Category: Educaiton

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The University Of Liverpool Have Developed A VR Experience To Help Prevent Dog Bites

In 2013 there were a recorded 6,740 hospital admissions for dog bites and strikes which has inspired a team at the University of Liverpool to create a new virtual reality (VR) experience to educate the public on this matter. Designed and developed to be used as an educational tool to help prevent dog bites, the experience provides adults and children with information to help them recognise specific behaviors that are displayed by dogs which could result in bites.

VR Dog

Developed by animal behavior researchers from the University of Liverpool in the UK, the VR experience has users approach and interact with dogs that are displaying signs of aggression in a safe and controlled way. Thanks to the high quality environments and believable behavior of the dogs within the experience, users will feel as though they are really there and become truly immersed within the setting.

As users approach the VR dog, its behavior and body language gradually change and it begins to display signs of aggression, including licking its lips, lowering its head and body, growling and showing teeth. These behaviors show when a dog may not want to be approached and as a result, users should not engage with the dog as this will lower the chance of it biting them.

VR Dog

“This proof of concept tool has already demonstrated that immersive experiences can be used by organisations such as Dogs Trust as an educational tool which can be conducted in a safe environment and that there is value in developing tools of this nature further.” Reads the statement from the University of Liverpool’s Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC).

“Next steps will look to enhance the detail within the immersive environment, in partnership with animal behavioural specialists and psychologists to ensure the simulation is as realistic and provides the highest level of immersive experience as possible.”

By placing users in a safe virtual environment to learn how to handle a dog that is displaying aggressive behavior, the research team is hoping to educate people as to lower the number of biting incidents. The applications of the experience could be expanded to help with other dog related matters as well but for now the team are keen to build on their current focus. You can see a short video of the experience below.

VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest on the project in the future so keep reading to stay up to date on any developments.

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Travel Back In Time With AR App Time Passport

Independent studio Time Passport Inc have announced that their augmented reality (AR) app, Time Passport, that takes users back in time is now available.

Time Passport Screenshot 02

The Time Passport app allows users to visit the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in an immersive AR experience right on their mobile device. The app builds a complete, full-scale replica of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon that users can explore and walk around so having a large open space would allow for total immersion. Of course, for those unable to find a big enough space, Time Passport also offers a small-scale version of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon to view in your home.

Visiting the Hanging Gardens of Babylon is not the only thing you can do with Time Passport, as the app also includes a treasure hunt within the full-scale version that will teach visitors about the mysterious Wonder of the Ancient World. Explore the gardens, uncover the clues and find hidden scrolls to learn more about this stunning feat of architecture. As you explore you can take pictures share them with your friends to expand the experience and share the moments.

Time Passport Screenshot 03

Developed by Time Passport Inc, the company specializes AR technology with the focus of using it for time travel. Thanks to the power of mobile devices the company is able to build an app take allows a user to pull their mobile device out of their pocket and experience historical sites anywhere in the world.

“Using augmented reality the way we did with this app immerses us in this fabulous building of the past. The fact that we can actually walk in and out of it really gives us a feel of its presence, and this is possible using only your iphone or ipad!” Carina Poulin, CEO and co-founder of Time Passport Inc said. “We take pride in producing an impressive experience that is also historically accurate. The unknown location of the real Hanging Gardens of Babylon gives us a wonderful pretext to show it to people all over the world. While the exact appearance of the gardens remains to be known, our in-house historian has worked on making sure the elements and the content that we see respect what we know about it today.”

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are the first public demo of the Time Passport app and the company hopes to grow it in the future by adding more historical locations to it. By offering memorable experiences, an ever growing list of locations and inviting users to travel back in time, Time Passport Inc is aiming to become the leader in providing historical time travel experiences thanks to AR technology.

Time Passport is available now for iOS devices via the Apple app store.

VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest on Time Passport in the future so stay tuned for more.

