In latest blow to mobile VR, Google ends Poly and Expeditions

Earlier this summer, Google shut down yet another virtual reality app, the 3D objects library called Poly.

Poly was Poly was first launched back in 2017 as a platform where users could visit, browse and download any of thousands of 3D objects in a virtual reality environment.

It also had a toolkit that other virtual reality developers could use to access the library.

Poly’s shutdown happened on the same day as the shutdown of Expeditions, a virtual reality travel app popular with educators.

Expeditions was an even bigger loss than Poly. It’s been used by millions of students since its launch in 2015.

Partners included the American Museum of Natural History, which offered virtual tours of the Museum’s Bernard Family Hall of North American Mammals, the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs, and the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life. Google Expeditions also had five virtual tours of major league baseball stadiums and a tour of the International Space StationOther partners included National Geographic and the Guggenheim.

After Google Expeditions was discontinued on June 30, some of the content was merged into Google Arts & Culture.

Another major Google virtual reality app is the 3D painting tool Tilt Brush.

In January, Google released an update about the future of software.

“As we continue to build helpful and immersive AR experiences, we want to continue supporting the artists using Tilt Brush by putting it in your hands,” the company said. “This means open-sourcing Tilt Brush, allowing everyone to learn how we built the project, and encouraging them to take it in directions that are near and dear to them.

That sounds almost nice. Then, down below the listing of all the awards the app won and all the VR platforms it’s available on, Google added, “it is not an actively developed product.”

The end of Cardboard?

Google’s biggest virtual reality play is Google Cardboard, which is simultaneously a platform for software developers, a mobile phone app available for both Android and iPhones, a virtual reality headset made of actual cardboard, and an open-source headset standard that allowed hundreds of manufacturers to create their own low-cost phone-powered virtual reality headsets.

Some of the Cardboard headsets from third-party manufacturers.

Some of this still exists. While Google stopped the development of the Cardboard software in 2019, the code is still available as an open-source project. And third-party manufacturers are still making the headsets, but in March Google stopped selling its own Cardboard headsets in the Google Store. There was no official announcement of this, but 9to5Google and other media spotted a note that the product has been discontinued. That note is now gone, too.

In 2016, Google Cardboard was supplanted by Daydream, a slightly better development platform for mobile-based virtual reality that supported a headset button and a motion controller. To go with it, Google also released a nicer headset, made of plastic and fabric, called the Daydream View. Hypergrid Business editor Maria Korolov reviewed that headset in the fall of 2016 and liked it a lot.

Daydream View headset with Pixel XL smartphone. (Photo by Maria Korolov.)

The Daydream platform had support for VR versions of  YouTube, Hulu, CNN, USA Today, Street View, and a couple of brand-name games including Ghostbusters and Fantastic Beasts. Over time, it lost support for Hulu and other apps. In 2019, Google stopped selling the headset.

Last October, Google announced that the Daydream software was no longer supported. “You may still be able to access the service,” the company said, “but it won’t receive any more software or security updates.” Google also said that Daydream would not work in Android version 11 or above. Android 11 is the current version of Android.

In addition to Cardboard and Daydream, there was one other major phone-based virtual reality platform — the Samsung Gear VR.

Samsung officially announced its death in February of 2019. “The Gear VR and Samsung XR have reached end of service and will no longer be supported,” the company said. “The videos and apps related to this feature will also be discontinued.”

But VR itself isn’t dead

With all this bad news, you’d think that virtual reality has hit a dead end.

Despite the pandemic and component shortages, virtual reality headset shipments grew by 2.5 percent last year, according to a report released in June by International Data Corp.

The firm predicts that virtual reality headset shipments will grow 29 percent this year and will grow even faster in the future. “The long-term outlook remains quite strong as global shipments grow to 28.6 million in 2025 with a 41.4 percent compound annual growth rate,” the research firm said.

Other researchers also expect continued growth.

Grand View Research, which estimates that the virtual reality market reached nearly $16 billion in 2020, predicts that it will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 18 percent over the next seven years.

So where is the growth coming from?

According to IDC, the biggest growth was due to Facebook’s Oculus Quest headset. Shipments more than tripled last year, due to its reasonable price and people’s need for gaming and socializing during the pandemic. Other gainers included Chinese companies DPVR and Pico.

