Virtual Reality Learning Lab

We explore the possiblities of VR as a tool for learning

Robin de Lange

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AI Photobooth

AI Photobooth​

An exciting addition to your event

Photobooths are for capturing happy moments. With family, friends, or colleagues.

Our AI Photobooth starts out similarly, but then unexpected things happen. You are suddenly somewhere else. Or even someone else. And what happened to your group?

With the AI Photobooth, you will be able to experience the strange possibilities of generative AI. And by giving you more control and insight into the process, you will come to understand the models behind it better.

Request more information

What does the AI Photobooth look like at an event? This video provides a clear glimpse!

We are constantly improving this experience to make it even more appealing. Our web page and images are therefore not always completely up to date.

Plan an online demo

Clients for the AI Photobooth

The experience

Stap 1: take a picture

The experience starts with taking a photo. On your own– or even more fun – with your family, friends or colleagues.

Step 2: give the AI instructions

The next step is choosing different elements for your prompt. And you can choose how close the AI should stay to your original photo.

Then you put the AI to work and see the result. During this progress, we explain the various steps the AI takes.

Stap 3: take your print

At the end, you receive a print of the entire process!

With our professional printer, visitors get their photo within half a minute.

Extra photos are not a problem and are always included.

AI technology

For generating the images, we use, among other things, StableDiffusion and Controlnet. With these tools, we can generate photos based on the picture the user takes. And we can effectively show what actually happens behind the scenes.

Making AI technology more understandable is a core goal of this installation.

Organisation

Guidance & transport

The AI Photobooth is guided by our tech instructors and event facilitators who are technically experienced, engage visitors enthusiastically, and initiate conversations about AI.

The planning and organization of this installation are managed through the core team of the VR Learning Lab.

Tailor made prints

  • Your logo en slogan on the prints
  • Choose which options are available for users: prompts, styles and settings
  • Pick how curious or polished the images should be
  • Collect and share the images in fun ways!

Book the AI Photobooth

Are you interested in this installation? As an attention grabber during a conference, cultural festival or other event? Feel free to request a quote without any obligations.

Maybe you want to combine it with a workshop, or perhaps you want to place the installation somewhere for a longer period of time. Please feel free to contact us about these things!

Contact me about pricing and options

Lease

Would you prefer a permanent or long-term AI Photobooth at your location, including maintenance?

We can design and build a custom AI Photobooth, specifically for you. Please specify your preferences in the request form.

We’re also open for leasing to international partners who want to bring the AI Photobooth to events in their region.

Make a request
One of the new concepts we're working on

Variations

Normal photos?

Not sure whether all visitors will enjoy an AI photo of themselves? A normal photo of a special moment is great too, of course. 

That’s why we also offer a big print of the original photo Soon, we will also offer skipping the AI generation process, allowing people who are not in the mood for an adventure to use our photobooth as a regular photobooth.🙂

Screensaver

When the AI Photobooth is not in use, it also functions as a screensaver showing a selection your photos there. Of course, during busy events, the screensaver on the AI Photobooth will not triggered as it is constantly in use.

Do you want to be able to admire each other’s AI photos during the event? Please book the screensaver on a separate screen.

Mobiele AI Photobooth

We also offer a mobile AI Photobooth for your event. A nice way to add more dynamics to your event! 

AI Photobooth hardware op maat

Check our brochure for more information about custom AI Photobooth hardware.

AI Mirror

A new installation we’re working on where you think you’re watching yourself in a sort of mirror.

But then you’re somewhere completely different? And what happened to your friends? A new project on the cutting edge of live AI transformation to bring surprise and wonder to events.

Firefly artificial intelligence mirror in a store with people standing in front of it, selective foc
Firefly artificial intelligence mirror in a store with people standing in front of it, selective foc(2)

AR transformation

Intern Aielynn is working on a functional Augmented Reality game where the goal is to catch accessoiries in order to become a character.

Made for museums who want to let their visitors experience becoming someone else.

Infinite AI Gallery

Often, we combine the AI Photobooth with our Infinite AI Gallery. The installations complement each other and attract attention in different ways.

Also cool: showcase your AI Photobooth photos in the Infinite AI Gallery!

Learn more

Future Arcade

For schools, libraries and other educational organisations

Do you want to expand the AI Photobooth into a pop-up museum filled with installations about the future? 

For education, we have so many projects that we gather them under the umbrella term Future Arcade.

Learn more

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LIMESCOOP revealed- virtual binoculars in Katwijk

Finally, the LIMESCOOP is up!

Step back in time and see Romans walking past the old Fort of Brittenburg. The virtual binoculars are located at the end of the Limes, on the Buitensluis in Katwijk. In public space, freely accessible to everyone!

Quite some time ago we came into contact with architect and client Fons Verheijen. The Limes, the old border of the Roman Empire, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2021. Although many tourists travel along the old Limes, the conclusion of this route in Katwijk was marked only with “a small silly sign”, according to Fons. That’s just not acceptable, right? Together we developed the concept for the Limescoop.

Archaeologically everything had to be correct. We therefore followed the book Brittenburg by Tom Buijtendorp. Archeology student Aiace Pisaroni devoted his graduation research to this project and Xinas BV made a beautiful 3D model. The Virtual Reality Learning Lab trainees Daan Hobbel, Stijn van Sprang, Stephan Houwaart, Guido van Duijvenvoorde and Enrique Alonso Barreiro developed the interactive 3D world, including a lot of optimization to make everything run smoothly.

