Introduction to VR

There are two major types of virtual reality: immersive and non-immersive. Using non-immersive techniques, your head holds still, and the keyboard and mouse are used to turn the virtual reality world in front of you. In contrast, immersive VR uses headsets with special goggles to create an artificial world whose view makes the user feel that they are in the space, such that turning your head to the left would cause the computer head-display to display the scene to your left. A QuickTime VR panorama and virtual reality worlds such as Second Life belong in the category of non-immersive VR. Immersive VR requires much more expensive technology, including goggles and VR gloves.

The non-immersive panorama image below on the left is a VR image of an actual computer lab classroom, but graphic applications can be used to create a fictional space as well. The image on the right is an example. This discussion of this web page focuses on non-immersive VR panoramas and objects because they require no extra computer hardware to see them. Before creating a VR composition of your own, visit many of the examples below to understand better how this works. 

Click the image above to enter factual VR space. Upon arriving, double-click the question mark to find the hotspots to extensions of the VR scene.	Click the image above to enter fictional VR space. Upon arriving, double-click the question mark to find the hotspots to extensions of the VR scene.

The two above examples of Quicktime VR are the simplest form of VR imagery. This non-immersive form requires much less computer processing and data storage than other more sophisticated forms of immersive virtual reality. Faster computers and faster computer networks may eventually make some form of immersive VR the dominant form in the distant future. 

A VR panorama is an image that can be rotated in either direction for a full 360 degrees (or lesser rotations), and that allows the viewer to zoom in and out and up and down. Further, "hotspots" can be created within this panorama that become clickable looks to other information, including other panoramas, objects, web pages and more. Example hotspot designs are provided in the image areas above.

To create a panorama, shots or photographs must be taken of all the space that is to be included in the panorama. The most affordable approach is to take a series of camera shots around a room or space rotating a still camera after each shot. There is a special way that this camera shooting must be done for it to be effective. Computer software then takes this series of photographs and seams the images together in one continuous image. Once Quicktime software is installed on your computer (it probably already is), then the image that is created can be viewed and controlled. Quicktime is one of many kinds of software used to build, and display and control three dimensional views.

VR Literacy Begins with Understanding

It is important to look at many examples of a type of media to develop literacy knowledge about it. Understanding is a key part of literacy. One panorama is referred to as a VR node. A collection of VR nodes makes up a VR scene. Further, there are different features of these VR elements including:

• objects such as a chair (examples: one, two),
• multi-node or linked VR elements (see the above pair of images, or a three node example around the author's house (use the question mark in the controller bar to show clickable hotspots)
• stereo directional sound (example one-Australian Square and fountain) and more.
• cubic VR (which provides 360 degree views both up and down and left and right).

It is equally important to look for examples that would be useful in your own teaching. One can do a Google Web search of "quicktime VR" OR "quicktime VR cube" gallery or Google Image search of "quicktime VR" OR "quicktime VR cube" gallery or use related terms along with content area terms to see many examples. For example, a search of "quicktime VR" OR "quicktime VR cube" gallery science search led to this panorama of "big science" physics research equipment. The term gallery is a common term to use in searches when it is possible there are collections of some type of things. Thousands of wonderful panorama examples can also be found at http://panoramas.dk/ that are useful in many content areas.

Educational Uses of VR

Educators can also use VR panoramas for a number of further computer integration ideas. The online journal, VR in the Schools, from the Virtual Reality and Education Laboratory of East Carolina University has published several years of articles with further information on the rationale and means for using VR in school classrooms. Further, the ERIC database of educational literature shows over one hundred articles using "virtual reality" as a major descriptor. One quick and practical use is to create VR panoramas of classrooms to help compare and improve ways of organizing classrooms for instructional activity. The use of VR view is strengthened by also creating a two-dimensional view of the classroom layout.

Creating with VR: Expensive Tools for Creating VR Panoramas with Professional Quality

The second part of literacy in a medium is being able to create something in it.

	Special lens, cameras and software can also be bought, such as the example on the left, that will create a virtual reality panorama using just one shot, but such tools cost several thousand dollars. However, excellent work can be done with any camera without the special lens arrangement. but a much larger number of shots must be taken. When seaming multiple shots from the real world, professionals use special VR heads on their tripods (a few hundred dollars) to screw mount their cameras to the tripods (see image on the right), preventing the camera lens from being moved off its nodal or lens center point when it is being rotated. Simply screwing a camera to the tripod using the normal tripod mounting point under the camera will not work as this is not the camera's nodal point. As will be shown below, though such VR heads do improve the quality of such production, good VR images can be taken with no more special hardware than a still camera and a piece of paper with guidelines for shot angles.
Image courtesy of Kaidan.com. Click to visit their site.		Image courtesy of Kaidan.com. Click to visit their site.