All three companies make higher-end headsets, either ones that connect to PC computers or are standalone sets with their own computing power.

40+ Resources For Bringing AR/VR To The Classroom

VRFocus Creators

Do you work within or interested in the education industry and looking to bring VR/AR to the classroom? In this blog, you’ll find a collection of links to FREE apps plus much more! 

Want to download the whole list as a downloadable spreadsheet? CLICK HERE and get the resource for FREE.

Alchemy VR

Alchemy VR has partnered with Expeditions to produce experiences narrated by naturalist David Attenborough. They are creating immersive educational experiences on an impressive scale. It is an experimental virtual reality studio based in London, United Kingdom.

4D Anatomy

The subscription-based app allows students and teachers to explore the human anatomy. 4D Interactive Anatomy puts you in control of navigating and learning from real photographic anatomy on any screen.

Curiscope

Curiscope was founded at the start of 2016 with the belief that they could use AR & VR tech to change how kids engage and interact with Science. Take your lessons to a new dimension with the Augmented Reality Virtuali-Tee. Learn about the human body…on a human body.

Schell Games

Schell Games is the largest full-service education and entertainment game development company in the United States. Schell Games counts some of the world’s most respected brands as clients, including The Walt Disney Company, Yale University, SeaWorld Parks, Lionel, The Fred Rogers Company and Microsoft Corporation. 

Timelooper

Timelooper is a 360-degree virtual reality smartphone app that lets visitors re-live iconic moments from historical & cultural sites around the world. They are transforming the learning process from one that is inherently passive to active. They bring the classroom to life by empowering teachers to deliver highly interactive and historically and scientifically accurate content that will serve to inspire, emote, and inform students.

Unimersiv

Unimersiv is the largest platform for VR educational experiences. By downloading the app, you will have access to multiple experiences that will let you learn about history, space or human anatomy. Technology using virtual reality, however, has introduced new levels of experiential education. Virtual 3D worlds allow students and teachers to visit places otherwise impossible to visit without it. They can go to space, history places, deserts, or foreign countries without physically traveling there. Unimersiv’s VR app is available on the Samsung Gear VR and the Oculus Rift for now.

Quiver

Quiver Education content is designed around topics as diverse as biology, geometry, and the solar system. Quiver Education provides the same magical augmented reality colouring experience, but with a greater focus on educational content than the awesome Quiver App.

Wild Eyes

Wild Eyes use specially designed cameras to capture the natural world in 360-degrees. They are working with designers, educational organizations, and teachers to produce interactive lessons that allow the viewer to see a realistic depiction of the lessons they are learning including Biology, Physics, and Earth Sciences. They are using Virtual Reality to create an educational and immersive experience.

360cities

The world’s largest collection of stock 360° images and videos. The students/teachers can tour anyplace in the world with a 360-degree view for free. 360cities goal is to bring 360 VR photography to the mainstream and create new applications from this geographic data. We aim to cover hundreds of cities with tens of thousands of artistic, high-resolution, spherical panoramas.

CoSpaces Edu

CoSpaces Edu is an educational technology widely used in schools around the world and letting anyone easily create their own virtual content. With CoSpaces Edu, students can create virtually anything in the classroom!

Immersive VR Education

Immersive VR Education is a virtual/augmented reality company dedicated to transforming how educational content is delivered and consumed globally by providing educators and corporate trainers the tools they need to create their own content using virtual classrooms or virtual training environments.

Google Expeditions AR Pioneer Program

With the Expeditions app, through the use of VR and AR, teachers are no longer limited by the space of the classroom. VR lets you explore the world virtually while AR brings abstract concepts to life—allowing teachers to guide students through collections of 360° scenes and 3D objects, pointing out interesting sites and artifacts along the way. Introduce your students to a new way of learning with virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).

Nearpod

Nearpod strives to empower educators to create learning experiences that engage and inspire millions of students around the world. Nearpod is an all-in-one solution for the synchronized use of iPads in the classroom that makes lectures more engaging through interactive multimedia presentations.

ThingLink

ThingLink gives images a new role in online communication and learning. It allows teachers to create interactive images and videos. It is the easiest way to save and share notes and observations about real-world spaces, situations, and artifacts.

