Oct 18, 2016 Virtual Reality is Here

While there are always lots of exciting projects to talk about in the 3D printing world, this post will focus on an upcoming service the Marriott Library will soon unveil. In an effort to provide innovative and forward-thinking services, the Library has taken the plunge into Virtual Reality with the purchase of 3 HTC Vive and Oculus Rift headsets. These brand new devices are intended for use by university affiliates for research, exploration, and creation of content. While Virtual Reality (VR) has been around for several decades, up until now it has required overly expensive hardware, leaving broad swaths of the academic community unable to play, test, learn, and develop on the platform.

With our latest acquisition, students, faculty, and staff will be able to check out a headset and adequately equipped laptop to enjoy the latest VR offerings, as well as start to learn the tools necessary to create immersive, engaging learning environments. These devices have broad applications beyond just video games, and have long been used in many industries for training and simulation exercises. While we are still formulating checkout procedures and policies around the use of the devices, rest assured that the intention is to maximize the availability of the hardware to the campus community.

In the coming weeks we will transition our weekly Thursday workshop to a VR exploration workshop. This workshop is held every Thursday from 2-3pm (Semester breaks and holidays excluded) and will introduce new users to what VR is, how it differs from Augmented Reality, and how to get involved with the content. Experienced users are encouraged to join as well, to share their knowledge and enthusiasm for the platform. We will also have the equipment out during our weekly Friday Makerspace, held from 10am-2pm in the Knowledge Commons on level 2.

I look forward to seeing you there!

T.J. Ferrill
Assistant Head, Creative Spaces
Creativity & Innovation Services
J. Willard Marriott Library
Office: 801-587-2930

View the original article on the Creativity and Innovation Services Blog