mojo Vision was founded in late 2015 and built the first lens with wired power and a single LED light in 2017. Then it moved to wireless power and a new optical system with the ability to focus an image on the back of the user’s retina. The latest model has oxygenation built into it so you can keep it sitting on your eye comfortably for extended periods of time, Sinclair said.

When the product goes into production, you will visit your optometrist to get your eyes measured and then Mojo Vision will cut the lens to fit the shape of your eyes. I’m taking a guess, but that’s probably not going to be cheap.

Above: Maybe her Mojo Lens is telling her she knows you and she doesn’t like you.

Image Credit: Mojo Vision

“Eventually, the lens will have motion sensors like accelerometers and magnetometers so that we can do eye-tracking on the eye, figuring out what you are looking at,” he said. “We require orders of magnitude less power. The goal is to get this to one milliwatt of power.”

I did a demo in which I looked at different objects in order to interact with the screen. I had to look to the left, for instance, to click on a page and then look at an arrow to make a selection. That sounds weird, but I was using my eyes to control the screen. You may be able to get the data for the computing from a necklace that you wear, which would be wirelessly connected to your eyeball computer. You might also be able to control the screen with your voice.

“We’re all about visibility, mobility, being able to use it anywhere,” he said. “A lot of our effort over the next couple of years is going to add to the software part of what we are doing.”

While the technology could be used for all kinds of cool things, Mojo Vision has to be careful to make sure it isn’t used to spy on people à la James Bond. And it’s going to be some time before this kind of display can be used to play video games.

Sinclair added, “We’re building out a medical device company. We’ve got the innovation of a tech company, the discipline of a medical device company, and we’re pulling all of that together into one company, which is not easy.”

Mojo Vision has 84 employees.

This post by Dean Takahashi originally appeared on VentureBeat. 

The post Mojo Vision Is Putting An Augmented Reality Screen On A Contact Lens appeared first on UploadVR.

There was a point, in my very first hour with BattleGroupVR, when I commanded an ally spaceship to attack a far-off enemy from my holodeck-esque map of the battlefield. As I did so, I noticed a giant spaceship trundle past my own ship in my peripheral vision. It then dawned on me that the ship I had just commanded and the one moving past me were actually the same ship, and that the battles and moves I commanded from my deck would play out around me in space.

This realization is what makes BattleGroupVR so compelling, dynamic and unique. This isn’t your standard real-time strategy game. The spaceship that you command your fleet from is also one of the ships right there in the battle. You watch as missiles fly past your ship towards one of your allies. You make a wrong move, send a ship in the wrong direction, and watch it fall under attack in the distance. And when things get really dicey, you can even switch away from the strategic map view and take manual control of your own ship, piloting it away to safety or towards an enemy to attack.

Every minute of the game is dynamic. You can seamlessly switch between the strategic map, commanding multiple ships at once, and the manual controls for your own ship, allowing for some some classic dog-fighting space combat. While commandeering your own ship, you can quickly adjust the distribution of resources, through easily adjustable sliders. Need to make a quick getaway or re-position? Just send more energy to the engine, at the expense of your firepower. Or perhaps you want to double down on both your shields and firepower, which will leave you with little resources left for the ship’s engines.

But you don’t want to spend too long piloting your own ship, lest the rest of your fleet be left on their own with no commands. You can easily switch back to the strategy map for an overview, which you can also adjust and re-size to suit your current needs.

Whether you’re commanding your fleet on the map or piloting your own ship, the battle is always raging on around you in real-time. The scope of the game can be truly breathtaking at times.

The game quickly becomes focused on balancing multiple different elements at once. It was easy for me to get lost in the first-person spaceship dogfighting, but I would then often realize that I had neglected the strategy map. It’s all about striking the right balance and while I didn’t play enough of the game to master that back-and-forth, I still had a load of fun, even when I was losing.

I tried out two modes, Campaign and Skirmish. The former was about what you would expect – you’re able to pick from a variety of levels in the campaign that range in difficulty and objectives. Working your way through them will unlock more content and harder levels, allowing you to upgrade your ship, captains and fleet along the way. On the other hand, Skirmishes are essentially quick custom games with no limitations, allowing you to pick your ship, fleet and captains (and do the same for the opposing side) and go head-to-head in a space strategy battle with an enemy fleet.