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BemoVR Aims to Help With Self-Improvement

Estonian startup has created a new virtual reality (VR) platform that it hopes will aid in changing the lives of millions of people for the better.

BemoVR provides the user with access to experiences in full 360-degree video that will aid them in improving themselves in a number of soft skills. These soft skills including things such as confidence boosting, relaxation techniques, critical thinking and even conflict resolution. The content available on BemoVR is designed to help a user improve one or more of these soft skills via motivation, relaxation or even spiritual, educational content. These sessions could be delivered in the form of a yoga class, for example.

BemoVR logo

The product has been developed by Estonian Entrepreneur Jörgen Laumets, who said he came up with the idea after looking for a more motivating and rewarding way to become more well-educated and healthy. By using Blockchain technology for content distribution and author security, BemoVR started to become a reality. With VR continuing to becoming a more accessible platform and already being used for a number of medical applications. It made sense for Jörgen Laumets to bring the idea to VR and help to educate and motivate himself and others with soft skill lessons.

“We are looking to fill the gap between larger scale VR usability and the lack of content, which we feel like can be filled with real-life VR footage that is relatively less expensive compared to the high-cost animated and digitally created environment. Content on the BemoVR can be purchased and sold in a marketplace as a subscription and on-demand service, similar to Netflix, but developed for 360-degree content on mobile devices, and with the intent of offering people self-improvement realities.” says Jörgen Laumets, commenting on the create of BemoVR.

BemoVR are currently opening the doors to any interested investors or investments that want to join they already existing group of investors. The platform is still in development and is planned to be released later this year will a mobile release hinted at as being ‘soon’.

VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest on BemoVR in the future so make sure to keep reading.

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Trailer Released For David Attenborugh’s Next VR Project

Sir David Attenborough is collaborating with Sky Television and the London Natural History Museum on an immersive learning experience.

Hold The World Screenshot 01

The project was announced last year but now a trailer along with new details have been released. The virtual reality (VR) experience will allow users to immerse themselves in the London Natural History Museum in a one-on-one audience with the world-renowned, Sir David Attenborough.

Titled Hold The World, viewers will be able to get hands-on with virtual recreations of some of the oldest and rarest fossils in the world, as well as skulls and other bones belonging to extinct creatures. All of this is of course accompanied by Sir David Attenborough, who was filmed by more than 100 camera to allow for a highly detailed digitally recreation. Users will be able to pick up, hold, enlarge and expand the rare objects, offering unparalleled access to explore and learn about some of the world’s rarest natural history specimens.

Hold The World Screenshot 02

Talking about the project Sir David Attenborough said: ”Sharing my passion for the natural world is something I have done for many years through different technologies, from the days of black-and-white TV to colour, HD, 3D, 4K and now virtual reality. Hold the World is an extraordinary next step in how we can communicate and educate people about experiences they wouldn’t usually have access to in the real world. I am delighted about what users can learn and discover from the Natural History Museum’s treasures in this new VR experience – it really is one of the most convincing and bewitching experiences that the world of technology has yet produced.”

The experience is said to last between 20 minutes to an hour, depending on the how users choice to journey through the experience. A number of locations from the museum are available meaning a user is free to explore at their own pace and spend as much time with Sir David Attenborough as they wish. You can see a trailer for Hold The World below which offers a taste of the experience along with a short interview from Sir David.

Hold The World will be releasing in Spring within the Sky VR app on Google Daydream View, Samsung Gear VR and Oculus Rift.

Other VR projects in a similar vain include the British Museum’s Two Million Years of History and Humanity project, which is available now on the Oculus Store and the VR recreation of destroyed artifacts from the Mosul Museum.

For more updates on Hold The World in the future, keep reading VRFocus.

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Cover The World In AR Notes With SCHOOOL

Educational mobile platform SCHOOOL has released a new feature that allows users to take advantage of augmented reality (AR) technology for educational purpose.

