How Mixed Reality Can Enhance Learning at OSU

Mixed reality is the latest way that people can utilize the virtual world. Mixed reality, or MR, allows users to enhance their actual surroundings with virtual elements, apps and interactive illustrations. Microsoft has recently unveiled the Microsoft HoloLens, its version of MR technology. 

The Library is always seeking new resources and innovations to further students' education. According to Rikiyah Fletcher, the Library emerging technologies intern, MR could be the next resource to be added to the Library's vast collection of technology.

"I think of it as an investment in our education more that just a feature offered in the Library," Rikiyah said

Mixed reality offers more than just entertainment. By supplying the user with an interactive 3D visual in their own environment, MR can be used to take education to the next level. Engineering, architecture, graphic design, art, computer science, interior design and medical-related majors can all benefit from mixed reality in the classroom. By wearing the MR headsets, students can interact with lifelike diagrams of the human body, visualize what a future building may look like and so much more.

All of this being said, is MR worth the cost, especially if the Edmon Low Creative Studios already offers virtual reality? One Microsoft HoloLens headset with the necessary hardware and warranty comes to about $5,000, but with added cost comes added use. 

"MR offers much more than VR, such as simple things like Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, Skype, SketchUp and many more," Rikiyah said. "MR and HoloLens capabilities will continue to grow and due to this, many more opportunities to learn, explore and create will be offered that VR will not be able to do."

In alignment with the Library's mission to expand the learning potential of students, MR can help enhance how students learn, interact and understand class curriculum in a more immersive way.

What is one way that you imagine using mixed reality at OSU? Comment your thoughts below!

Posted by Tatum Wallace, Electronic Communications Intern for OSU Library Communications

Virtual Reality in the Library

In our last post, we discussed augmented reality and its possible uses in OSU Libraries. We briefly mentioned its distinction from virtual reality, which is now our main focus of discussion.

Virtual reality is, by definition, a realistic and immersive simulation of a three-dimensional environment, created using interactive software and hardware, and experienced or controlled by movement of the body. Essentially, it places you directly in a virtual world; think think Star Trek holodeck but without all the walking. The extent of this experience can be simply watching on a screen or becoming fully immersed in a 360 degree virtual space.

Georgia State University offers art history students the ability to travel to places they could not otherwise visit. It is hopeful that such classes will soon be equipped with enough VR equipment to immerse each student in VR to allow visualization of the architectural styles and historical structures they are learning about. Additionally, a team of researchers at University of Maryland have created a program that could revolutionize the study of medicine by allowing students to view surgeries virtually to learn techniques.

This virtual spin on education could be in the not-so-distant future for Oklahoma State. If you haven’t noticed, the Edmon Low Library has recently added new equipment to the Joe and Jeanne Craig and John C. & Kathryn A. Williams study rooms. They contain monitors and tables for regular study sessions but also have less obvious components in the ceiling corners that act as sensors for VR. When a user is in a virtual environment, the sensors are able to pinpoint where the user is located to allow him or her to move throughout the space without bumping into unseen items.

To take a journey in one of the VR rooms, you will need the proper equipment. The VR goggles are attached to a headset with adjustable straps to fit your noggin nice and snug. This is how you view the environment and its virtual elements. The controllers come in the form of cylindrical joysticks that are held in either hand. These allow the sensors to find you within the room and give you the ability to walk around the VR world.

While price varies on VR equipment, it can be cost-prohibitive for many students, which is why the free access in Edmon Low is such a helpful resource.

The VR rooms can be reserved on the library website, and the necessary VR equipment for the room is available at the Tech to Go desk. If you don’t have time for the full VR experience, you can check out a pair of the VR goggles from Tech To Go. All that’s needed is a free download of the VR app on your cellphone, which is plugged into the goggles as a screen. Once the app is operating, you can put on the goggles and immerse yourself in a variety of locations including a roller coaster and the moon’s surface. Check out the new equipment and experience the fun of virtual reality today!

What environment or place would you like to experience virtually? Share your comments below.

Post by Jennifer Barnett, E-Communications Intern for OSU Library Communications