Both modes were a lot of fun, but there is some room for improvement overall. The learning curve is quite steep, and the tutorial feels somewhat lengthy and protracted despite all the info being relevant, with no way to skip through the subtitled explanations being given by a humanoid AI/robot instructor.

There’s also sadly, yet understandably, no multiplayer support at the moment. This isn’t a surprise, as implementing multiplayer modes would be a huge undertaking. That being said, one of my initial thoughts while playing my first skirmish was “wouldn’t this be cool if I was actually fighting against my friend controlling the opposing fleet.”

We asked the developers SpaceOwl Games if multiplayer support was planned in the future, and they said it’s something they would like to see as well and support could come “maybe down the line.” However, they also made it clear that this would definitely not be before early access, and that multiplayer co-op or vs modes would only happen if there a playerbase to support implementing them.

Despite this, BattleGroupVR definitely has enough on offer to pique your interest already. I can see strategy game fans getting very invested in this game, spending multiple hours commanding fleets and perfectly striking the fine line between large scale battleground strategy and the manual spaceship combat. While I’ll probably never reach that point of expertise, I still had much more fun messing around in this hybrid strategy game than I have in many other RTS games.

You could be a strategy noob or aficionado, but I’ll wager a guess that you’ll find the hybrid elements of this game dynamic and fresh, even if just for a few hours. Whether the game has legs in the long-term end will largely depend on how much you enjoy strategy games as a genre. For now, though, commanding a space battle that rages on in 360 degrees around you in real-time should keep you entertained for quite a bit.

According to developers SpaceOwl Games, BattleGroupVR is aiming for a mid-year early access release on PC VR, with the full release to follow at the end of the year. It is available to wishlist on Steam now.

The post Hands-On: BattleGroupVR Merges Spaceship Strategy With Aerial Dog-Fight Combat appeared first on UploadVR.

Rec Room received an update this week that brings the Laser Tag game modes and maps to the Oculus Quest version of the game. The mode was previously only available to users on other platforms.

Laser Tag is one of the more popular game modes in Rec Room, which sees two teams of four compete with futuristic weapons in a team deathmatch format. As of this latest update, Quest users will be able to join the Laser Tag fun, with both maps, “Hangar” and “Cyberjunk City”, available on the Quest.

This isn’t the only new addition for Quest players either – according to a Reddit post detailing the update, “Quest players can now visit The Park (and all custom rooms build [sic] on top that base room).”

Rec Room was a launch title for the Oculus Quest, but it launched on the platform without some of its major game modes and drawcards. Laser Tag was one of them, but it was also notably missing the battle royale mode, Rec Royale. Despite the Quest port receiving some of those missing game modes since launch, such as Laser Tag, it likely won’t ever receive Rec Royale, due to the sheer size of the map and the work that would be required to bring it to the portable system.

Last September, Rec Room received a new game mode on all platforms called Stunt Runner. Not only was Stunt Runner available on all VR platforms, but it was available in the 2D versions of Rec Room on PS4 and mobile devices. The iPhone beta for Rec Room mobile started rolling out last June.

This Rec Room update also includes some other creation tool changes for all platforms. You can read the full patch notes for the update here.

The post Rec Room Laser Tag Mode Now Available On Oculus Quest appeared first on UploadVR.

Oculus-parent company Facebook has announced that it has permanently cut the price of its entry-level standalone VR headset, the Oculus Go, to just $149 for the 32GB version and $199 for the 64GB version.

Facebook confirmed the new pricing with UploadVR, stating that $50 price cut of the Oculus Go is officially permanent and that “comparable discounts” are now rolling out to all countries where the Oculus Go is sold. You can already see the price drop on Amazon, Best Buy and the Oculus Store, with other retail partners expected to follow.

The Oculus Go was the company’s first standalone VR headset, designed to deliver the easiest and most cost-effective way for users to jump into VR. The Go offers head tracking limited to only three degrees of freedom (3DoF) and comes bundled with a single controller, which provides casual users with a basic VR experience that is geared more towards media consumption and simple games. For those looking for a more advanced, standalone virtual reality headset that offers full positional tracking, then you should consider a $399 Oculus Quest instead. While the price is more on the expensive side compared to the Go, the Quest provides a much more immersive VR experience with six degrees of freedom (6DoF) and far better performance to support higher-quality games and applications.