A beautiful render by Xinas van Brittenburg (note that the forest in the background and the grass in the foreground are not yet accurate). Unfortunately, the rendering in real time on a high-end smartphone is a little less beautiful.

We found 100% FAT who could further develop their FATscope and can’t imagine a better partner. What a challenge to make binoculars that can stand outside in storms and heat, that run entirely on a battery + solar panel, work pleasantly, and also look beautiful.

The Limescoop was opened on Friday 16 June 2023 by mayor of Katwijk Cornelis Visser, alderman Jacco Knape and Limes program manager Jelmer Prins. And now we can keep track that the viewer has already been used by many hundreds of visitors! Article in Leidsch Dagblad

Quick 3D scan
https://skfb.ly/oIzWL

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The Infinite AI Gallery

An infinite amount of AI generated images deserves an ‘Infinite AI gallery’.

That’s the idea behind this project Stijn van Sprang & Robin de Lange created. When you walk through this 3D world, new parts of the museum are generated in real-time, allowing you to explore it endlessly.

Stijn was an intern at the VR Learning Lab and is now a part-time developer. Stijn put in all the hard design & coding work for this project. Robin had the role of creative director.

Check out the preview below:

Want to learn more?

Do you want to add the Infinite AI Gallery to your event? Or are you just interested in learning more about it?

Read more about the Infinite AI Gallery

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Designing with Artificial Intelligence in Education

Fundamental research in Artificial Intelligence has caused a tidal wave of new AI tools for writing text, creating images, and generating music and videos in a fraction of the time it usually takes. Software for generating 3D objects and (parts of) virtual worlds is also on the way. At times, this feels alienating but also very exciting!

The arrival of this new wave of AI tools has far-reaching implications for how we, as a society, are productive, what our digital world will look like, and how we shape our education. Together, this gives us sufficient reason to incorporate Artificial Intelligence into our strategy. We have started a research line, offer workshops for teachers, and are working on the first AI lessons for students.

CoSpaces + AI skybox experiment by intern Sabrina

Background

Increasing human productivity

In his lectures, Robin often contrasts AI with lesser-known ideas about ‘Augmenting Human Intellect’, where students also read work by Doug Engelbart. The emphasis here is much more on how people solve problems with computers and less on autonomous software. How AI tools are now being used is also partly in line with these ideas. Tech analyst Benedict Evans described it nicely: “AI is like giving every company an infinite number of interns“.

Will AI take over your job? Probably not so directly. But fewer people may be needed for the same work, as professionals learn to effectively use AI tools to increase their productivity. In the end, it may not be so much a competition between humans and computers, but between humans + the tools they use. Or, as American computer scientist Licklider called it in 1960, the ‘man-computer symbiosis’

This applies to writers and policymakers who ask ChatGPT to create an outline for something or to come up with counterarguments. But also for designers who use AI for inspiration, to generate parts of their graphic work, or to create videos from text and a single image.

AI + CoSpaces Edu experiment by intern Merel

The future of the digital world

Artificial Intelligence will have significant consequences for what our digital world will look like.

Due to the increase in productivity, prices for creative work will drop dramatically. The advent of the web previously led to a considerable reduction in publication costs, resulting in a massive increase in information. It is expected that new AI tools will lead to a similar increase, with automatically written blogs, generated explanatory videos, fully animated fan fiction, and eventually AI-generated game worlds.

Part of VR Learning Lab’s mission is to train the digital creators of the future. Our tech teachers teach young people programming, game design, video editing, and responsible internet use. In a short time, it has become clear that AI tools have become an essential source in the development of the digital world. Pupils and students must be introduced wisely and given every opportunity to use this tool effectively.

AI for education

Most of the focus on AI in education is currently on ChatGPT and other language models. Understandably so, as almost all teachers deal with this. For every take-home exam and assignment that students have to complete, they can use OpenAI, which puts a large part of the educational institutions’ testing model in trouble.

Check out an application letter generated by a tech teacher during a team day here. A somewhat strange structure, but it would have certainly made it through the first selection.

We will place more emphasis on AI for creative work, for programs that train future designers. What tools should they know? How do you provide good education with these tools? And how do you assess work in which the student has used AI tools in the process?

This maker education is also a good place for innovation in schools. Together with students, you explore the possibilities of new technology and bring it into the school. This creates opportunities to involve other teachers in these developments and adapt to a changing technological landscape.

What’s our plan?

We see enough reason to broaden our focus and include AI in our work. But what exactly will we do? We outline it below.

Design research

Together with interns and students, we experiment with dozens of AI tools. We come up with interesting content that we can create with them and combine them with other software. We make short videos and complete escape rooms and VR experiences.

We share our experiments through various channels and often also how we made them. We share a lot on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube . We also share the best experiments via LinkedIn, our blog, and the newsletter.

BOOTCAMP: Design with AI

We have set up a new bootcamp for teachers of digital maker subjects. For this, we collaborate with Bijscholingvmbo, which allows the training to be followed with up to 50% subsidy. If you’re interested in a tailor-made bootcamp in English, please contact us.

AI workshops for students and pupils

On March 16, 2023, we are providing the first workshop for students through PLNT Skills. Tech teacher Marijn uses their Cognitive Artificial Intelligence education to develop valuable teaching materials. Soon, we will offer the first workshops for primary and secondary education.

Audiovisual performance

Robin, Stijn, and interns Merel and Sabrina are working on an interactive audiovisual performance where AI and 3D images are combined in a unique way. The goal is to offer a unique experience of the future of our digital world. For study days, conferences, or other events.

