The surprising history of VR
and how it’s already changing the way we learn.
— October 14, 2030
My hand slams the snooze button on my phone one more time, as I groggily glance at the screen. My eyes go from half closed to fully open in less than a second.
8:30 a.m! I’m gonna be late for class!
I swing my legs out of bed and rush down the stairs, snagging a piece of toast on my way. Waving to my parents I head to my basement desk and sit down at the computer. Grabbing the headset to my right, I slap it on and after a brief startup animation, am in a lecture hall seat. A few football fields in length, and with a ceiling that goes so high it fades into the abyss, the room is something that could never exist in physical reality. Looking around I see thousands of CGI heads popping into view, other students logging in.
A blue light flashes to my left and I hear a familiar voice.
“So you finally made it on time huh?”, smirked my friend.
“Speak for yourself” I retorted.
A booming voice drowns out any further conversation, in the air above the massive virtual projection of my professor materializes.
It was time to start class.
While the above sounds like something straight out of science fiction, technology will soon make these scenarios a regular part of our day.
Virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality: they’re coming.
These terms have been recently tossed around quite often in op-eds, however VR has a long and storied history and is continuing its long evolution.
Let’s take a short dive into the history of virtual reality and, subsequently, augmented reality:
- Built upon ideas dating back all the way to the 1800s, the first glimpses of this technology appeared in the first stereoscope (using twin mirrors to project on image) back in 1838. Eventually this developed into the View-Master (1939 — present)
- The term “virtual reality” was used in the mid 1980s by Jaron Lanier. Founder of VPL Research, they began to develop goggles and gloves needed to experience this so called “virtual reality”.
- Skipping forward a bit, the Nintendo Virtual Boy released in 1994 to the public. The first foray into virtual reality gaming, unfortunately, did not turn out so well.
- In the last few years VR has seen major moves into the consumer market. The release of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive in 2016 pushed high quality VR to the gaming community. Now we see VR attractions and VR used in more and more places.
- Augmented reality had a later start in 1968 when Ian Sutherland developed the first head mounted display system.
- The term was coined by Tom Caudell, a Boeing researcher in 1990.
- In 2000 Hirokazu Kato created the ARToolKit, an open source software library that uses video tracking to overlay computer graphics on a camera. This is still in use today.
- In 2013, Google Glass was released to 8000 individuals, and while somewhat well received it did not see widespread adoption.
- Microsoft Hololens is the first of many recent AR products to release, and while still not widely available it hints towards the future dedicated Augmented Reality.
- For now, we make use of AR through our phones through games like Pokemon Go.
Now let’s discuss the applications of VR and AR beyond gaming and entertainment.
How will these technologies apply in the classroom?
The fact of the matter is, they are already being used in classrooms across the world:
- Students in elementary schools are being taking on virtual field trips through tools like Google Expeditions, which uses affordable cardboard VR solutions to engage students.
- High school students are utilizing the HTC vive to enhance their learning experience.
- In post secondary education, medical students are already utilizing augmented reality through Microsoft’s Hololens to accurately visualize biological systems and the human body.
The landscape of the classroom has already drastically shifted from the time I started school, and as the amount of information included in curriculum and the complexity of it increases, more immersive ways of teaching it are required.
Since we’ve now covered the past and present, let’s venture out and try to extrapolate the use of these technologies in the future of education.
What happens in the next 100 years?
Assuming no world ending event occurs (fingers crossed), I foresee the end of physical class attendance at institutions. Allow me to explain:
With an increasing percentage of the population attending primary, secondary and post secondary institutions, the physical constraints of lecture halls lead to overflows of students in courses.
This means that unfortunately, the physical space to build these areas is quickly running out.
The solution, in part, is virtual reality. Virtual reality, like any other technology, is quickly becoming easier to use, cheaper and widely available.
Unlike physical learning spaces, virtual classrooms have no restrictions on room size, distance from the board or other real world limitations.
Students in an astronomy course could be transported to the outside of the solar system, or history students could take a trip back in time and see the ancient Rome up close and in person.
The second aspect of the solution would involve augmented reality. AR will add more value to the hands-on learning and research. Chemistry labs, physics experiments or electrical labs which still need to be done in person now could be replaced using AR headsets to display interactive lab manuals.
If any of this sounds familiar, it is because my view on the future of VR and AR draws heavily from Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, which portrays a somewhat realistic future that I can see us moving towards.
If we don’t go down that path, the alternative might not be as appealing…
Realistically speaking, current distance learning models are inferior to the real thing because they cannot recreate the experience of social interaction, group work and hands-on learning — all highly valuable learning tools. Meanwhile, physical learning spaces cannot scale large enough to support the increasing number of people attending them.
But if virtual reality can simulate all those experiences and augmented reality can be used to enhance everything else, virtual learning can be as good if not better than the real thing.
To learn more about the future of education, Class of 2120.