At a $149, however, the Oculus Go is a pretty good bargain regardless of its limitations. It can be a perfect inexpensive entry-level headset for someone just looking for a dedicated media device to watch 360-degree videos and stream content on YouTube, Netflix, and Hulu, as well as some light casual gaming.

The post Oculus Go Gets a Permanent Price Cut to $149 appeared first on Oculus VR News.

The Expedition 61 crew split its time today between upcoming spacewalk preparations and continuous microgravity research. SpaceX is also preparing for a final test of its commercial crew ship before it launches humans.

The International Space Station is bustling with activity as two astronauts keep their U.S. spacesuits ready for another spacewalk set for Monday at 6:50 a.m. EST. NASA Flight Engineers Jessica Meir and Christina Koch will wrap up installing new lithium-ion batteries upgrading the orbiting lab’s power systems. NASA TV will start its live coverage at 5:30 a.m.

The spacewalking duo also had time for science work in their busy schedule today. Koch provided inputs on how spaceflight is impacting her cognition and documented her meals for a nutrition study. Meir also documented her nutritional intake before researching how flames spread in space.

Andrew Morgan of NASA worked on a secondary nutrition study that may produce vitamins and dietary supplements to support future long-term missions. Commander Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency) had hearing checks today then moved on with Morgan to support Monday’s spacewalkers.

Flight Engineer Alexander Skvortsov of Roscosmos spent the day researching ways to maintain sterile conditions while conducting biotechnology experiments in space. Fellow cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka serviced combustion research gear and Earth observation hardware before exploring crew behavior.

The Commercial Crew Program is set for a critical milestone as SpaceX readies its Dragon crew ship for major test. The uncrewed Crew Dragon vehicle will blast off atop a Falcon 9 rocket on Saturday at 8 a.m. and demonstrate its ability to safely escape in the event of a launch failure.

The “On Again/Off Again” Update brings a new minigame and various creator tool improvements to standalone VR. 

After a grueling wait, fan-favorite Rec Room minigame Laser Tag is finally available to Oculus Quest users as part of the VR social platforms’ latest free update. 

Revealed yesterday in a Reddit post made by Rec Room developer u/magglerockk, the “On Again/Off Again” Update allows Oculus Quest players access to both Laser Tag maps, “Hangar” and CyberJunk City,” for cross-platform play with all other headsets. Quest players can also now visit The Park, a large open environment that serves as a popular starting point for many user-created maps. 

In addition to the new game and base room, this latest update also introduces a slew of improvements to the creation tool. Creators can now use the Maker Pen Manipulate Tool on any volume and adjust levels even after they’ve been created; there’s a new Toggle Button dynamic prop that can be used in conjunction with Circuits to generate cool new behaviors; and the LookAt Gizmo, a device which can be programmed to look at specific parts of a player body (head, hands, etc). Besides that, there are a handful of smaller patches and additions, including the ability to change your account password straight from your Rec Room mobile app.

The following is a full breakdown of the update as provided by the developer:

New Additions:

• Quest players can now play both Laser Tag maps (“Hangar” and “CyberJunk City”).
• Quest players can now visit The Park (and all custom rooms build on top that base room).

Creation Tool Updates:

• You can now use the Maker Pen Manipulate tool on any volume (e.g., Trigger Volumes, Bounce Pads, etc.). This means you can finally adjust them after creation!
• There’s a new Toggle Button dynamic prop. This is like the existing button, but it has two states (on/off). Use it with Circuits to create interesting behaviors. This button can be toggled by projectiles! Find the new button in the Maker Pen Palette under “Dynamic Props”.
• The LookAt Gizmo can look at players (by specifying a role), and you can tell it to look at specific body parts (head, either hand).
• If you have a password set, you can now change it directly in the app. Go to Watch > Profile and hit the button!
• Fixed a bug where watch notification sounds weren’t playing correctly.
• Fixed a bug where you couldn’t interact with the scoreboard in the watch.
• Added a “head bob” slider to screens platforms. This is to improve comfort for some players. Find it in Watch > Settings.
• Fixed a bug with the golf shirt poking through the shoulders.
• Fixed a bug with laser tag pistol and shotgun not rendering correctly.
• Fixed an issue where normals were rendering incorrectly on your left hand.
• Fixed an issue with audio being set incorrectly for the new “Fancy Bubble” item.

