A YEAR IN THE BLENDER: Practical applications of 3D in virtual, mixed and printed forms from Yale University’s Blended Reality applied research project (original) (raw)
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Blended Reality, 2018
In 2016, Yale University and Hewlett Packard partnered in an applied research program to explore fields of mixed reality. Our research concentrated on the blurred lines between physical and digital media in higher education by enabling creative outlets for artists, scientists, researchers and designers to collaborate with new technologies. This document presents a second year case study of the university's Blended Reality program.
Reinventing pedagogies and practices of 3D Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) with the rise of blended learning , 2025
Online multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) have been in use since the late 1970s. They have been referred to as MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons), MOOs (MUD, object-oriented), and MMORPGs (Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) (Dickey, 2003; Tüzün, 2006). These environments have recently been called immersive virtual worlds. Technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality, mixed reality, and blockchain continue to change 3D MUVEs. It is currently well understood that 3D MUVEs are becoming more feasible every day with faster Internet connection and devices with high processing capacity. 3D MUVEs now offer a more “immersive” experience using VR headsets. Several tech companies have now created their own metaverses. However, it is the pedagogical use of new technologies in the context of learning environments that is central to their success. If pedagogical approaches are not included in the design of 3D MUVEs, these environments will turn into ephemeral “Virtual Ghost Towns.” In this context, not only the tool used in these environments but also the pedagogical approaches implemented with the tool come to the fore (Doğan & Tüzün, 2022). All in all, in spite of the fact that there are some educational commentaries heralding a promising outlook pertaining to them (e.g., Hwang, 2023; Tlili et al., 2022), the academic community needs a greater focus on pedagogical approaches utilizing 3D MUVEs. Recently, the educational community has witnessed a massive exodus to distance education in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. This rapid shift was characterized by the use of direct instruction and synchronous communication platforms, typically Zoom, notwithstanding their well-known limitations. Even so, dipping their toes in the water and seeing that it is not that cold, they do not seem to revert to full face-to-face learning. Blended learning lies ahead. There is a great deal of literature attesting to 3D MUVEs’ potential for fostering learning. These environments provide educational opportunities for solving authentic problems that have historically been inaccessible due to space, time, and cost barriers (Marešová & Ecler, 2022; Tlili et al., 2022). Further, they allow for collaboration without limits of physical space (Gresalfi et al., 2009). Their pedagogical affordances such as enhanced learner engagement, motivation, and positive attitudes together with their openness to explore, design, and manipulate 3D objects provide learners with more realistic and authentic learning environments (Doğan et al., 2018). They enable setting ambient conditions that could otherwise be dangerous such as emergency scenarios made safe in a virtual world (Meredith et al., 2012). Surprisingly, despite all these affordances, only a small fraction of educators have turned to 3D environments for distance education. 3D learning environments are not simply for 3D role-playing games and do not constitute all encompassing learning environments to suit all learner needs for all circumstances. Therefore, the design process of these learning environments requires inclusion of both instructional and 3D design elements that complement each other. As 3D MUVEs are cut out for “learning by designing,” allowing participants to experience and create new environments, they do not get on well with mere lecturing, which makes users inactive. This inactivity seriously dampens the flow experience (Doğan et al., 2022). In addition, user-unfriendly interfaces also affect students' behaviors towards these environments. For example, efficient navigation is also a design problem in 3D MUVEs because users’ field of view cannot encompass the entire environment. This is a usability problem that causes disorientation (Tüzün & Doğan, 2009). Further, practitioners might encounter inconsistencies between intended and implemented educational purposes as they try to implement educational innovations in real-life contexts and achieve curricular objectives. These undesirable variations that occur in real-life contexts pose a threat to the fidelity of innovation (Thomas et al., 2009). This is why flexible adaptive designs (or design-based attempts) are so crucial for innovations to survive local variations. These environments have a social dimension that encourages interpersonal interaction. Some concerns also accompany the social dimension of 3D MUVEs. This becomes even more apparent as the age of the group decreases. One of the increasing concerns among parents as well as teachers is the privacy and appropriateness of these environments for minors (Meyers et al., 2010). In conclusion, the design-intensive, complex, and student-oriented nature of 3D environments makes preparations difficult and time-consuming endeavors (Çınar et al., 2022), which seems to account for the reason why educators opted out of 3D-MUVEs in the Emergency Distance Education process. This issue solicits rigorous quantitative, qualitative, and mixed research studies related to the use of 3D environments for distance and/or mixed purposes. This special issue welcomes original empirical research articles, critical viewpoints, theoretical perspectives, systematic literature reviews, and meta-analyses. Studies that are purely descriptive and drawing on self-report scales are not satisfactory unless they make a significant contribution to the field.
Seen Description: Visualising and crafting data in mixed realities
BCS Learning & Development, 2022
The immense potential of the convergence of digital technologies such as, 3D scanning and photogrammetry, 3D printing, motion capture, real time performance capture and mapping, camera tracking, interactive lighting and virtual production, is yet to be fully grasped, exploited and appreciated. The creative aspects of this technology convergence offer exciting new opportunities for the visualisation, mixing and crafting of materials from the physical and digital worlds; real world objects can be 3D scanned, manipulated digitally, printed out using the 3D printing process, and painted in the real world to be used as set dressing on a virtual production set to be recorded on digital video. The real and digital states of objects have become fluidly interchangeable offering unprecedented creative control to artists to shape the world at will. This paper highlights some of the possible applicationsbeyond the mainstream usage in film and games productionthat the convergence of these technologies offer based on case studies of select student and staff projects undertaken at The National Centre for Computer Animation at Bournemouth University, UK. These applications include, but are not limited to, creative art, photography, digital heritage and preservation, and customised applications for rehabilitation of patients.