Low Cost VR Tools: Making a 360 degree panorama of a classroom

Creating or composing VR can be done for free without any fancy equipment. This activity takes you throught the process of creating a panorama of a classroom space. While working through this process, record some ideas about panoramas that could be created that would be helpful in teaching relevant content areas. The procedure to make a VR panorama involves shooting a series of shots in a circle, using editing software to seam them together in one seamless image, then publishing them to a web page. This must be done in a very particular way. 

Capture: shooting a series of shots

1. If you wish to do this well without the expense of special equipment, you will need a "VRcompass" to guide the direction of your camera shooting. The VR compass is a piece of paper with guidelines for aiming the camera. One option is to use the sample VRcompasses provided: 12 shot VR compass; or 18 shot VR compass. Print out the version that best meets your needs. One can also create your own shooting guidelines by creating a circle some 8 inches in diameter then marking the center of the circle and every 10 degrees around a circle. A compass and protractor are necessary for making your own accurate paper VRcompass. An even fancier and more accurate but very inexpensive VRcompass can be made by drawing the proper geometry on top of a plastic "Lazy Suzanne" tray that can be found in most supermarkets for a couple of dollars. Also, with careful centering, the provided paper VR compasses could be pasted onto its surface. The Lazy Suzanne tray makes it more likely that the camera will rotate without any movement of its nodal point. For the best work, be very precise in aiming the camera at the correct angles.

2. Learn what the nodal point of a camera means. VR shots must rotate around the nodal point, the visual center of a camera, not it's physical center. In the camera pictures, green is the correct point around which to rotate the camera. Red is the wrong turning point. Do not rotate on a camera stand. In short, the nodal point of a camera is the center of its lens, not the center of the body of the camera. It is also not the front or  back of the lens but near the middle of the lens where the light rays come together and flip over. To create a panorama, the camera must be rotated on this nodal point, NOT on the center of the camera body. If further perspectives are needed on this concept, searching with the right terms  ("nodal point" lens find) will reveal other explanations of this concept from many points of view. 

3.a. Determine the proper degree of camera turn and shoot the needed shots. Use the VR Compass sheet from above. Take a digital still camera into your classroom and shoot one shot. Rotating the camera on its nodal point, turn it 30 degrees and look through the camera lens. If this setup of the second shot shows overlap with the scene of the first shot, take the picture, then continue to turn the camera every 30 degrees and take a total of 12 shots. If the second shot setup does not show overlap with the first scene, then back the camera up 10 degrees and take the picture. Take a total of 18 shots, now turning the camera every 20 degrees. It is possible that some other number of shots might be required depending on the mm or millimeter size of the lens, but these two settings will work with most cameras in the manner described. Using the provided VR compass sheets will greatly improve accuracy. 

3.b. Every digital camera has a procedure for saving images in different sizes. The smaller the pixel size the more images that can be stored in the cameras memory. Change the pixel size setting on your digital camera to 320x240 if possible, but the larger 640x480 size is reasonable efficient. Anything larger than this may not only seriously slow down the editing process in dealing with such giant file sizes but may prevent the application software from having enough computer memory to complete the process. The final VR piece will be saved as 320x240 pixels anyhow, so capturing any more pixels in the digital camera is more than needed. One further check of picture file sizes will also provide important feedback. If the image files sizes are much larger that 600 kb, then the images will be too large for many panoramo applications to function. It is very common for current digital cameras to capture 1 megabyte to 10 megabytes for each image. If so, pick a much smaller pixel size before shooting.

4. Move the set of 12 or 18 shots to a floppy diskette putting them in a folder whose folder name is your first and last name.  Select appropriate software.

Confirmed working on Windows XP systems:

• Ulead's Cool 360 application. Download Cool 360 from download.com, though it can also be found for download at ULead's web site (Ulead Cool 360) but sometimes requires you to provide email and contact information. This is a fully functioning 15-day free trial, for the Windows OS, 6.7MB.

Works on Macs

• Calico 1.4 and PTMac for OS X.

Confirmed working on Macs and Windows XP

• VR Worx, free download only allows practice not real file creation (Mac/Win); Though VR Worx is the most sophisticated version for creating panoramas and also comes with tools for creating 360 objects and for creating hotspots within scenes that link 360 panos to each other and can be downloaded for free and explored, this free version will not allow you to save your work. A tutorial on creating panos with VR Worx will walk the user through the needed steps.

Reported to work on Windows Vista

• Panorama Composer (best choice for Vista) but if problems, try:
  • The Panorama Factory, 30 day trial with watermarks in finished displays; be careful to save the file in QTVR (QuickTime Visual Reality) format which will put the extension .mov at the end of your file.
  • Panorama Maker 4.0 (Does this really make the panorama that can spin in a 360 or just make a single wide photo? Email me if you figure out the answer.)

