Would you need to book the IEL  for a scheduled event/course, please use the following form:

 

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Resources at University Park

You can find resources and support for using immersive technology for your course, research or personal projects in these labs.

1. Immersive Environments lab (located in the Stuckeman Family Building).
2. Center for Immersive experiences (located in Pattee library).
3. Media Commons (located in 4 buildings in the University Park campus).

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Tutorials

Check out our YouTube page for student works visualized using the tutorials given below: https://www.youtube.com/@ImmersiveEnvironmentsLabPSU

Here is a step-by-step instruction on how to use a GoPro Max 360 camera to capture a 360 video of your architectural 3D physical models and view it using a VR headset.

 

Follow this document to use Unity game engine to create a fully immersive VR experience using your digital 3D model. The tutorial was created by the Center for Immersive Experiences.

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You said Extended Reality? What is it?

Extended reality is an umbrella term used to refer to immersive technologies, like virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed Reality (MR), that extend the reality one experiences. Extending reality, in this context, means to “alter perceptions and, along with it, actual realities” (Greengard, 2019).

Definitions of important VR/AR/MR concepts

Augmented Reality: “An enhanced version of reality created by the use of technology to overlay digital information on an image of something viewed through a device (such as a smartphone camera)” (Greengard, 2019). This process takes place in real time. It could be as simple as a voice added to your reality (e.g. voice assisted navigation) to as elaborate as AR treasure hunting games (e.g. Pokémon Go)

Mixed Reality: Can be defined as the blending of physical and virtual objects to create natural human, computer and environment interaction (source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/mixed-reality/discover/mixed-reality).

Virtual Reality: “an artificial environment which is experienced through sensory stimulation (such as sights and sounds) provided by a computer and in which one’s actions partially determine what happens in the environment” (Greengard, 2019).

Immersive Virtual Reality: “Immersive VR is a communication medium that uses specialized hardware (e.g., a head-mounted display) and sensory feedback (e.g., spatialized audio) to create a virtual experience that surrounds users, making the virtual world appear and feel comparable to the physical world” (Markowitz & Bailenson, 2021).

Immersion: “How well the VR technology approximates typical human actions and behaviors. For people to treat virtual experiences as real, VR technology supporting head, hand, and body movements must track actions precisely and be rendered on-screen without lag or disfigurement. When immersive VR technology fails to achieve this, people may endure simulator sickness” (Markowitz & Bailenson, 2021).

Presence: The sense of ‘being there’ in a virtual/mediated environment (Heeter, 1992; Lombard & Ditton, 1997). Presence can be defined as the feeling of non-mediation or believing that the digital illusion is real.

Stereoscopy: Stereoscopy is a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image.

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References for starters

Achten, H. (2021). A concise history of VR/AR in architecture. In Virtual Aesthetics in Architecture (pp. 3-9). Routledge.
Greengard, S. (2019). Virtual reality. Mit Press.
Heeter, C. (1992). Being there: The subjective experience of presence. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments,1(2), 262–271.  https://doi.org/10.1162/pres.1992.1.2.26
Lombard, M., & Ditton, T. (1997). At the heart of it all: The concept of presence. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 3(2), 0. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.1997.tb00072.x
Markowitz, D. M., & Bailenson, J. (2021). Virtual reality and emotion: a 5-year systematic review of empirical research (2015-2019).