Boulevard (Previously WoofbertVR)

Boulevard creates immersive, user-controlled experiences and enriched art education content unlike any other in virtual, augmented and mixed reality. Boulevard Arts partners with the world’s leading museums and cultural sites to share their collections through virtual, augmented and mixed reality technology.

ISTE Librarian’s Network Webinar

Elissa Malespina, author of Augmented Reality in Education: Bringing Interactivity to Libraries and Classrooms has created a webinar about using AR and VR in the classroom. She talks about ways to incorporate AR into your schools.

zSpace

zSpace is an interactive, immersive virtual reality desktop platform. The system is focused on the learning market, specifically STEM education, medical instruction, corporate training, research, and design. zSpace applications engage students in standards-based learning experiences that align with the curriculum. Students construct knowledge and understanding of concepts across multiple curriculum areas with a strong focus on STEM subjects.

EON Reality (EON Reality Education)

EON Reality founded EON Reality Education, a non-profit focused on advancing the cause of Augmented and Virtual Reality (AVR) education and research. EON Reality Education will also guide and commission research and development projects with partner institutions to better understand the cognitive benefits of AVR.

Mattel View-Master Virtual Reality Viewer

Enter the world of virtual reality with the View-Master Virtual Reality Starter Pack. This kid-friendly device will surround you with stunning 360-degree environments so you feel as if you are really there. Immerse yourself in 360-degree interactive environments and explore these amazing virtual worlds.

ClassVR

ClassVR is a groundbreaking new technology designed to help raise engagement and increase knowledge retention for students of all ages. It is the world’s first affordable VR/AR solution designed to give schools everything they need to deliver an exciting, engaging and truly immersive learning experience, whilst ensuring it is fully managed and controlled within the classroom.

ENGAGE

ENGAGE is an advanced virtual reality training and education platform that makes it easy to collaborate, create and learn in virtual reality. The tools are very easy to use and require no technical expertise. The platform allows educators and corporate trainers to share their own content in a virtual setting, inspiring students whether in a classroom, lecture theatre, or operating theatre.

Titans of Space

Titans of Space is a densely educational guided tour of the Solar System, designed first for virtual reality. Multiple versions are available for mobile and PC platforms, for VR and otherwise.

VirtualSpeech VR

VirtualSpeech provides a training platform for people to practice soft skills in VR. Combining VR with e-learning or in-person training gives participants a chance to practice what they have learned in realistic environments, helping develop essential soft skills more effectively. Founded by Dom Barnard and Sophie Thompson in early 2016.

Veative

Veative is bringing VR in education that improves learning outcomes and increases engagement. Veative has launched its Awareness drive for Virtual Reality (VR) in Education. They develop immersive technology solutions that have shown an incredible ability to educate, train, and solve real-world problems.

Arch Virtual

Arch Virtual creates VR medical training experiences that help students practice surgical operations. They practice medical procedures in virtual reality environments before conducting them for real. They create real-time 3D environments for visualization, simulation and marketing using gaming and VR technologies like Unity3D and Oculus Rift.

Gamar

Gamar is an award-winning platform that enables anyone to easily map spaces and create augmented reality games or tours. Within the app, there are many kid-friendly activities available to keep the whole family entertained. Gamar allows museums and local attractions to easily create engaging tours with augmented reality to engage visitors.

InMind 2 VR (Cardboard)

InMind VR is an adventure game about a scientific journey inside the emotional chemistry of the human brain. It allows the students to experience the journey into the patient’s brains in search of the neurons that cause mental disorders. The game places emphasis on the chemistry behind human emotion, greatly inspired by the Pixar/Disney movie “Inside Out” and (more scientifically) Lövheim’s theory of emotions.

VR Space

VR Space is one of the VR apps available to learn about space. It is an immersive virtual reality tour of Sun Star and planet systems. Kids will learn all about the different planets in our Solar System and can guess some of space’s greatest facts.

Mission: ISS

Mission: ISS is to date the most detailed and elaborate space-oriented educational app for virtual reality. Take a trip into orbit and experience life onboard the International Space Station!

MEL Chemistry VR

One of the best educational VR apps on the subject of chemistry. MEL Chemistry VR lessons are aligned with the school chemistry curriculum, covering all of its main topics.

Universe Sandbox ²

Universe Sandbox ² is a physics-based space simulator that allows you to create, destroy, and interact on an unimaginable scale.

