Brief

Immersive virtualization learning

Left to right: Sanjeev Mansotra, CMD, Core Technologies Ltd and Joe Swaykos, Director, CHL signing partnership agreement in Mumbai

Core Projects and Technologies in collaboration with Center of Higher Learning (CHL) are launching an immersive visualization program in areas of learning. CHL, a non-profit organization, situated at NASA’s John C Stennis Space Center, enables students, and any individual inclined and induced towards learning, to visualize and interact with the real world projected as virtual 3D images. It does so by employing a revolutionary technology called as Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE). This partnership is aimed at teaching students in all areas of interest—from medicine to mathematics, from mammography physics to molecular science to scientific computation, and from marine technology to the outer space. It will create an ambience where every individual will be able to relate and interact with the virtual world instead of merely taking clues from reading books and listening to professors. Since it is a known fact that every individual learns faster, retains longer and is able to replicate better when interactive means of learning is applied, this progressive methodology is intended to take education to areas that have never been explored before.

This one-of-its-kind combined educational initiative is exclusively directed towards the Asia-Pacific region and will help in enhancing best-of-breed technology in the educational domain. Engineers from India will go to CHL, learn, understand and get themselves familiar with the workings of this unique undertaking. Also, engineers from CHL will come down to analyze, organize, develop and deploy the machinery, equipments and applications required according to the needs, requirements, level of understanding and availability of resources in the local market. Initially, this effort will target higher educational institutes and K-12 schools. It will have a profound impact on students as they will now have the capacity to build real life applications in an interactive medium with a forum to participate.

As per CHL, the Geospatial Applications Laboratory performs the preliminary task of analyzing, classifying, compiling and presenting the data that will eventually take the form of a real world. The virtualization center then uses a computer to power the four-projector RAVE II display system, which includes stereo projection, and creates a fully immersive three dimensional environment for the user to apply, understand and adapt to. Architectural drawings also make walking through, networking and relating to the virtual world feasible.