New Foundations: Craft, Design, Education and VR in the 21ST Century
2020
21 Century education and professional practice require novel engagement with ideas, technologies and toolsets. Virtual Reality (VR) and similar technologies are advancing rapidly, and protocols to understand, implement and measure the new values for design education which need to be further elaborated on. This paper discusses the impact of VR on craft and design in a university design class. A pilot was conducted to study students’ experiences and opinions around VR in craft and design in an advanced CAD design course. The findings indicate improvement in design and communication from the students’ perspective. This study suggests that VR can be an effective design tool integrated into
Making it real: virtual tools in 3D creative practice
2012
FutureFactories is a design research project exploring the creative possibilities afforded by digital design and manufacturing technologies. A specific aim of the project is mass individualisation; the industrial scale production of one-off artefacts. Tangible products would ‘printed’ direct from virtual meta-designs using additive manufacturing (Atkinson 2003). Distinct from mass customisation, where the product is configured to a specific consumer need or desire, individualisation involves introducing elements of random variance similar to the idiosyncrasy seen in natural forms. In the initial research a computational design approach was adopted in which computer scripts were used to ‘drive’ parametric CAD models (Unver 2003). A barrier to the adoption of such systems however, is the level of programming involved. Methodologies were developed to simplify the task such a Constructive Solid Geometry, CSG, building block approach (Dean 2009) whereby complex geometries are ‘assembled’...
Int. J. Online Eng., 2007
Although the vast majority of research in human-computer interaction often involves only our senses of sight and hearing, with sporadic forays into touch, future laboratories used in engineering education will mostly benefit from developments beyond video and sound. Tangible and embedded interaction, augmented and mixed reality characterizes ultimate technologies for further applications in collaborative remote engineering and lab work. This paper presents our latest research to facilitate collaborative experimentation with such innovative technologies. Our vision is a collaborative learning space, which involves an amalgam of real, virtual and remote lab tools to support a wide spectrum of simple and complex, concrete and abstract, safe and dangerous experimentation settings. We will review related concepts and discuss lessons learned from our own research and prototype development. Recent work involves the use of mixed reality (as opposed to 'pure' virtual reality) techniq...
Digital Factory and Virtual Reality: Teaching Virtual Reality Principles with Game Engines
InTech eBooks, 2016
Virtual reality (VR) is widely used in various industrial applications. All leading industrial manufacturing companies today have a strategy called the 'concept of a digital factory' where all aspects of manufacturing are digitally verified on digital mockups prior to physical manufacturing. Other than that, it is a rapidly developing new medium and further development of VR and IT will open up new possibilities. The new concept of Industry 4.0 is based on using approaches like the Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Cyber-Physical Systems and Virtual Reality. With the decreasing cost of VR devices, even smaller businesses are able to implement such technologies. It is therefore crucial that mechanical engineering graduates are familiar with these new technologies and trends. We had to use unconventional methods to educate mechanical engineering students in the latest trends in IT and VR. Back in 2010, there were almost no tools available for teaching how to create industry-themed VR environments, which did not require complicated coding, so we decided to make our own. To simplify the development, we used Source Engine as the core and enhanced it with a library of textures, models and scripts we called DigiTov. Although Source Engine is a game engine, the master logic of VR development is the same as for professional SW products. In autumn 2015, a group of 10 students modified the DigiTov for Unity3D, forming a team made up of different roles.
Gaining Impact with Mixed Reality in Industry – A Sustainable Approach
2022 8th International Conference on Computer Technology Applications
Mixed reality (augmented and virtual reality) technology continues to find its way into the industry. Nevertheless, prototypes and island solutions are developed in companies, which are not embedded in the corporate strategy. This paper presents a systematic approach for finding and developing use cases accompanied by a strategic implementation and evaluation process to integrate mixed reality in the industry. Sustainability aspects like energy and resource efficiency, possible reduction of the ecological footprint, and sustainable solutions for lasting and vision-based use in companies are considered. Within several use cases with 20 industry partners in the following areas are developed: 1) novel forms of space-independent collaboration (e.g., collaborative work by integrating real-time 3D depth information of the real environment and visualization of and interaction with real-time production data) and 2) XR-supported training and learning methods (e.g., parameterizable and adaptive training scenarios, roll-out of training content for several participants and integration of gamification mechanisms). Additionally, the methodology for a sustainability assessment, technology acceptance, and a multi-criteria evaluation are shown, and first results are discussed. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing; • Human computer interaction (HCI); • Interaction paradigms; • Mixed / augmented reality; • Virtual reality; • Applied computing; • Operations research; • Industry and manufacturing; • Social and professional topics; • Professional topics; • Computing and business; • Socio-technical systems; This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License.
2008
Futurists anticipate that within just three years, 70-80% of businesses and Internet users will have a 3D virtual presence. This should be welcome news to our current 'digital native'undergraduates who have grown up in a digital era, and who are said to prefer environments that are highly interactive, immersive, multi-modal and connected. 3D virtual learning environments not only fulfil these criteria, but also provide increased flexibility for students who are not on campus.