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Immersive Tech Week 2022

This week we are at the Immersive Tech Week, formerly known as the VR Days. This is the first time we have a booth: as our clients are mostly in education, it’s just a little less interesting for us than the NOT or the BETT.

This year, we had two projects we wanted to show and get extra input for. Intern Guido is doing user research for the Brittenburg project (linked page in Dutch) he is working on. Partner 100%FAT joined in and brought a predecessor of the ‘Limescoop’ (/liməˈskoːp/).

Interns Michelle en Stijn showed the (English version of) ‘AR(e) you Ready?’ (linked page in Dutch), our speculative game on the future with AR. Their main goal is to find inspiration for new future scenarios we can use in the game.

We enjoyed experiencing the latest XR hardware, such as Pimax headsets, the Quest Pro and the SenseGlove.

Pimax is developing an interesting all-in-one system that can function as a console, mobile phone and VR headset. We will keep our eyes on it! The Passthrough functionality of the Quest Pro impressed us with its seamlessness. We are purchasing it and we are planning on creating many AR prototypes with it in the future.

The team, including our interns, learned more about the field through visiting the tradeshow, trying out experiences at the Playground and through joining talks and roundtables at the conference.

The amount of attention on more philosophical discussions in the program was noteworthy. Netwerk Mediawijsheid, Rathenau Institute and the city of Rotterdam organized various workshops and presentations covering the future of the metaverse (if you want to use that term). Experts and others interested in this subject discussed how children can explore virtual worlds in a media literate and safe way, how they can learn through immersive media and how we can ensure that the metaverse is designed in a way that respects public values?

I was talking to a visiting employee of Stanford who was impressed by this. To him, it really emphasized how different Europe is from the US. We might not be the fastest to move, but by thinking things through we’re aiming for a future where our values are represented, which might bring us much further.

Although this is very anecdotal evidence, I guess we’re doing something right. We’re proud to contribute to this approach, especially with our speculative game ‘AR(e) you Ready’?

It seems like a very good move to relocate the event to Rotterdam, with lots of initiatives from the city and Hogeschool Rotterdam. I think you will see us here next year as well!

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Looking Back – Our Future with Augmented Reality

We believe it’s important that we all think more about a future where we wear smart glasses daily. Because by looking ahead, we can influence what the future will look like.

In our research, we develop stimulating prototypes together with students and interns from, among others, Leiden University. This is also called speculative design. For the Week of Media Literacy, we developed the game ‘ARe you ready?’ in which more than 17.000 young people thought about our future with this technology. (link to game & link to research report)

On Tuesday, February 15 at 15:30, we are organizing a free online event about ‘Our Future with Augmented Reality’. We present a program full of speculative design from various creators. And together with all visitors, we will think about how we can make a positive impact!

On the program:

  • Panel with students from the Honours Class ‘Getting smarter with VR & AR’ about their prototypes and ideas
  • Provocative AR projects by artist Sander Veenhof
  • Daan Hobbel, Sanna Bashir, and Nadine Roos about  the game + research ARe you Ready?
  • Gabriele Romagnoli explains how designers shape the future of AR with ShapesXR
  • Robin de Lange: education as an ideal place for speculative design. How can you get started yourself?
  • Discussion: how can we have a positive impact on the future of Augmented Reality?
  • Creative entertainment during the entrance, break, and at the end of the meeting

This event is made possible by the VR Learning Lab, PLNT Leiden & the Honours Academy of Leiden University.

You can watch it here:

English part: 17:45 – 56:00

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Coding in CoSpaces on smartphone

One problem we had with CoSpaces Edu is that you cannot add code on your smartphone. This is somewhat disappointing as our pool of teachers all have their sets of Android smarthphones with Cardboard-based VR headsets. They mainly use those to let students view the projects they’ve created in Virtual Reality. But it’s also handy to have a few extra devices whenever the school doesn’t have enough laptops/tablets/Chromebooks available.

We organize more and more coding workshops and we needed new sets of smartphones. By coincident, we’ve run into a smartphone model that does allow you to add CoBlocks! The Motorola G9 Play that is. It’s also quite an affordable smartphone at around 150 euros, with a large screen and a 5000 mAh battery.

The large screen size combined with a pretty low resolution is probably why you can do coding with this device in the first place. My guess is that the CoSpaces Edu app looks at the pixel density of the device to determine whether it’s a tablet or a smartphone. The low pixel density of this screen lets CoSpaces think it’s actually a tablet.

We’ve just bought a batch of 8 devices and we’re quite happy with them. I wanted to share this, as I guess more teachers are looking for a solution for this. Hopefully the developers at CoSpaces Edu don’t change the way this is handled.

Want to learn more?

Check out the VR Learning HUB!

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Are ‘infospaces’ the new infographics?

This is the first post of a series on creating what we like to call infospaces. Enjoy!

Creating 3D worlds has become much, much easier over the past years. With software like CoSpaces Edu we teach 9 year olds to create their fantasy world with 3D objects and bring them to life with coding blocks.

And the rise of social VR tools like Mozilla Hubs, AltspaceVR and Facebook Horizon are bringing 3D worlds to the professional world. As we’re all are getting tired from pandemic-caused video meetings, we’re looking at new ways to collaborate.

A very early experiment in Mozilla Hubs with our team

Because of this virtual events are in the lift. But to make really valuable virtual events, we have to learn how to use the space effectively. Meeting each other in a virtual lecture hall or classroom while looking at a PowerPoint presentation is just not using all the possibilities.

