Classes in a virtual environment
Tilburg University will soon have an Augmented Reality Laboratory. Students can follow classes in virtually simulated environments like a courtroom, a boardroom and a hospital. The AR-lab is paid for by an anonymous philanthropist. The estimated costs are 500.000 euros, and the lab will be available to all faculties.
The founding of the lab is monitored by Max Louwerse, professor in Cognitive Psychology and Artificial Intelligence. He works at the Tilburg Center for Cognition and Communication. Louwerse speaks about lab-based learning. “A virtual reality-room like this is unique in the world. Twente and Eindhoven have smaller versions, where images are projected on one wall. But we will have projections on four walls, a complete virtual space. Only Apple and Google have a lab like this at the moment, but they don’t use it for educational purposes. You would think that students realize they are in a classroom, but when you are in a room like this, you don’t see that it’s fake. It is very deceptive. A technician told me that his suitcase kept on falling on the floor, because he tried to put it on a table.”
In the lab, students and scientists will learn to ask questions and find answers on how people think, feel and behave in certain ‘real’ situations. In virtual reality (VR), a technique used in many universities, users put on VR-glasses. In augmented reality (AR), such glasses aren’t required. For big groups, AR is cheaper and more efficient.
The lab will be located in the new Education building (Onderwijsgebouw) that will be completed in 2016. In the mean time, a smaller version will be used. That lab will probably be in the Dante building.
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