A new educational revolution is coming- and Mixed Reality is leading it:
For hundreds of years, the education system has largely remained the same, but that could all change.
Take a second and imagine this:
It’s biology class. You’re sitting at your desk, ready for the teacher to begin a new lesson. Perhaps you doodle a little sketch in your notebook or finish checking your phone for any new notifications. The teacher walks in and explains that today, the class will be exploring the different parts of the cell, they write the code for you to join the simulation on the board. You punch in the code and place your AR headset over your head and there you are. Standing between the Golgi Apparatus and a random vacuole; you’re in the cell.
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That is the future, and that future is not too far away.
Sounds cool, but what exactly IS AR? (And bonus: what is VR?)
AR is short for augmented reality, which is essentially overlaying computer-generated images with the existing physical world around us. You may have heard this word used in conjunction with VR, aka virtual reality.
Virtual reality works along the same stream of thought as AR, but it is different in that, VR is a fully immersive experience within a computer-generated simulation. Where AR still exists in the physical world around it, VR creates a whole new world (no pun intended) entirely.
Science-y magic stuff explained
Contrary to what your senses will tell you the first time you slip on a VR headset, no you’re not going to fall into the large body of water ahead of you.
And no, if you reach your hand out, you’re not going to touch whatever cool object is in front of you, regardless of how realistic it may seem…(at least without haptics, but I digress, that’s for another article).
After finally getting over the initial “nope, I'm not moving from this exact spot” stage, you might begin to wonder, how your surroundings actually see to exist. Spoiler: it’s actually not as outlandish as it seems. Boiled down the “magic” behind VR works on essentially a few simple principles:
- Image to HMD transfer
VR is basically just images transferred from a machine (ex. a computer, game console, phone) into a head-mounted display (HMD). Each eye receives a separate image and the trick is then making these images appear as if your eyes are experiencing the images first-hand. Which leads us to:
2. Image distortion
The HMD has lenses that distort the image from being “flat” to looking like something that your eyes would perceive in the real world.
3. Tracking
As you move your head and your eyes around experiencing different areas of the simulation, sensors, such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, infrared sensors, and a ring of lights outside of the HMD, help track your movement. These all work together to constantly adjust the image you see, based on the data received from the sensors.
4. Low latency
Low latency is virtual reality’s key to success. Latency just refers to the time difference between when you enter a command and when it responds.
The lower the latency = the less time between when an action happened and when it reacted.
VR relies on this concept- the whole reason it appears that the world around you is changing is because the frames per second (fps), the amount of image frames shown in a second, is faster than your eyes can detect.
⁂ As long as the changes in an environment are delivered faster than your eyes can process, the setting appears real to you.
⁂ ⁂ VR is really just a series of slightly different images that change very fast .
Applications:
AR and VR have huge potential in the education industry. Education in the past few decades has shifted from “I tell you how it works” to “You experience how it works”, with more emphasis being put onto experimental and experiential learning. This should mean more in-field and hands-on experiences, but unfortunately, that is not always the case. But with VR or even AR that could change.
- Field trips: Students from anywhere would simply have to wear a helmet or a pair of glasses to have, for example, the Pyramids brought right into their classrooms and learning environments. Wearing a pair of headphones would further enhance the experience, essentially transporting you to wherever you want to go.
- Automation: AR wearables and AI have the possibility of automating tasks in the classroom that take way too much time, such as attendance through facial recognition or adding a grade to the system by just looking at a marked paper.
- Virtual classrooms: And while we’re at it why not just virtual classrooms entirely? This could look like people sliding on a VR headset, logging on to their class server, and having an avatar represent them all via virtual reality. When this happens, school, as we know it, will change entirely, virtual reality classrooms might even replace the need for physical classrooms completely.
Key takeaways:
If you’re going to leave with anything, leave with this:
- AR and VR are going to change the game. AR and VR will provide so many opportunities in the education sector, whether it be as a supplement to teaching or even as the medium of teaching.
- As VR and AR technology continues to develop, becoming sleeker, more portable and most importantly cheaper, this technology will enter classrooms, revolutionizing the way we think about education and more importantly, the way we learn.
Hi, I’m Hana Samad, an 11th-grade student, and an Innovator at The Knowledge Society. I’m a VR and AR enthusiast with a special interest in AR wearables.
If you're interested in my progress feel free to:
Add me on LinkedIn!👉 www.linkedin.com/in/hana-samad14
Shoot me an email at: hanasamad14@gmail.com
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