Virtual museums

One particular assignment we often give our students who are learning these 3D tools is to create a virtual museum. In our experiences this is a very interesting challenge for the students after they’ve learned the basics of the program. And it’s an assignment that can be easily combined with other school subjects.

Our very highbrow exposition on the most famous gifs

It’s interesting to see what students create. They often mimic the musea they’re familiar with. Some also realize they’re not confined by the rules that a real museum has. Their pieces can float in space, and who needs walls? They can add quiz questions, moving objects and interactive information in a way that really isn’t possible in the real world.

Infospaces

The emerging of easy apps to create graphics from data was essential to create the abundance of infographics we now see on the web. Will these new tools bring the same abundance of what we like to call ‘infospaces‘?

For that to happen it has to become even easier to create 3D worlds. We have software tools to help us, which also offer integrated access to databases with 3D models like Sketchfab & Google Poly.
But to make things even easier, we also need design principles and templates. We need easy answers to questions like:

  • How do you clearly represent information spatially?
  • How do you arrange a room to tell a story?

Those are really new questions for the average communicator. Thus far designing spaces to explain something has been mostly reserved to museum curators and museologists.

With the democratization of designing 3D worlds, we think these questions will become more and more important. We have to learn from architecture, theater, museology and the video game industry.

That’s exactly what we will do in this series of posts on creating infospaces! Don’t want to miss a thing? Or do you want to learn more about Virtual Reality? Become a member of the VR Learning HUB for free!

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VR for online events? – 5 tips

During the last few weeks, more and more people have come to us with the question: “can we use Virtual Reality to improve our online event / meeting / education?”

For us it is quite interesting to see how this question has suddenly become so relevant. Most organisations have the remote working conditions under control and are looking to expand and improve them while the Covid-19 restrictions continue. For example for special school events, teambuilding days or creative meetings. These are all situations in which being physically present has an significant advantage.

In this blog we provide five tips on how to implement Virtual Reality in your online event or remote education.

[Read more…] about VR for online events? – 5 tips

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Learning through designing VR experiences

Can you challenge your students to create a VR experience to reach your learning goals?

That’s a question we often ask during our courses for teachers. Why?

  • Students can learn so many things from the choices they have to make when designing their experience
  • It’s often hard to find polished VR learning material that matches your learning goals and student background precisely
  • Creating VR experiences has become so much easier over time. With CoSpaces being our favorite example
  • You make your students co-owner of any technical problems.
  • Your students practice important skills in our digital society
  • And you help students to transcend the role of passive consumers of technology. We often have students whose first VR experience is one they made themselves. In school. How cool is that?

That’s why we pay extra attention on creating VR experiences in the VR Learning HUB. Using CoSpaces Edu, or any of the many virtual tour makers out there.

Interested in learning more?

Perhaps the VR Learning HUB is something for you!

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Why I love my job

A while ago I asked my parents what I wanted to become when I was a kid. They couldn’t really think of anything, which matched my own memories. Apparently I never had any specific profession I dreamed of. No obsession with becoming a pro soccer player, movie star or pilot (probably saving me a lot of disappointments). Together we remembered that I did have a fascination for the large office buildings we passed during car or train rides. What happened behind the windows of all those giant anonymous towers; what were people doing there?

Okay, perhaps the Dutch skyline was a bit less impressive

[Read more…] about Why I love my job

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Google: from finding answers to getting thing done

This summary of Google’s I/O 2019 event shows some of the impressive products Google is working on: new Augmented Reality functionalities, a smarter Google Assistant and cheaper Google Pixel phones.

What is really interesting about this event is the shift in the mission of the company:

“We’re moving from a company that helps you find answers to a company that helps you get things done”

This statement by CEO Sundar Pichai illustrates the developments in digital technology and the role digital products will have in our daily lives. The focus in articles on Artificial Intelligence is often on completely autonomous computer systems. The focus in this event however, is mostly on how smarter algorithms allow for more sophisticated computer interfaces for users.

[Read more…] about Google: from finding answers to getting thing done

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Why Nintendo’s new VR set shows Virtual Reality is mature

Recently, and after much speculation, Nintendo announced their VR set for the very successful Switch. An important moment in the history of VR, I would say.

Why? Not per se because of how many of these VR add-on sets are going to be sold. Definitely not because of the hardware specifications. Nor because of the games. Sure, Nintendo has the ability to create great games with limited processing resources. And we’re probably going to see some very creative uses of this whole set of cardboard extensions of your Switch. But that’s not what makes this device of importance.

[Read more…] about Why Nintendo’s new VR set shows Virtual Reality is mature

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Research in learning how to program @ PERL Kickoff 2019

Today Marleen & Robin (that’s me) visited the kick-off of the PERL group at Leiden University. An interesting afternoon! As probably everybody who attended this event, we think it’s important for students to learn the digital skills they need to create new things. That’s why we organize courses for teachers and students in Processing and CoSpaces Edu an co-organize the CoSpaces Competition!

The day consisted of several talks focusing on research that helps to teach programming skills a little better. In this post I’ll share some insights.

[Read more…] about Research in learning how to program @ PERL Kickoff 2019

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Which VR headsets for your school?

Which VR headsets should we buy with our school? That’s a question people often email us about. We understand the question very well, as you need hardware to experience VR, right? However, we do think that the question often comes too early in the process. To make a good decision about which headset to go for, you first need to find out what you want to use it for.

