RA Updates March 23, 2017

Laura: This week the Google Daydream and Pixel phone arrived, so I’ve been having fun playing around with them.

laura blog

First Impressions: So far I’m pretty impressed with Daydream. It’s a HUGE step up from Cardboard, and the remote control is surprisingly intuitive and easily navigable. I haven’t experienced any VR sickness so far with Daydream, but have only used it for about 20 minutes consecutively. Watching 360 videos in Daydream is much more immersive than in Cardboard. The “Home” screen in Daydream is more similar to a gaming system, versus. Cardboard and HTC Vive. All of the apps that you download for Daydream can be accessed from the Home screen (you can also buy apps in Daydream). The headstrap is overall pretty comfortable, but the strap needs some adjusting at first in order for the interface to not be blurry at all. I’m excited to keep getting familiar with Daydream, and for everyone else to try it out! (:

Nate: This week I have been putting a lot of thought into organizational “webs” for speeches in virtual reality. I’m working with Megan McGrath, a professor at the UMN teaching WRIT 3257 Technical and Professional Presentations. We are trying to use an application on the HTC Vive called TiltBrush to give students a new way to organize their ideas and thoughts for upcoming speech assignments in Megan’s class. The goal is to have the students successfully draw out their ideas in a 360° VR open space.

tiltbrush gif

Xander: Over the last few weeks I have been looking closely into in person collaboration and the effectiveness of small meetings in the classroom. I have observed a few meetings, and recorded two of them with a 360 camera, but now I have been analyzing what the students consider either helpful or unhelpful about these meetings called “scrums”. I have been looking through the responses of students working together in the scrums, decoding key words and providing common themes to what these students are taking away. So far, many students have gone over common terms, like receiving better organization in teams or greater clarity when participating in the scrum. Overall, most responses were positive, with a few negative. We plan to use this data in a way to compare the positives and negatives in these scrums, and how wearables can impact them.

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