The VR Museum of Fine Art

A must-download VR education app. Explore the Second Floor of the Museum! Explore a virtual museum in room-scale VR: see famous sculptures in full, 1:1 scale and see famous paintings without the limitations of glass and security guards.

VictoryXR

VictoryXR is a world leader in virtual reality and augmented reality educational product development. VictoryXR gamified learning for middle school and high school science while keeping all units tied to the Next Gen Science Standards. In addition to gamification, there are 48 virtual field trips around the world.

AR Flashcards-Alphabet & More

Made for younger students, AR Flashcards make learning fun with the technology of Augmented Reality! With AR Flashcards, learning is fun! When you point your device at the printed flashcard a beautifully rendered 3D animal will pop up on the screen. Tap the animal to hear the letter and animal name.

Anatomyou VR

Anatomyou VR is an educational mobile application that presents human anatomy to the user from a different perspective. Anatomyou can be used in two different modes: Virtual Reality and Full Screen.

ImmerseMe

ImmerseMe aims to be the world’s best academic language tool. ImmerseMe uses virtual reality (VR) to simulate everyday conversations in foreign languages. You can choose from over 3,000 interactive scenarios across 9 languages: German, Spanish, French, English, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Greek and Indonesian.

TheBodyVR

The Body VR: Journey Inside a Cell is an award-winning educational virtual reality experience that takes the user inside a human cell.

FotonVR

FotonVR is the first virtual reality in education provider company, that provides complete solution of VR classroom set up, hardware supply, complete content for school syllabus and training to teacher. It has the largest library of science activities for school science subjects. It is an app specially designed for school to teach science subjects. It has more than 480 immersive VR activities that cover biology, physics, and chemistry topics.

Axon Park

Axon Park is an education technology company focused on democratizing access to education through XR and AI.

BRIOVR

Create an immersive learning environment for your classroom with virtual reality. BRIOVR is helping teachers bring VR into their classrooms by offering free sign-ups, storage and sharing to all students. BRIOVR has made it easy for users to build, create and share virtual reality content. Simply register with an email and your classroom has access to the latest VR technology. No coding or downloading required. Built for beginners.

Want to download the whole list as a downloadable spreadsheet? CLICK HERE and get the resource for FREE.

Immersive Education with Google Expeditions, AR, & Virtual Tours

jennifer-hollandGoogle’s mission statement is to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” and so it’s a natural fit that they’d be a leader in creating educational experiences for AR & VR. Google Expeditions continues to grow its library with 800 new expeditions where they have brought it to 3 million students with their Google Expeditions Pioneer program.

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They will be expanding to adding AR support for Expeditions soon, and there is also a set of virtual laboratory experiences created by Labster’s that schools can use to supplement or replace their existing labs with virtual biology or chemistry labs.

Google also announced Tour Creator, at Google I/O which will allow anyone to create annotated virtual tours with 360 photos that they take or screengrab from Google Street View. These tours can be uploaded to Google Poly where WebXR will be enabled so that these virtual tour experiences can be shared through a URL.

brit-mennutiI had a chance to catch up with a couple of people on Google’s VR/AR Team at Google I/O including Jennifer Holland, who is a program manager for Google Expeditions & Tour Creator as well as Brit Mennuti, a Product Manager for Blocks, Poly, & Tour Creator. I talked with Holland last year at Google I/O, and so she filled me in on everything that’s new with Google’s immersive education initiatives including Google Expeditions, Virtual Tours, and Best Buy’s Google Expeditions Kits.


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Google Expeditions Introduces AR Tours

Immersive technology like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) can be very valuable for training and education. In the case of schoolchildren, it can let them travel to places they have never seen before, and with AR, amazing and fantastic things can come to them. The latter case is when Google is testing out with its new Google AR Expeditions.

For the past year, Google have been testing out the AR technology with a selected sample of students, and now the technology is being made available to anyone through the Google Expeditions app.

Expeditions AR tours lets users bring a full-sized African elephant into the room, letting students walk around and examine the giant creature from all angles, or look at the artistry and design of ancient Greek statues.