Last update: December 2020.

We wrote a blog about the Oculus Go when it just came out. The angle of the post was how we usually don’t recommend the Oculus Go as the sole device for schools. A controversial statement, as it’s quite an amazing device. Affordable, very comfortable, and the remote offers quite a lot of interactive functionalities. Why wouldn’t we recommend it then? Because it’s quite a closed-off system. When choosing a VR headset, you also choose the app store where you can find applications, it’s an entire ecosystem.

[Read more…] about Which VR headsets for your school?

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Comenius grant for AI + VR project with Tilburg University

The VR Learning Lab collaborated on a project initiated by dr. Marie Postma and her colleagues at Tilburg University. Last week it was announced that this project will receive a NRO Comenius Senior Fellow grant! Here you can find the news item post on the website of Tilburg University.

The challenge of the project is to create a few Virtual and Augmented Reality learning experiences that help students understanding challenging topics within the curriculum of the Cognitive Science & Artificial Intelligence tracks.

[Read more…] about Comenius grant for AI + VR project with Tilburg University

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Why we don’t recommend Oculus Go for schools

Updates are coming on the Oculus Go, the highly anticipated stand-alone VR headset. Many educators are excited as well about this device, as it has a few important upsides:

  • At $199 it’s quite cheap
  • There is no hassle with separate phones that you have to attach to a VR headset
  • The remote control gives you interactive possibilities, although not nearly as much as an HTC Vive/Oculus Rift/Windows MR set.

The simplicity of this device really makes it attractive to schools. You can easily imagine a cart with 15 of these devices, including a charging system, which teachers can reserve for certain classes.

Update: this post has attracted quite some attention! We have included a Best Buy Guide for Schools.

[Read more…] about Why we don’t recommend Oculus Go for schools

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HUBspot virtual tour

We created a virtual tour for HUBspot Leiden, the center for innovation and entrepreneurship in our lovely city. We’re very glad to be part of this great place!

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Collaboration in Virtual Reality

Wearing a VR headset is often seen as a rather individual experience. And indeed, the immersiveness of the experience tends to seclude you from your environment and the people surrounding you. However, there are also different, exciting forms of collaboration in Virtual Reality. Some of these can be very interesting for collaborative learning, or for solving complex problems together. In this article we’ll discuss a few interesting projects, some of which are focused on local collaboration.


[Read more…] about Collaboration in Virtual Reality

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Short Introduction: Kasper and IJsbrand

Virtual Reality in education gains more and more popularity and we are full of new plans. Therefore we are happy to welcome Kasper and IJsbrand in our team, who joined us recently. A short introduction.

First Kasper. He is a Media Technology student at the Hogeschool Leiden and is our new trainee. Kasper is supporting us with all sorts of educational activities and is developing his own VR app, in which he will show us what possibilities are already available for education. Curious? Be patience, he is still working on it…

IJsbrand is a journalist and copywriter. In our company he will write blogposts, is working on content marketing and is involved in creating our new online course. His goal is to help the VR Learning Lab to become better known abroad and to make the online course a succes.

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Pacman 360 stop motion animation

It was already somewhat later in the evening when HUBspot colleagues Max and Tom were playing with clay, after a creative workshop. Robin joined them, together they created some figures. This evolved into an entire Pacman leven, after which someone suggested the idea to make a stop motion animation with 360 photos. A few hours later we had this:

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New Cardboards are in!

Our new Google Cardboards are in! Still a very cool tool for a first introduction in VR. Participants of our workshops and masterclasses receive one of these to experiment further at home.

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Are the new Windows headsets Mixed Reality?

 
A short blog post after a Twitter discussion with @StephiNaners on the new Windows Mixed Reality headsets. Acer, HP, Lenovo and Dell are all launching their own versions of these headsets in the coming months. They all use the new Microsoft motion controllers, which look pretty decent. They’re significantly cheaper and they use inside out tracking, so no more need for the clumsy sensors the Rift and Vive require. They look like great devices that will definitely help in bringing VR to the masses.
 
 

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CRKBO registrated institution

In the summer of 2017 we have improved our customer experience and documented what we think is important for the best care of our students. We created new Terms and Conditions and an official complaint procedure to make sure that we can deliver services of the highest quality.

 

This effort was rewarded, the Virtual Reality Learning Lab is now a ‘CRKBO registrated institution‘. This also means that we can deliver services in the Netherlands which are exempted from sales tax.

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Registration Honours Class – Learning through Virtual Reality 2017

On October the 11th 2017, the new edition of the Honours Class Learning through Virtual Reality will start! The course is primarily meant for bachelor students who follow an honours track at Leiden University. However, the Honours Academy allows for a few master students each year, which can be specifically interesting for Media Technology students. Please notice however that honours classes are extracurricular and cannot be counted as an elective course. They will be mentioned on your diploma though.

Bachelor students from Leiden University can register for the course on this page, master students on this page. Are you a student from another university? Please contact us, perhaps we can arrange something.

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Innovation in education from primary school to university

In April, professionals from all across Dutch educational spectrum took part in our Masterclass “Virtual Reality in Education”. Over the span of four sessions, we discussed in what ways VR could provide innovations in education, followed by the participants figuring out for themselves how to utilize and create VR applications. Aside from teachers in primary-, secondary- and higher education, some of the participants revealed a background in business, allowing a wide variety of knowledge to be shared between different fields.

