Learning By Hologram

Over Coffee® | Stories and Resources from the Intersection of Art and Science | Exploring How to Make STEAM Work For You

When Perception Founder/CEO Dr. Sirisilp Kongsilp first saw VR, he was fascinated. And it started him thinking of ways to create something new. Today Dr. Kongsilp, or Rabbit, as he prefers to be called (that's what his name means) has just entered into an exciting new partnership, that will benefit students worldwide. And he and his team will be creating new, free resources for educators! What Rabbit and his team came up with was desktop AR. This is a plugin to Unity Technologies' platform which allows users to view 3D objects from their computers, with just a pair of red-and-blue glasses! In addition, this is a very user-friendly technology that allows creatives to develop and share a 3D app--for free! Now, just in time for back-to-school, Bangkok-based holographic company Perception has an exciting new partnership that's going to benefit students worldwide. Again, it's free. Rabbit recently announced that Perception has entered into a partnership with the Imperial War Museums, and the Science Museum Group, in London. "Together, we will bring holographic exhibitions to more than 20,000 students worldwide" he emailed. A look at the museums' websites reveals some seriously cool stuff. Coming soon--in 3D Imperial War Museums' website lists five museums in their group. Among these are the Churchill War Rooms, which takes visitors inside life during WWII; HMS Belfast, the most significant surviving Second World War Royal Navy warship; and IWM London, which includes the "Extraordinary Heroes" exhibition among its permanent collections. Meanwhile, the Science Museum Group is the world's leading group of science museums. Their members include the National Railway Museum, National Science and Media Museum and the Science and Industry Museum. We can only imagine all the incredible artifacts which students will get to see, up close, in 3D in the future! Rabbit offered a look inside the process of creating museum-artifact holograms for student use, discussed a recent workshop which Perception hosted and shared a contact for educators, worldwide, to get their classrooms involved. On this edition of Over Coffee® we cover: How this new partnership came about for Perception; Perception's goals for reaching students; A look at the process of translating museum artifacts into 3D holograms; The next steps in the project; What to expect, virtually, when the exhibition goes live; How educators who aren't in the UK or Thailand can reach out and get access to the project when it releases; How you can create your own app through Perception; A sample "lesson" that educators might create, using one of the 3D artifacts; What Perception did, in a recent educational-technology workshop with students (who made their own holographic applications!); Rabbit's vision for the future of holographic artifact projects that reach "beyond the museum's wall" His vision for future applications; And, some of the lessons he's learned, as an entrepreneur/tech innovator working with desktop AR. Missed our earlier interview with Rabbit, about his experiences creating Perception? Here's the link!