Introduction to Virtual Reality in Education
For most individuals, the prospect to walk through a re-creation of early Twentieth-century Chinatown in Los Angeles or page through a Fifteenth-century Christian devotional book often known as a Book of Hours is the stuff of fantasy. But faculty on the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences aim to bring historical objects into people’s laps — sometimes literally — through innovations in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).
Bringing History to Life with VR and AR
Faculty at USC Dornsife need to conduct scholarly research and make that knowledge as broadly and widely accessible as possible. They are collaborating with other scholars to create AR programs that permit users see what their immediate surroundings looked like within the early Twentieth century. Using archival materials, reminiscent of photographs and maps depicting the streetscapes, the team goals to create an app enabling users to glance through their phones and see a model of the old neighborhood, streets, homes, and shops.
The Chinatown Project
The Chinatown project includes an AR program that lets Union Station visitors see what their immediate surroundings looked like within the early Twentieth century, before much of Chinatown was razed to make way for the train depot. The team is making progress on filming, programming, and research for the project. They need to have a chance to ask near 100,000 people a day who move through Union Station to pause and contemplate the history of the space they’re moving through.
Objects in Hand
Another AR app, created by Sean Fraga, assistant professor (teaching) of environmental studies and history at USC Dornsife, brings pieces of the past into users’ homes. Called Booksnake, the app allows users to pick out historical items, reminiscent of a Thirties street map of Hollywood, and look at them through a phone or mobile device. Using the phone’s camera, the user can superimpose the thing on a flat surface of their surroundings and fix it in place for closer inspection.
Booksnake App
The app’s name stems from an item that archival researchers often use called a “book snake,” a small, weighted string that holds down fragile materials so researchers can examine them. The app goals to “hold” virtual objects in place for a similar purpose. Booksnake is using cutting-edge technology to enable something that could be a very old, familiar practice of humanities research, which is laying out a source in front of you and really closely examining it, sitting with it.
Immersed in History
Two projects led by USC Dornsife faculty are taking a more immersive approach to learning by utilizing VR technology to position individuals in a long-ago context. VR brings together technology and the humanities, enabling people to look at lost experiences, reminiscent of what reading was like in past moments and past places.
Restoring the Past
One project enables a person to enter one of the vital famous rooms within the Vatican museums, Raphael’s Stanza della Segnatura, home to a number of the artist’s most famous works. The project restores the space as it might have been during Julius’ tenure as pontiff, with the unique books and objects related to one another and the artwork within the room.
Virtual Reality Experiences
Another VR project enables viewers to page through a lavishly illustrated Fifteenth-century Book of Hours from USC Libraries’ Special Collections while standing in an area that evokes the book’s original environment. The project will make the whole book accessible, adding more simulated pages, providing multiple translations of the book’s Latin prayers, and creating interactive features that can enable users to realize a deeper understanding of the book’s story.
Conclusion
These immersive and realistic experiences could make ancient books currently preserved in curation institutions across the globe virtually available to anyone who desires to find out about and appreciate the worth of those assets of our cultural heritage. By using VR and AR technology, faculty at USC Dornsife are making history more accessible and interesting for everybody, and providing a brand new approach to do research, teaching, and outreach.
