University of Canterbury collaborate with an international team to create new VR healthcare training solutions
This week, the University of Canterbury (UC) released a study on teacher upskilling for those working with infants aged up to six months. According to new UC studies, the team is researching “critical training opportunities” for education professionals who may not have access to real infants. Also, and of course, securing real infants for this kind of training can prove difficult, with VR providing a far more accessible avenue towards this goal.
The UC study followed Professor Jayne White’s identification of the infant training hurdle many trainee teachers face while pursuing their professional qualifications. Professor White then worked with HIT Lab NZ on a relevant solution before moving their work towards UC’s Senior Lecturer, Dr Ngaroma Williams, to develop a full VR pilot program.
Now that the research is underway at UC, White, Williams, and Associate Professor Heide Lukosch, Head of HIT Lab NZ’s Applied Immersive Game Initiative (AIGI), are aiming to accelerate knowledge and the applicability of XR interactive training to improve educational and healthcare outcomes—specifically, targeting their chosen healthcare use case.
Professor White added:
VR has proven itself to be an effective strategy for learning practical skills across many disciplines, but its possibilities within education are yet to be fully explored. We’re excited by the potential of the tool, and the opportunities we’ve identified for future development.
The UC team is moving the solution towards commercialisation during the next three years. Until then, it is under a significant pilot process as the partners look to leverage the study to inform development goals and aims with additional considerations for third-party adoption ahead of commercialisation.
Trial Period Success
Thanks to funding from UC’s Child Well-being Research Institute, the team is spearheading the research with an initial VR prototype trial period.
During this trial period, learners are expected to develop positive interactions with the virtual infants, including understanding when to change, soothe, feed, or entertain the subject.
The virtual infant allows users to understand these infant needs based on nonverbal cues. Moreover, the programme will soon invest in haptic integration, with plans to use the technology to simulate weight resistance and tactic feelings.
Associate Professor Lukosch said:
Professor White proposed the idea of applying VR in early childhood education, because while infants are capable of expressing themselves from birth, it is sometimes difficult for non-familial adults to understand their verbal and non-verbal cues.
The UC research team also creates virtual infant preferences and characteristics that users can program into training scenarios. The group noted that it is working to develop an ”intelligent system” that dictates how the virtual infants behave during training.
Lukosch also explained how the research provides “the support required to understand the cues or signals they produce to identify better and rehearse a grammar that will respond effectively to their needs.”
Lukosch believes that research into an infant-based training tool triggers enormous benefits that cover “wide-ranging situations in everyday life in which more than verbal communication is needed.”
There appears to be a positive forecast for the study going forward. Alongside the Hatpics integration, the UC team is also looking into AI integrations to boost the service, with Lukosch adding, “There may be opportunities for this emerging technology moving forward.”
Associate Professor also added:
In these training scenarios, it’s very obvious that there’s a chance to integrate artificial intelligence later, to make the learning environments particularly adaptive.
Leveraging Expert Insight
Professor Tony Walls and Dr Niki Newman, a Christchurch-based University of Otago Simulation Centre lead, also provided additional personal assistance for the study.
The duo is helping by leveraging their experience to inform the research team about the healthcare applications and challenges that UC should consider going forward. This expert insight will allow the UC team to create a solution that genuinely conquers the hurdles that White first discovered.
Lukosch continued
We’re really intrigued by the opportunity and the power of virtual environments to help people in situations that would be otherwise hard to access, or potentially dangerous. In this case, we aim to create a virtual, immersive environment that enables the user to really feel present and accountable for their actions in certain situations, with opportunities to reflect on these.
Lukosch explained how the research team is programming feedback that highlights core, specialised elements such as individual infant preferences – “For example, we could programme a preference for red, and when the user picks up a red toy, then the baby would smile. If they choose a yellow toy or similar, then it would start crying,” Lukosch noted.
2024: The Year for Uni-Based XR Innovation?