SCHOOOL Inc Logo

SCHOOOL already allows English language teachers and learners the chance to leverage social features to help make the process of learning English more accessible. Thanks to the easier and better contention between student and teacher, SCHOOOL is enabling social learning. This is done by letting learners interact with each other, sharing English expressions, asking questions, and receiving answers all through the app. Users can even create classes and learn together, inviting friends to their own classes or finding a teacher offering a class. Now, a new feature titled Glass Notes offers another way for users of the SCHOOOL app to interact with the world around them all while engaging in learning at the same time.

Glass Notes works by using location-based AR technology, directly within the SCHOOOL app on a mobile device, to create virtual post-it notes. These notes, called Glass Notes, can be place anywhere in the world and can be used to help educate thanks to the generated English phrases that are added depending on location. A user can also take advantage of other notes and capture them, called ‘Glass-ing’, to have the note read aloud to them, helping to identify locations and learn useful phrases. This process also ensure that a note is accessible later even when not at the location to further the learning process.

Schoool Glass Notes Hero

Mark Kim, CEO of SCHOOOL Inc talked about the new feature stating: “An example of Glass Notes in action would be if the user is near a bank, the feature lets the Glass Notes containing English expressions that are commonly used in the bank pop up on the user’s phone.”

The new Glass Notes feature turns the world into a learners notepad, allowing for endless possibilities when it comes to creating or discovering notes. All of this is done inside the SCHOOOL app and as Mark Kim states: “It’s easy to get started, users simply tap the Create Button, making their own Glass Notes anywhere they want. All notes can be public or private. With the Glass List Button, users can manage and edit already existing and collected notes.”

A free version of SCHOOOL: Learn and Teach English is available to download now for mobile devices on iOS and Android.

For more stories like this in the future, keep reading VRFocus.

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ProBility Media And GlobalSim Bring VR Crane Simulator To Construction Industry

There is a great deal going on with training and education in virtual reality(VR) at the moment, and the construction sector is no exception. In an effort to increase safety while keeping costs down, ProBility and GlobalSim have launched a software library of virtual heavy equipment models for training.

ProBility and GolbalSim have reached an agreement to combine GlobalSim’s hardware and software with ProBility’s USA and Canada sales channels. The VR training platform uses real equipment controls combined with a VR headset for a properly immersive experience that allows operators to get familiar with the controls they will be using in the workplace. Using VR in this way means workers can spend longer getting familiar with the equipment while avoiding the expensive mistakes that inevitably come from learning in the real world.

Construction / Building

“We are incredibly excited to be partnered with ProBility on the launch of one of the first portable virtual reality training methods for the crane industry,” stated Jonathan McCurdy, Chief Executive Officer of GlobalSim. “What separates the GlobalSim VR platform from others on the market is the seamless integration of real-life controls and technology that allows operators to see their hands in the virtual environment. The result is a VR training product that provides an unparalleled amount of realism and still incorporates the GlobalSim training management system and simulation tools that are among the very best in the industry. Just as a commercial pilot learns to operate a complex aircraft in a simulator before ever flying an airplane, VR Construction Crane simulation technology can train a student to operate a crane, safely, efficiently and proficiently before ever turning on the engine. This dramatically increases the operators market value and offers not only an increased safety profile but a tremendous cost savings as well.”

“Providing high quality training to the $35 billion crane industry is paramount in our strategy of building our training and career advancement brand across multiple skilled trades,” stated Noah Davis, President and Chief Operating Officer of ProBility. “We have recognized early that the crane industry is positioned for global growth and ProBility is positioned to deliver high quality training and eLearning to the hundreds of thousands of operators and potential operators in the industry. Providing virtual reality to the crane industry is just the first step in bringing a similar experience to many of the skilled trades. We look forward to building a long term relationship with GlobalSim and are excited to work together on additional products for different industries.”

The GlobalSim/ProBility system is configurable for a range of other industries and products, so may well be rolled out for other applications at the later date.

VR in training and education is a huge growth area, so VRFocus will continue to keep you updated.