[Read more…] about Innovation in education from primary school to university

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Conference – Learning with VR

On June 7th, LiketoShare will organize the “Learning with VR” convention. There, Robin will provide a lecture on experimenting with Virtual Reality in higher education. What feasible ways are available to start an experiment? And how do you involve students with this process?

We expect it to be an educational day, with many intriguing visitors!

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Virtual Reality in the classroom, but how?

A lot of teachers and educators we talk to turn out to be excited about the possibilities of Virtual Reality in the classroom. Seeing how impressive Virtual Reality experiences can be, we are not surprised by this. VR allows you to visit historical battles, active volcanos, constructions and archeological sites. With VR, you can study microorganisms, complex datasets or mathematical figures. For students of all ages, VR offers the ability to examine abstract educational material from a new and different perspective.

Virtual Reality in de klas

Additionally, the opportunity to create just about anything in Virtual Reality can be quite alluring. Ways to develop continue to improve, creating new possibilities every so often. During each workshop we organize, we discover new and exciting ways to apply VR.

Many schools and educators wish to start experimenting with Virtual Reality in their classrooms. The question is: where to start? In this post, we discuss a number of ways you can start using Virtual Reality in your classroom.

[Read more…] about Virtual Reality in the classroom, but how?

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NRO Kennisrotonde – Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality

In opdracht van het Nationaal Regieorgaan Onderwijsonderzoek hebben we een uitgebreid literatuuronderzoek uitgevoerd over Virtual Reality en Augmented Reality in het basisonderwijs. De vraagsteller, een bestuur van een grote scholengemeenschap formuleerde voor de NRO Kennisrotonde de volgende vraag:

Wat weten we over de inzet en effectiviteit van Augmented Reality en Virtual Reality in het basisonderwijs?

Het volledige onderzoek is hier te vinden, hieronder de samenvatting van het onderzoek, zoals ook gepubliceerd op de website van het NRO.

An English version of this report will come out in the near future.

Virtual Reality in de klas

Het is nog te vroeg om harde conclusies te trekken over de effectiviteit van VR of AR in het onderwijs. Veel van de onderzoekers zijn echter positief en zien veel mogelijkheden voor deze nieuwe leermiddelen. De grootste uitdaging ligt in de ontwikkeling van goede educatieve inhoud en inbedding in lesprogramma’s.

Er is goed onderzoek verricht naar de effectiviteit van VR als leermiddel, maar het gaat dan over ‘screen-based VR’, waarbij geen headset wordt gebruikt maar een scherm. In dit onderzoek beperken we ons tot Head Mounted Display (HMD) gebaseerde Virtual Reality, waarbij wel gebruik wordt gemaakt van een headset. Dat sluit volgens ons het beste aan bij het heersende beeld van deze techniek.

Enthousiasme voor VR

Voor deze vorm van VR zijn er nog geen publicaties van hoge kwaliteit die wijzen op concrete leerresultaten. De toon van de academische literatuur is echter overwegend positief en deze doet verslag van geslaagde onderwijsexperimenten met gemotiveerde studenten. Ook in de onderwijspraktijk hebben we veel enthousiasme bemerkt. De verwonderde reacties die eerste VR-ervaringen vaak opleveren, spelen hierin een belangrijke rol. Daarbij leidt het idee dat in de ultieme belofte van VR alles kan worden gemaakt wat we ons kunnen voorstellen, tot veel creativiteit. Dit biedt namelijk ook de mogelijkheid om de volledige leeromgeving van een leerling vorm te geven.

Veel onderzoekers en docenten zien daarom voldoende reden om te experimenteren met VR in het klaslokaal. Leerkracht Jasper Bloemsma bijvoorbeeld verrijkt zijn lessen met allerlei applicaties en 360˚ video’s. Het is wel goed om te realiseren dat de educatieve waarde van veel Virtual Reality-apps nog beperkt is.

Augmented Reality

Waar bij Virtual Reality het doel is een totaal virtuele realiteit te ervaren, draait Augmented Reality om het verrijken, of uitbreiden van de ‘echte’, fysieke wereld met virtuele elementen. Augmented Reality heeft vele verschijningsvormen: telefoonapplicaties die werken met QR-codes, applicaties voor headsets als Google Glass en Microsoft HoloLens of projectoren die een oppervlakte beschijnen. Bijvoorbeeld een ‘Augmented Reality sandbox’ waar een hoogtekaart wordt geprojecteerd op een zandbak. Vanwege deze verschillende verschijningsvormen zijn we extra kritisch op de bestaande applicaties, met name op de relatie tussen virtuele en echte elementen. Daar zit volgens ons de belangrijkste meerwaarde van Augmented Reality.

Experimenteren

Augmented Reality is wat volwassener als medium dan VR en ook de literatuur is wat verder ontwikkeld. Een aantal studies constateert positieve leereffecten, maar de kwaliteit van deze studies is niet altijd even hoog. En soms blijkt het effect kleiner dan dat van klassikaal onderwijs. Ook gaat het over uiteenlopende vakken en verschijningsvormen van AR. Het is hierom ook voor AR nog te vroeg om harde conclusies te trekken over de effectiviteit als leermiddel.

Waar VR via een headset nog niet volledig toegankelijk is, is Augmented Reality in de vorm van een smartphoneapplicatie al langer beschikbaar. Verschillende docenten experimenteren daarmee in hun lessen, bijvoorbeeld door lesboeken te verrijken met filmpjes of extra uitleg. Zo hebben de leerlingen precies op het moment dat ze het nodig hebben toegang tot extra informatie.