The Google Expeditions app is available on both Android and iOS, and has been updated to help users find new tours they might be interested in or find a tour that has been previously saved. Over 100 AR tours have already been made available, alongside 800 VR tours created Google Arts & Culture partners like the Smithsonian, Oxford University Press, Museo Dolores Olmedo and Aquila Education.

“AR takes the abstract and makes it concrete to the students. We wouldn’t be able to see a heart right on the desk, what it looks like when beating, and the blood circulating.” said Darin Nakakihara of the Irvine Unified School District.

The upgraded Google Expeditions app can be used on a compatible android or iPhone which has ARKit or ARCore. Schools can also purchase Expeditions VR and AR kits from Best Buy Education, further information on this can be found on the Best Buy website.

The Google AR tours have already helped over one million students learn about a variety of subjects from biology to Impressionist art, and Google say it is keen to see it continue to grow. Further news on how immersive technology is being used in education will be covered here on VRFocus.

Google Brings ARCore Support To Its Expeditions Education App

Google Brings ARCore Support To Its Expeditions Education App

Google was one of the first to explore the potential of VR education with its Expeditions app, which let teachers take students on virtual field trips using the inexpensive Google Cardboard VR viewer. This week, though, Expeditions expands beyond VR and into the world of AR.

Google ran a pilot program for Expeditions AR last year, which then utilized the company’s Tango platform on the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro. A lot has happened since then, though. Namely, Tango has been replaced by ARCore on Android and iOS has its own alternative in Apple’s ARKit. Both represent a much more accessible means of bringing AR to smartphones and, this week, Google launched the full version of Expeditions AR for everyone.

Rather than field trips, Expeditions AR instead allows students to explore 3D models projected into the real world via a smartphone. There’s already a total of 100 AR tours covering a wide range of subjects from Geography to Biology. Students can watch volcanoes bursting to life and explore the human body with the help of a teacher guiding them through each experience. Unlike the VR component, there’s no need for a headset of any kind; the phone handles positional tracking, allowing you to walk around and lean into models.

Expeditions is a free app, though you will need an ARCore or ARKit supported smartphone to use the AR features.

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Immersive Learning: How VR Is Changing The Nature Of Education

Teaching is about exciting the imagination of students, opening the door for further exploration and developing their understanding of the world around. It’s a journey each of us go on from a young age and an experience that can leave an indelible mark on us as we move forward throughout our lives. The methods used to facilitate this process of discovery vary from teacher to teacher, from class to class. However, what is ubiquitous across all forms of education, is the desire to impart wisdom, to intrigue young minds and send them off on their own voyages of discovery.

Titanic VR model shot 3Technology has always played a part in this process but now, with the proliferation of low cost virtual reality (VR) solutions, the classroom experience is beginning to enter a whole new realm of interactivity, crafting experiences never seen before. VR technology allows for a complete reconceptualization of the relationship between the student and what he or she is taught. No longer do teachers have to simply describe what life was like on say, the Titanic; now students can explore it for themselves. No longer do teachers have to rely solely on description and video media to explain the inner workings of the human body; simply put on a headset and you’re off swimming alongside red blood cells.

Ever since the inception of VR technology in its current form, some have been doubtful if headsets could get into the hands of students on a truly large scale. VR units have historically come at a high cost – with products such as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive coming in at the steepest sum – hindering the ability for VR newcomers to fully understand the impact it could have on the teaching process. For headsets to move out of gaming space and truly find the mass audience required to influence other aspects of everyday life, developers have created lower cost solutions i.e. headsets able to work with compatible smartphones. In the context of education, this small but significant step spells the difference between one VR unit per class and one per student, opening the possibility for shared classroom experiences using low cost solutions and creating a culture of VR use. (Rather than individual cases, unable to maintain the adoption rate needed to foster belief in new technologies.)

There are ways significant effects VR could have on teaching. First, as has been established, the realm of possibility for the types of experience offered within the classroom environment would grow exponentially. The exploration of distant planets would become commonplace; an exciting safari just before lunch would become the norm. But another aspect could be even more significant: students may connect with otherwise “stale” subjects, in ways they never thought possible, through the implementation of technology. Now, we all had subjects we liked and didn’t like back in school but imagine the implications of a young student today, using VR to explore the wonders of say, chemistry. The form of that experience could excite his/her mind in new ways, precisely because VR goes beyond mere words, facilitating interactivity and creativity by drawing upon a growing range of software programs.

