AR and VR Ancient Art Pedagogies

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10/10/17, 11'32 am The new hyper-reality of work | Pursuit by The University of Melbourne

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THE NEW HYPER-REALITY OF WORK

Augmented and virtual realities promises to dramatically change how we work in the

future, but the technology is already having an impact in education and training

By Andrew Trounson, University of Melbourne

ces are you are reading this article on some sort of screen – a computer, a tablet, or a phone. But ine a future where there are no screens, no phone handsets or keyboards, and the only mouse is in the

kitchen cupboards.

is the ofﬁce of the future, where Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) change our

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onment that replaces the real world.

earing smart glasses with a mix of augmented and virtual reality become routine for Picture: Gettyimages

, ofﬁce workers wear Augmented Reality (AR) glasses to interact with a digital overlay of controls ted onto any surface, allowing them to make calls, dictate emails, and operate software simply by g their hands, arms, legs and even their eyes to command an action. Others wear Virtual Reality headsets to spatially collaborate on 3D tasks – collaborating with colleagues down the road or on the

side of the world.

WORKING WITH SMART GLASSES

in the ﬁeld, workers also wear AR glasses that give them instant access to technical information and uctions as they work on a building site or liaise with customers. They also use VR headsets in their

omous cars, working on designs and ﬁxes with colleagues offsite.

endgame will depend on how technology progresses and becomes faster and smaller, and headsets e lighter to wear and easier to use,” says University of Melbourne communications and media oduction consultant Ben Loveridge.

I think given the way it is heading, we can imagine a work place where people will routinely wear glasses or perhaps even smart contact lens that can provide a mix of AR and VR.”

r Loveridge talks to me, he is wearing a VR headset and waving his arms around in a painting ion. On the computer screen above, I see he is creating a three-dimensional sculpture in Tiltbrush,

he then walks around to get a better look at his handiwork. It isn’t hard to imagine that designers ngineers could soon be routinely working together in 3D as they co-create and problem-solve using

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ay eventually be able to simply use eye tracking to govern controls and applications. These are all that people are working on.”

ar could we push virtual reality into other senses like touch? Picture: iStock

ationally, businesses are already exploring how the technology can beneﬁt the bottom line.

pore’s Changi Airport is aiming to speed up cargo loading using AR. Ground handlers will use the s to read visual cues attached to different cargoes that then links instantly to loading instructions.

searcher Dr Thuong Hoang, at the University of Melbourne’s Microsoft Research Centre for Social al User Interfaces, says people are only now just starting to realise the huge potential of AR and VR workplace.

gmenting training

ially, most people in this area were focused on the technology behind AR and VR rather than what n do with it, but that is gradually changing and now people are actively looking for opportunities to it,” says Dr Hoang.

ed by gaming technology, Dr Hoang has used AR to enhance physiotherapy teaching by projecting s of muscles and skeleton over a live model. It provides students with a clear, visual understanding of ner workings of our bodies.

gamiﬁcation of training introduces a new element of excitement and motivation into learning that otherwise be missing,” says Dr Hoang.

d VR is continuing to gain traction in the area of training and education.

oang notes that US fast-food giant KFC has created a tongue-in-cheek VR gaming experience to oduce new staff to the basics of cooking chicken.

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First published on 9 October 2017 in Engineering & Technology

VIRTUAL REALIT Y AUGMENTED REALIT Y WORK EMPLOYMENT

d academics

rtual field trips

rsity of Melbourne classics scholar Dr Monique Webber is creating teaching videos, edited by the hing Unit in the Faculty of Arts, that use VR to present ancient artworks as 3D objects. Dr Webber

en walk around the object, annotating and highlighting important features to the students. These ations teach students the analytical process they will use in the University’s Object-Based Learning

they handle artefacts from the University of Melbourne’s own collection.

a blended learning approach between VR and reality that trains students in the tasks they will use t University and in the ﬁeld,” says Dr Webber, from the School of Historical and Philosophical

ys experiencing the artworks in VR during the making of the videos has sometimes meant she has d a whole new appreciation of a work.

seen these objects in the ‘ﬂesh’ in Europe but by being able to actually get close to them in the VR, I ble to see completely new relations between form, depth and composition,” says Dr Webber.

ideal, she says, will be when the technology becomes affordable enough to allow thousands of ts to easily access VR. “For the students, it would mean they could all have an experience that iously they would only get by travelling to Rome.”

ore affordable access to high-quality VR may only be a few years away, according to Mr Loveridge. moment, a VR headset that allows movement in three dimensions, with hand controllers costs at 1,500 – but smart-phone giants and other tech companies are already moving to make the market competitive.For Dr Webber, this new reality is already revolutionising teaching.

technology is completely changing the ﬁeld. Previously teachers developed teaching materials. Now, e hunting for opportunities that enhance hands-on learning experiences through the medium of