With many standalone users having lost all hope of ever receiving another minigame port, the release of Laser Tag on Oculus Quest is a welcomed surprise from the Rec Room team. With Oculus Quest sales through the roof as a result of the holiday season, no doubt servers will be packed with new players looking for a free competitive shooter they can sink their teeth into. 

With enough attention, perhaps we’ll even see the addition of other popular quests and minigames currently unavailable on the Quest version, including Rec Royale, a team-based battle royale shooter; Crescendo of the Blood Moon, a 4-person Castlevania-inspired coop adventure; and Isle of Lost Skulls, a pirate-themed quest, just to name a few. 

Rec Room is available now on Oculus Quest for $0.00.

Feature Image Credit: Rec Room

The post Rec Room Laser Tag Finally Available On Oculus Quest appeared first on VRScout.

Social and communication skills are becoming increasingly important for the professional context in a digitalised world. Nevertheless, the development of such competencies in vocational education and training (TVET) and further professional training has received little attention so far. At the same time, many employers, especially in the service-orientated sector, have to deal with rising numbers of young people dropping out of vocational training in Germany.

With LOOM/VR an immersive and innovative virtual reality product is being developed which aims to support the development of job-related competencies, such as communication skills or social emotional competencies. LOOM/VR is a digital learning platform for so-called “Head-mounted Display (HMD) technologies”, also known as virtual reality headsets. LOOM/VR enables situational learning based on interactive 360° videos. Learners experience challenging situations from their everyday professional life and strengthen their job-related competencies via an interactive learning path system.

What is the story behind LOOM/VR? In March 2019 in Studio2B we started the development of a prototype for such interactive 360°-video training. With the project “Qualität durch Kompetenz”, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, we developed the first interactive 360° video training for apprentices from the hotel sector.

Together with other partners, such as hotel companies, TVET schools and the association for hotel and gastronomy in Berlin, a 20-minute learning unit on the topic of complaint management has been developed. The learning target is the correct use of the 5-step method to handle customer complaints.

For Studio2B this meant the development of a completely new product. Therefore, we used an agile and user-centred approach. Together with an UX designer and a game designer, we worked in a small project team for 10 weeks. As a first step, we conducted interviews with apprentices and instructors from hotel companies in Berlin to create the content for the learning unit. Based on the interview results a pedagogical concept was elaborated. As a next step a script was written, and the first video training was recorded in our office with amateur actors. Within a few weeks, the first prototype was created, which we tested together with apprentices and instructors from a hotel company in Berlin. Due to the early usability test and a constant iterative working approach, we gathered important information for creating a proper video-training experience. For the pilot project we filmed in a real hotel company with professional actresses and actors.

In the learning unit the users must solve a problem. In our example, a guest wants to check out quickly when the booking system crashes. The user controls the situation by means of different selection options. This means that he experiences the guest’s reaction to the decisions to act. In addition, the user receives direct feedback from the instructor.

Since November 2019 the final prototype has been tested at the TVET school for apprentices in the hotel sector as well as in five hotels in Berlin. The aim of this test phase is to use the feedback from the apprentices and instructors to create a product that increases the quality of dual vocational training effectively by providing a modern tool which supports the handling of emotionally stressful situations.

What is the advantage of an interactive 360° video training in comparison to other learning formats? Interactive 360°-video training enables learners to strengthen social competencies effectively. At the same time, employers have a modern learning tool, which helps them to strengthen experience-based knowledge. Furthermore, the use of virtual reality headsets creates an innovative and concentrated learning atmosphere which corresponds to individual time management. Another important reason for using virtual reality technology for professional training is that learners can transfer the learning content directly to their working practice.

Future-oriented thoughts: By developing and testing the first pilot, we have brainstormed and talked with numerous stakeholders from science and industry as well as experts of immersive learning technologies. The discussions resulted in many visions for the future use of interactive 360° video-training. For example, interactive 360° videos can be an efficient tool for conflict management at the workplace. Moreover, it is our aim to investigate the extent to which emotions can be transmitted via VR training. To this end, we work closely with a partner project of the Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training in Germany (Forschungsinstitut Betriebliche Bildung, www.f-bb.de). We want to build up a good network of international partner institutions from science, business and politics in order to determine the merit of immersive technologies for vocational orientation and education and, if necessary, to advance them.