University research teams are leaders in XR research. Since the VR boom started a few years ago, some of these teams have taken centre stage as they invent clever new AR/VR/MR solutions, creating a mass influx of fresh minds entering the XR professional development space.
In May, eXtended Reality Peterborough (XRP), a UK-based immersive technology company, partnered with Igloo Vision and the wider ARU education group to establish a £5.7 million XR training facility in the east of England.
This “XR Lab” received multi-million capital support from the Office for Students and aims to provide simulated learning opportunities at the new Peterborough site and ARU campuses in Cambridge and Chelmsford. The facility, part of the Peterborough Centre of Excellence and Innovation and Research Centre, occupies a three-story space and offers various learning opportunities.
The establishment of the Peterborough Centre of Excellence, Innovation, and Research Centre is supported by the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority Business Board’s “Get Building Fund,” which provides an additional £13.78 million.
While the XR Lab is a significant part of the new facility, it offers broader education opportunities. The official debut of the XR Lab is scheduled for this summer as part of ARU Peterbrough’s third development phase.
The ARU Peterborough group, a partnership between Anglia Ruskin University, Peterborough City Council, and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, and the integration of Igloo Vision solutions aim to bring immersive learning and training to institutions across the east of England.
The XR Lab uses Igloo Vision’s unique solutions to provide students with a space to practice skills-based training in safe and repeatable scenarios. Local professionals will also be involved in enhancing the immersive training with real-world knowledge. XR Labs states that the space is equipped to teach practical skills in high-demand sectors such as hospital wards, science labs, and engineering workshops.
In the same month, the University of Miami began using ENGAGE’s spatial computing technology to enhance immersive learning experiences across the campus. The ENGAGE XR platform is being utilized in 40 different courses to support teaching and training students. For instance, medical students at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute are using ENGAGE’s application to learn about the use of slit lamps in eye examinations.
Kim Grinfeder, the Department Chair at Interactive Media, mentioned that the ENGAGE platform was recently utilized at a health conference focused on applying technologies like VR and AR. The university’s goal was to allow as many participants as possible to participate in the conference, recognizing that not everyone could attend in person.
Thanks to ENGAGE, the conference brought together approximately 100 professionals from the healthcare sector, including researchers, physicians, tech industry leaders, and university faculty. Through its VR and AR capabilities, ENGAGE offers a more immersive experience than standard video conferencing platforms like Zoom, enabling participants to share insights and discuss the potential impact of immersive technology.
Finally, in February this year, Nottingham University created a VR classroom that enables remote viewing and communication between lecturers and students.
The students using the new classroom setup are in the second year of the Product Design and Manufacture program at a top-20 UK university. Additionally, Nottingham University, which ranks eighth in the UK for research power, believes that the classroom revolutionizes the teaching of VR software.
Professor Joel Segal, Head of Mechanical Materials and Manufacturing Engineering (M3) in the Faculty of Engineering, commented on the new VR classroom:
While many universities, including us, have existing VR labs, these are nowhere near the scale of our newly unveiled facilities, which will provide our students with access to cutting edge tools and technologies unlike anything else on offer across the globe. We have a desire to be at the forefront of technology in teaching and we’ve already been making strides in this area in recent years in our smaller VR labs. Now, however, we have the opportunity to take the lead in the UK and further build our reputation for producing engineers that are ready to shape the real world.
The classroom is equipped with 40 high-quality VR headsets. 35 of these headsets are connected to PCs, while the remaining five use traditional desk-based systems and display screens. Additionally, the university lends 90 wireless headsets to students, allowing them to continue their studies outside the classroom.
Both staff and students will have access to 360-stereoscopic cameras and 3D scanners. When the classroom is not used for VR experiences, the headsets can be raised to the ceiling, making the space available for other purposes. Furthermore, there are plans to use the VR facilities for real-time collaboration with international campuses. The university’s Ningbo campus also has its own VR lab, enabling students to collaborate globally.
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