The HP/EDUCAUSE Campus of the Future project is now in its second year of investigation into the benefits of XR for teaching, learning, and research at the institution. Their most recent report focuses on the types of learning goals that are effectively supported by XR technology.
See what institutions participating in the XR project discovered about achieving learning goals, effective pedagogical uses, curricula integration challenges, XR adoption requirements, and factors influencing effectiveness by reading the report.
Please, take a moment to discover the activities at the Center for Research in Engineering, Media, and Performance (REMAP), a joint effort by the School of Theater, Film, and Television and Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Sciences http://remap.ucla.edu/.
Also, please take a look at the work of a multidisciplinary group of faculty, students, staff, and distinguished guest artists/mentors investigating storytelling in Augmented Reality during the 2018 Future Storytelling Summer Institute https://remap.ucla.edu/future-storytelling-summer-institute-2018/
Steve Anderson’s brand new Media Arts Lab is located in Melnitz Hall, room 1470. The room is spacious, and comes equipped with seven powerful workstations, each equipped with a VR headset. Both Oculus and Vive equipment can be found.
The lab is just 2-weeks old, and is still awaiting the installation of a state-of-the-art 7.1 surround sound system. The most prominent feature of the space is a large green screen wall, complete with powerful green lights that help create a shadowless, monochrome background to make it much easier for software to key out the background.
This greenscreen area will be used for in part for motion capture. Additionally, on either side of the green screen wall is where the Vive base stations are set up.
In addition to the VR and greenscreen equipment, Steve also has several 360 cameras on hand for students to use. Including this monstrosity, the Google Odyssey, which is an array of 16 GoPros to capture beautiful, hi-def stereoscopic video.
By and large the space is shaping up to be an incredibly flexible and useful lab for motion capture, projection mapping, and VR work. Steve is eager to explore as many use-cases as possible, and is happy to speak to other faculty about bringing their students/classes in to work on some VR projects.
The Media Arts Lab is open to visitors on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for the rest of the quarter from 11a-1p. Various VR films and environments will be on display for visitors to experience.