Quelle:

LOOM|VR – Strengthening job-related competencies by interactive 360° video training

Over the last five years, I have personally journeyed down a path to adoption of virtual, augmented and mixed reality (XR) technologies literally from scratch not knowing anything about the technologies or applications. The education and understanding has been endearing and enduring, and today I know and understand it will constantly evolve and change through innovation. Every day I learn more, taking in bits of of new information, referred to as micro-learning, about our digital world and how it will apply to work and education and change everything we do while we live, work and play. There is a lot to learn, even more to process and implement, understanding that today is the slowest day we will ever know.

Where will XR Technologies be implemented first? Believe it or not, Snapchat started in 2011 with their app sharing digital face filters (aka augmented reality or AR) to engage user communication. Already being used by millions of people, Snapchat is already a part of lives daily through digital filters marketing brands to engage the user to buy products. With over over 2 Billion devices AR enabled, applications are reachable and the hardware is ready and available. AR is already working for some brands and conversions of higher engagement are proving the ROI.

Enterprise is investing into POC’s (proof of concept) focused on knowledge transfer, training, marketing and sales. In 2020 we will see more implementation in the market as PwC predicts the potential of $1.5 Trillion value delivered to the global economy by 2030. Already ROI is reaching unbelievable numbers reducing training and converting into millions of dollars saving in time, logistics and travel. Retention rates are creating efficiencies in the work process where businesses didn’t even know they needed them. VR & AR training experiences are now being built with eye tracking, process and selection tracking, evaluation of the employee performance on hard skills, and soft skills like empathy, critical thinking, problem solving and collaboration. All of these measurements are resulting in better performances from employees, and efficiency in the workplace.

Enterprise is taking the leap into XR developments, but what about which industry? the answer is “all of them” even if technology is not a core focus of the service/product offering, every company will become a digital company in some way to connect with the rest of the world.

“Computer & Information technology professions are projected to account for a total of 4.4 million jobs by 2024 in the US”

To support the expected predictions of the market, we need educated talent. We all know, the Education system today is not providing our students with the curriculum or mindset for the work they will be a part of in the future, and that needs to change, fast. We are already witnessing a skills shortage in our support systems today.

We have less than 4 years to implement exponential changes in our classrooms to produce the talent needed to support our economy. XR technologies in the classroom will take a longer path because we have to adjust the curriculum and the way students need to learn. Google answers almost any question we ask now, and we need to change learning for students so they know what to do with this information. Teachers understand the need for change but are limited in their own education and time to train, (acceptance of) funding and curriculum expectations to meet the current school & government standards. How do we make changes in a system slow to make change and lack of understanding of the applications? The students will begin to demand change.

65% of Students entering school today will be employed by jobs that don’t even exist yet

In 2020, students will begin to voice their digital expectations to upgrade softwares and processes fostering from their own personal connections, and this will put pressure in the classrooms to initiate change through defiance of the current systems. As soon as children enter Kindergarten, they are going to be looking to connect digitally, because today, at home they are, some all the time. This will certainly have an affect, if it hasn’t already, in the classroom behaviour and attention span. In 2020, Education needs to accommodate and support not just the digital connection, but fundamentally teach students about the technologies and the applications that one day students will be expected to understand and build themselves to support their own future of work and life.

Learning in 2020 will be a year for everyone to understand what they know and what they need to know to stay connected.

Corporations and education systems need to act on fast changes through acceptance and implementation that will result in support and engagement from the employee and student.

In 2020, everyone must engage with our own mindfulness, strengthen the capacity of our brain, and manage the digital expectations, both personally and professionally. Corporations and Education systems must support this to build a healthy mindset through this fast paced changing world. Beyond the deep breathing, gratitude and exercise, we should constantly be micro-learning and sourcing new ways to become more efficient, remain compliant, socially responsible and engaged building a healthy mentality to face exponential growth. As we build and connect with the global technosphere at an exponential rate, learning is the one sustainable solution every human is able to do and thrive with in their own way. #LearningforLife

MetaVRse is a platform marketplace for future-proof learning launching in 2020. Sign up for early access at www.MetaVRse.com

Quelle:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/learning-through-exponential-growth-2020-julie-smithson/