Meer weten?

Lees de volledige studie ‘Virtual Reality en Augmented Reality in het primair onderwijs’ uitgevoerd door Robin de Lange (Universiteit Leiden, Virtual Reality Learning Lab) en Maarten Lodewijk (Virtual Reality Learning Lab).

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Virtual Reality in the library

Throughout the Netherlands, different events focusing on the use of Virtual Reality in libraries are being organized: lectures on VR, demonstrations of the Oculus Rift and even making your own Google Cardboard headset, to name but a few. I support these efforts, as I consider the library to be an excellent environment to help people familiarize themselves with a new medium. Simultaneously, Virtual- and Augmented Reality could become useful for libraries in the nearby future. For example, AR could be used to enrich the library, while VR could provide an alternative method of exploring digital collections.

In this post, I will discuss several projects (both old and recent) we conducted with a number of libraries.
[Read more…] about Virtual Reality in the library

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SURF trendrapport 2016

Tonight SURF will officially release their ‘Trendrapport 2016’ at the preconference of the Onderwijsdagen. Robin was honored to be the author of the chapter on Virtual Reality, together with Lieke Rensink and Jan-Paul van Staalduinen. You can download the Dutch Trendrapport here, the English version will follow in the next few weeks.

Tomorrow, on the 8th of November, Robin will give a lecture on VR & education at the same Onderwijsdagen. On both days, the DinoZapp team will be present to show the Virtual Reality game they made in collaboration with Naturalis.

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Towards a theoretical framework for Virtual Reality in Education

For my current research I broadly explore the potential of Virtual Reality for education. As a part of this I try to form some sort of theoretical framework to describe the unique characteristics of VR as a medium and how it can be used to explain complex concepts and teach different skills.

With some googling you can find quite a few articles (both academic, popular and in-between) that describe the various ways VR could be used in education. There are even a few listicles out there, to use the parlance of our times. Now, who can resist the simplicity of a 5 point overview of this new medium and its role in learning?

[Read more…] about Towards a theoretical framework for Virtual Reality in Education

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The dangers of techno-pessimism in education

I do research on the potential of Virtual Reality for education. Now, people generally find VR very exciting and because of this I get a lot of enthusiastic reactions. People can imagine all sorts of useful applications for education. Students could learn about our solar system while experiencing a space flight, or walk through ancient Rome and learn about its history.

Of course, I also receive a lot of reactions that are more critical of VR as a learning tool. We are at a point in time where there’s hardly any decisive research about learning performances in Virtual Reality. We don’t even know yet whether people will buy VR headsets. Shouldn’t we wait for these kinds of things before we invest in hardware and educational VR content? VR has been a hype before, can the technology deliver the promises that are being made?

[Read more…] about The dangers of techno-pessimism in education

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Hack de Pont – VR Hackathon

On the 30th of April 2016 I gave a Unity3D Virtual Reality workshop for the VR Hackathon ‘Hack de Pont‘, organised by Creative Coding Amsterdam, Lava Lab and Submarine Channel. Among the participants were Syrian refugees from the very noble Hack your Future program. Although a large part of the group had never worked with Unity3D before, quite a few interesting projects were created that day!

After the workshop I joined artist Sander Veenhof to create a project of our own. We mixed Ricoh Theta 360 photos Sander took on the ferry ride with a 3D modeled world in Unity3D to create an experience where you travel from the analog to the digital world. In the future it might be available in the Play Store, this tweets shows a preview:

 

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Virtual Reality for Science & Education 2016 – a Review

On the 10th of March 2016 we organized the Virtual Reality for Science & Education symposium at the Scheltema Complex in Leiden. I think we can safely state the event was a great success!

Over 125 people attended the event, causing a small shortage of chairs at the busiest time of the symposium. I have seen many familiar faces, but also met a lot of interesting new people. The list of attendees included researchers, professors, high school teachers, entrepreneurs, Virtual Reality developers, policy makers and artists. I think this mix of people led to very interesting discussions, thank you all very much for your input!

[Read more…] about Virtual Reality for Science & Education 2016 – a Review

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Virtual Reality for Science & Education Symposium – 10 March 2016

Updates about the program below!

During the last few years developments in Virtual Reality have gained a lot of momentum. Almost two decades after the inevitable downfall in the hype cycle, the Oculus Rift showed that a VR headset is within reach for the average consumer. This kickstarted many new initiatives, causing an entire VR ecosystem to emerge, with small start-ups and massive corporations creating new headsets, innovative input devices, spherical cameras and loads of immersive content.

These developments open many possibilities for research and education. Realistic simulations allow police officers to safely train dangerous situations. 3D visualizations can help the design process by allowing the user to walk around in buildings that have not been built yet. But we can also think of immersive data visualizations which can be navigated spatially. Psychology researchers can use VR to measure responses to realistic environments and scenarios. Lectures about ancient Rome could be given while walking past the Colosseum and virtual classrooms could make following a MOOC into a more intense and social experience.

Symposium
To explore the possibilities of this new medium, we organize the symposium ‘Virtual Reality for Science & Education‘ on the 10th of March 2016. The symposium will start at 13:30 at the Scheltema complex in Leiden. Around 17:30 we will end the day with some drinks and Virtual Reality demonstrations.

On this day, the students from the eponymous elective research course of the Media Technology MSc. program will present the VR prototypes they have created.

The plenary program will have speakers from different backgrounds: Virtual Reality developers, scientists who use VR in their research and educators who experiment with VR in the classroom.

