It may not be obvious, but semi-immersive VR can become the next big education tool for classrooms anywhere in the world, including the home. It’s already been shown to have a positive effect in studies involving young students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder as well as potentially improving their cognitive, problem-solving, and social abilities. Yes, immersive VR does have the same potential in similar areas, but the main difference—the reason why semi-immersive VR can become a bigger global tool than immersive VR—comes down to the basics of the technologies.
But first, let’s go over what semi-immersive VR is. You’ve probably seen it before, think of a flight simulator. This kind of technology acts as a window into a virtual world, usually using a computer monitor but sometimes a projector, and the user interaction is done via the keyboard and/or mouse. The users interface in a partial virtual environment, with the feeling of being in a different reality, but are still aware of their physical surroundings.
You can probably guess where the argument is heading. Most schools and homes already have the standard equipment for such technologies, like a computer monitor, keyboard, and mouse. And since the teachers, parents, and students are already familiar with how to use that equipment, they’ll already know how to use the mouse or keyboard to navigate and interact in this kind of virtual environment. Speaking of navigation, there is no need for large, open physical spaces to “walk” around the virtual space either. On the technical side of things, semi-immersive VR tends to have little to no chance of lag (also called latency) as compared to immersive VR since the tech doesn’t heavily depend on low latency requirements to provide a believable simulation.
Beyond the benefits of semi-immersive VR’s generally easy implementation, these tools can also account for students’ preferences and learning styles. Some students may be overwhelmed by the new controls they need to learn in order to navigate and interact with the fully immersive virtual environment. They can also spend too much time focusing on learning the controls and therefore lose time for the actual lesson. Not to mention that the novelty of a fully immersive VR experience can be a distraction from the entire lesson.
There have been studies of its use in various contexts. In one 2017 study of university engineering students, the semi-immersive system created for the experiment improved the students’ mental rotation skill. While a 2020 study of preschool children showed that the semi-immersive projection set up improved their ability to strategize and cooperate with other children.
As an example of a more “real world” use, Perception Code’s Desktop AR technology (which, despite the name, is a form of semi-immersive VR) uses and anaglyph glasses (those cheap red-blue glasses) to , you can view and interact with holograms of NASA’s Mars rover projected from your computer’s screen, for instance a hologram of NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover.
In the end, using such VR technologies, semi-immersive or otherwise, ultimately comes down to how well it’s made and how well it’s implemented. The studies mentioned earlier about semi-immersive VR tech helping children with learning disorders and improving their base abilities were only possible because the apps were specifically designed to help in those ways. Semi-immersive VR technology can become a global tool only if app developers can design engaging and thoughtful educational VR apps and teachers can implement them in ways that allow for focused problem-solving and discovery.
For more information on how to create your own Desktop AR apps, contact Perception Codes at Partners@Perception.Codes. You can also visit their website for more information.
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References:
* Alqahtani, Asmaa Saeed, et al. “Semi-Immersive Virtual Reality for Improving the Mental Rotation Skill for Engineering Students: An Experimental Study.” Computer Engineering & Information Technology, vol. 06, no. 04, 2017. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.4172/2324-9307.1000180.
* Lorusso, Maria, et al. “Giok the Alien: An AR-Based Integrated System for the Empowerment of Problem-Solving, Pragmatic, and Social Skills in Pre-School Children.” Sensors, vol. 18, no. 7, July 2018, p. 2368. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.3390/s18072368.
* Lorusso, Maria Luisa, et al. “Semi-Immersive Virtual Reality as a Tool to Improve Cognitive and Social Abilities in Preschool Children.” Applied Sciences, vol. 10, no. 8, Apr. 2020, p. 2948. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.3390/app10082948.
* Mahmoud, Khadija, et al. “Does Immersive VR Increase Learning Gain When Compared to a Non-Immersive VR Learning Experience?” Learning and Collaboration Technologies. Human and Technology Ecosystems, edited by Panayiotis Zaphiris and Andri Ioannou, vol. 12206, Springer International Publishing, 2020, pp. 480–98. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50506-6_33.
* Shema-Shiratzky, Shirley, et al. “Virtual Reality Training to Enhance Behavior and Cognitive Function among Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Brief Report.” Developmental Neurorehabilitation, vol. 22, no. 6, Aug. 2019, pp. 431–36. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1080/17518423.2018.1476602.
* Yuen, Steve Chi-Yin, et al. “Augmented Reality and Education: Applications and Potentials.” Reshaping Learning, edited by Ronghuai Huang et al., Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2013, pp. 385–414. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32301-0_17.
