Think VR and Augmented Reality
My husband, son and I were having a conversation the other day about which was going to be bigger Virtual or Augmented Reality, we were split. My son (a Virtual Reality developer) went for VR and from a marketing perspective I think he’s right. My husband on the other hand, thought AR but I went for a mix of both depending on the context. Virtual Reality has so much potential for a truly immersive experience and in education I can just imagine the potential of medical students working on patients, engineers understanding the inner workings of machinery or artists being able to put themselves inside their painting. Augmented Reality where information is conveyed as overlays on the real world, would I think, be great for group work maybe VR is as well but the cost and fitting of all the equipment surely puts it at a disadvantage? Either way the potential of this immersive and interactive technology is compelling. I came across this interesting article today, The Top Ten companies working on Virtual and Augmented Reality in Education Can you imagine what Science would be like if the teacher has the tools from the Starship Enterprise at her fingertips! If only I could figure out how to bring those hologram figures into the classroom, I’m sure someone’s already onto it…(any leads or thoughts welcome 😉
I am sure both have a bright future. I see a particular future for augumented reality in training and the identification and augmentation of what is already existing. Open a car bonnet and see what the various parts are and the explode out a schematic diagram etc. Go to the supermarket see if the item you are looking at contains items yua re allergic to etc. I am sure virtual reality is going to be huge. I back the real world augmented. 😉