Low cost apps such as Unimersiv allow for a range of experiences, from a fully animated journey into the human brain to an exploration of Ancient Rome, whilst Google Expeditions allows for VR field trips to over one hundred locations worldwide from the comfort of your average classroom.

Experiences such as these are changing the nature of education, allowing for greater freedom, creative expression and immersion, opening whole new avenues for students to explore.

Google Expeditions Bring Augmented Reality to Schools

School can be boring, as we all know, but many children across the globe are sure to pay a bit more attention with some new technology in the classroom. Enter Google Expeditions, who are bringing augmented reality (AR) tech to classrooms to teach kids about the future of technology in a new way.

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Taking to schools in Galesburg, Illinois, Google introduced the kids to Google Expeditions AR, which allowed student to interact with 3D landscapes, such as tornadoes, world landmarks and more. Using smartphones the children were able to interact with and learn about the weather and world history in a new way.

Teacher Laure Weech was with her students during the demos, who is optimistic about the potential for teaching with the new technology; “It’s awesome, it’s fabulous. I think it will certainly enhance our curriculum.”

Google provided the smartphones for the students to use. Navigating the phone in 3D space, the children were able to closely look around and analyse the 3D models. The selection of weather effects included hurricanes, tornadoes and volcanoes, with student able to view every inch of the models in a realistic 3D space, something that simply can’t be done with textbooks.

Jacob Coon was one of the students who experienced the demo for himself, and shares the sentiments of his peers; “Say you’re looking at a notebook, it’s just flat,” Coon said. “With this, you can see everything and move into and around it.”

The school district is already interested in implementing the software into its classrooms, but before they can boldly go into a potential new future of education, Google needs to finish testing the software for a public release.

These trips to schools are a part of Google’s software test, and even when the software is fully tested and ready, it needs to be woven into the curriculum, and implemented into the classrooms, after certain assurances are made, such as strong WiFi signals throughout classrooms.

Technology is always revolutionising the ways we learn and communicate, so using AR in the classroom seems like a natural next step for education.

For the most advanced ways to learn and educate in AR, make sure to keep your eyes on VRFocus.

Google Expeditions Rolls Out For Everyone

Google have been offering virtual reality (VR) field trips to students with the Google Cardboard and the Expeditions app for quite some time, allowing students to visit landmarks such as the Taj Mahal, or see famous objects such as Michangelo’s David come to life in augmented reality (AR). Google are now opening up a ‘Solo’ mode in the Expeditions app to allow those VR field trips to be open to everyone.

The Expeditions app is available to Android users now through the Google Play Store, with an iOS version ‘coming soon’. The new ‘Self-Guided Expeditions’ mode allows users to explore the world while sat comfortably at home. The Expeditions app is compatible with Google Cardboard, or for Daydream-ready phones, an enhanced made is available through Daydream View.

Users can use Expedition as either an ‘Explorer’ or a ‘Guide’. As an Explorer, users see points of interest which will be highlighted with information pertaining to them, while Guide mode allows users to add annotations to the tour information, or draw inside a scene using a finger or a stylus. The Guide mode is designed to be useful to teachers to draw students attention to a particular sight or bit of information, then each connected Explorer will see the information the Guide has added.

The new mode has been added to the ‘Severn Modern Wonders of the World’ and the Great Barrier Reef tours, along with some others, such as the Cathedrals tour, or a visit to a Baseball stadium.

A video trailer showing the new functions of Google Expeditions is available to view below.

VRFocus will bring you further information on Google’s VR and AR projects as it becomes available.

Google Expeditions to get AR Support This Year

Google’s I/O conference this week has got off to a sensational start in terms of virtual reality (VR) announcements. The company has revealed work on a new Daydream standalone headset that’ll be made by HTC and Lenovo. It also had news to share regarding augmented reality (AR), revealing that its Expeditions initiative will be bringing AR into the classroom.

As with all things VR and AR related, Google’s vice president of VR, Clay Bavor made the announcement earlier today, calling it the ‘ultimate show and tell.’ Expeditions has allowed students to take virtual field trips using Google Cardboard without leaving the classroom, with Google claiming 2 million so far. With the AR functionality students will be able see objects come to life in the class as well.