[Read more…] about Virtual Reality for Science & Education Symposium – 10 March 2016

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Embodied Vision 2015

In the spring of 2015 I taught the course Embodied Vision together with Dan North. The course was part of the Media Technology MSc. program.

In the lectures given by Dan the students learned about special effects and illusionism in cinema and how this is used in the service of narrative and spectacle. In the following workshops I gave we explored to what extent the visual effects used in film are usable for creating immersive experiences in Virtual Reality. The studens identified differences and similarities between film and contemporary Virtual Reality. For their final project for the course the students created cinematic VR projects which experimented with e.g. stop-motion, green screens, interactive gaze-controlled video and the dolly zoom effect.

cropped-header_Embodied_Vision.jpg

Below you can find some of my slides for the course.

[Read more…] about Embodied Vision 2015

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Virtual Reality for Science & Education

In May 2015 the Gratama Stichting and Leids Universiteitsfonds announced that my research project into the possibilities of Virtual Reality for the field of education will receive the Gratama research grant. Prof. dr. Jaap van den Herik helped me with the application procedure, the research will be part of my PhD work supervised by prof. dr. Bas Haring.

The research project includes an elective course where 30 students will explore the potential of Virtual Reality for science and education by creating experimental VR prototypes. More details about the course in the e-Studiegids.

My research project was mentioned in the Leiden University newsletter and Mare.

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Art of Neuroscience talk – Virtual Reality visualization of live EEG data

On March 24th 2015 I gave a talk at the Art of Neuroscience symposium in the beautiful Eye in Amsterdam. More information about this yearly event can be found here.

Art of Neuroscience talk

In my talk I presented the Virtual Reality visualization of live EEG data I created with my team mates Eva Delincakova and Bert Spaan at the Hack the Brain hackathon in May 2014. I discussed the potential of Virtual Reality for immersive data visualization and how this could be used in the field of education.

[Read more…] about Art of Neuroscience talk – Virtual Reality visualization of live EEG data

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Embodied Vision Workshop: Augmented and Virtual Reality with Unity3D

On the 19th of June 2014 at 10.00, I’ll teach a workshop for the Embodied Vision course of the Media Technology MSc. program. Below you can find a short description of the workshop and the assignment. After the workshop I’ll post a summary of what we’ve discussed.

Embodied Vision Workshop: Augmented and Virtual Reality with Unity3D

In this workshop we will go through the basics of working with Unity3D, discuss interesting projects made with the software and experiment with creating your own Augmented or Virtual Reality project. I will explain about the Vuforia library which can be used to create mobile AR apps and get you started to develop for Oculus Rift. For the workshop you will need Unity Pro which can be downloaded from unity3d.com. Please install the software beforehand. You can make use of the 30-day trial version.

Assignment
Groups: 1-3 people
During the lectures you have learned about many different special and visual effects used in film and the different goals (such as: distraction, shock, spectacle, narrative, integration, immersion) that can be reached by applying these effects. For this assignment you are challenged to make use of the visual effects offered by Augmented and Virtual Reality to support one (or more) of these goals you find most interesting.
Since learning Unity3D is an essential part of this workshop, you should make use of this software for your project. Exceptions can be made however, if you can give good reasons for this.

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Brainstorm – Hack the Brain hackathon

For the Hack the Brain hackathon, organized by Waag Society, TNO and the Donders Institute, we created an immersive 3D environment of EEG data using the Oculus Rift. To experience our project you wear a cap with electrodes to capture an EEG signal from the electrical activity in your brain. The Oculus Rift places you inside your brain from where you can see the captured brain activity and fly through your brain. The intensity of the visual effects expresses the activity of alpha waves in that part of the brain. This immersive environment could be used by students to better understand brain activity and the EEG signal this produces. ADHD patients could use it as a neurofeedback system to improve their concentration level and neurologists might use it to simulate the experience of epileptic patients when they have a seizure.

Brainstorm3

Media

On the Mind Extensions website you can find the article I wrote about the entire hackathon. he crew of the Dutch television program ‘De Kennis van Nu’ reported live from the hackathon, the playlist is embedded below. The television show can be found here.

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Extended cognition in Education

On the 28th of August 2013 I defended my graduation project:

Developing an Augmented Reality application to promote an extended concept of cognition in education

[ABSTRACT]
The ever decreasing size and price of computer parts seems to be leading to computing power becoming ubiquitous. Similar to technology such as pen and paper, computing power becomes intertwined with our problem solving processes in such ways that it becomes invisible. This development has, and will have, enormous influence on our cognitive profiles. The field of education however, has barely changed to cope with this change in cognitive profiles.  While developments in information technologies are changing how we learn in many ways, we believe it is essential to rethink what we should learn in this perspective of increasing availability and accessibility of computing power.

This research reviews an extended concept of cognition, in which technological elements can actually be part of the cognitive process. We suggest this view as a framework to discuss the goals of education and the technological aids that can be used to reach these goals. To raise this discussion, a mobile application is developed which shows the potential of Augmented Reality techniques to display context-sensitive information, which can be incorporated in the problem solving process.

Download the article here

 

[Read more…] about Extended cognition in Education

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ARBieb

Together with Berber de Vries we developed ARBieb, an Augmented Reality application for children’s books. The app stimulates children to read books and share short reviews. At the same time, it introduces children to Augmented Reality.

The app was developed using Unity and the Vuforia Augmented Reality library.

The app can be downloaded from the Play store, although an updated version will be released soon.