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Bavour explains in a blog posting: “One of the areas where we’re most excited to apply Tango technologies is in the classroom. More than two million students have taken virtual field trips with Expeditions using Cardboard, and this fall, we’re bringing AR lessons to schools through our Pioneer Program. With Expeditions AR, students can gather around the Statue of David, a strand of DNA, or even a whirling Category 5 hurricane without leaving the classroom.”

Aside from Google Expeditions, but still looking a Tango, the company revealed that the ASUS ZenFone AR, set to arrive later this summer, will be the first smartphone to include the second generation Tango platform and the new Visual Positioning Service (VPS). This helps devices quickly and accurately understand their location indoors, kind of like GPS does outside, so users can be directed to what they’re looking for.

Checkout Google’s demonstration video below, and for further updates keep reading VRFocus.

The Virtual Arena: Into The Classroom for VR

In his latest column for VRFocus – leading exponent of the out-of-home entertainment sector, Kevin Williams, starts his New Year coverage with a look at the deployment of VR beyond consumer, in the teaching and educational scene, at one of the largest exhibitions for this sector.

Deploying virtual reality (VR) beyond the hoped living-rooms gets little coverage in the spate of the latest upheavals within the consumer adoption. But our readers will be surprised by the developments being made with VR into the education.

The British Educational Training and Technology Show (BETT) took the floor of the ExCel exhibition space, filled with the latest technology employed in the classroom and teaching the international curriculum. Along with the latest electronic-tables, connected wipe boards, programmable robots, and new 3D-printing systems, the digital classroom is also seeing the inclusion of immersive technology.

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The exhibitor AVANTIS showed their world’s first VR headset aimed squarely at the education market, one of a number seen on the show floor – the ClassVR system offering a means for 360’ visualization and VR content delivery. Sold as eight, toughened, wireless, all-in-one VR headsets, specially tailored for deployment in classrooms.

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The use of immersive visualisation that is affordable, but also accessible for the whole school; this was illustrated by Google, who promoted the importance of their cost-effective VR solution, with a vending machine distributing Google Cardboard units too interested educationalists.

 

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Google was also promoting their new approach to the classroom, with the first presentation of Google Expeditions – a brand new approach to allowing a class to simultaneously experience exploration of historical and educational virtual environments viewed through mobileVR platforms. The company promoting the

Expeditions Pioneer Programme, for selected UK schools to receive a visit from the team to promote their platform, (offering a virtual-fieldtrip).

As seen with the AVANTIS ClassConnect approach; the Google Expeditions system allows the teacher to direct the students to significant elements of the virtual environment, and can even start and stop the experience simultaneously for a class of users, as well as other elements to steer the narrative, (a unique aspect of the social VR experience, bound to gain traction in the consumer approach).

BETT

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The exhibitor VEATIVE promoted their approach to the VR Classroom, with both a VR Station and a MR Station, this position using the Microsoft Hololens, promoting the educational curriculum software content.

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The company was one of several exhibitors that also presented a simulation of what a VR classroom setup would resemble with a dedicated VR educational experience presented to teachers. The VR headset vying to be as essential in the classroom as the connected tablet.

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The creation of educational content that supports current teaching methodology was also a major element on display. The school curriculum has embraced the use of film and video narrative to aid teaching. The use of 360’ degree video content for teach was seen from Discovery Education, with their Discovery VR service. Examples of natural history and national geographic content presented on Gear VR’s.

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Developers of award winning video and digital teaching and learning resources for the classroom are also turning their hand to the deployment of 360’ and full virtual experiences – exhibitors such as Twig. The company using several equipped Viewmaster VR headsets, demonstrating a simple solution for content for educational establishments.

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This was only a small selection of the many immersive AR, VR and MR technology on display at BETT 2017 – including the latest developments in 3D projection mapping allowing students movements to be represented in floor and wall projected experiences. All this and a greater need to engage with pupils born into the digital revolution; it seems that no matter the stumbling steps in consumer application – the enterprise and education sector are grasping the opportunity of VR with both hands.

Following this brief report, the next big coverage comes hot on the heels of the BETT event, with VR playing a major part in the Gambling and Gaming industry. Europe’s biggest casino and gaming show scheduled to take place this month, with many exclusive launches of VR based applications for this sector – Watch this space for VRFocus exclusive coverage of these developments.