There are other applications as well. Panoguide's comparison page and Panoramas.dk point to many free, shareware, and commercial software programs that can be used for VR panoramas and other related creations such as VR objects and scenes.

Cool 360 Panoramas

Though many VR applications are available, details for one application will be provided below. This applications works on Windows XP bu not Vista so other software may needed to be selected from the choices above depending the operating system that is available. Remember that once downloaded and installed, there are only 15 days to use the Cool 360 application before it will cease to work or it must be paid for which can be done by credit card. Start up the application. This process can take just a couple of minutes once it is understood.

A narrated screen movie reviews how to use the Cool 360 application to make a 360 degree panorama from a folder full of photographs taken using the shooting procedures above.

The text below also describes the same basic procedure as demonstrated in the movie for "stitching the images" together in Cool 360.

1. Three large numbers appear across the top of the screen, 1, 2 and 3. Clicking the step one button leads to dialog boxes that allow the folder off image files to be found, and its images to be loaded using the add all or add command as appropriate.

2. Once done, the step 2 adjust window appears. If the camera has been properly centered on the VR Compass and images shot at the correct angles, there is no need to do anything. The software will have correctly overlapped the images. However, if adjustments do need to be made, click somewhere with a image and a white edged border around the image will appear. Use the keyboard arrow keys to make some 1 pixel at a time moves. Use the mouse or the gold colored spheres around the image to move it left and right or up and down to better align it with the overlapping image underneath.

3. Once images are satisfactorily aligned, it is time for step three, save the file. Click the image of a diskette to save the file, putting it on the desktop of the computer or directly in the web stuff folder for the web account.

If the software works fine until the last step and reports that it cannot create a Quicktime .mov file, it means the photographs were taken at too large a size and existing computer memory does not have enough space to complete final rendering. Either the photographs will have to be reshot in a smaller pixel size or the they will need to be rescaled in a separate application such as Microsoft's Paint application. Try 25% of the original size for each of the images. See this Paint movie for the rescaling (resizing) procedure: Determine or set an image's display size and file size (:23 ms; 270k).

Embed the Panorama Movie in a Web Page

After the VR panorama movie file has been created, return to these directions and follow the remaining steps below to place both the 360 panorama and the two dimensional drawing of your classroom side-by-side on the same web page, in the page titled Class Display Table. Also add it to the Unit View page. Two different approaches options are needed depending on whether your Web site is at a Web edited site like Google Sites, desktop application edited Web site edited by applications such as Netscape Composer, or other HTML Web page editor.

1. Upload the VR file to the File Cabinet at Google Sites. Open the file Unitview and link the panorama to it.

2. Pick one of the options below.

A. Desktop edited web pages, Netscape Composer or Dreamweaver

B. Web edited pages - Google Sites Option. See below.

Fixing Class Display Table

1. At Google Sites, open your page titled something like Class Display Table and select Edit Page.

2. Assuming that the VR panorama file has been uploaded to the File Cabinet, right click on the Download link under the filename for the panorama file and copy its link or Web address.

3. Select the HTML symbol on the right side of the editing symbol choices, then scroll downward carefully looking for this HTML code.

<p>Click and drag within the image below to spin the 360 degree panorama of the classroom. If not displaying,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/" rel="nofollow">install the Quicktime plug-in</a>.</p>
<p><br>

Click to move the editing or insertion point cursor after <br> in the above code and tap the enter key a couple of times to create an empty space to put something.

4. Copy and paste the Web address from the File Cabinet at the insertion point, then deleted any characters after the end of the file name (.mov). That is, when you paste it, the text looks

something like this,

http://sites.google.com/site/myclasswcusec70/feature-test/file-cabinet/fourth-grade-classroom.mov?attredirects=0&d=1

Removing the un-needed characters highlighted in purple above will produce the example below.

http://sites.google.com/site/myclasswcusec70/feature-test/file-cabinet/fourth-grade-classroom.mov

Next, press the enter key twice to move down two lines.

5. Copy and paste all the object code below into the next insertion point.

<object width="400" height="316"
classid="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B"
codebase="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab">
<param name="src" value="http://www.example.com/video.mov">
<param name="autoplay" value="false">
<param name="controller" value="true">

<embed src="http://www.example.com/video.mov" width="400" height="316"
autoplay="false" controller="true"
pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/">
</embed>

</object>

How were the width and height numbers determined and will they work for everyone? It is possible that the panorama editor has produced something of larger dimensions so that the full image does not display. The pano cannot be displayed much bigger than this number without crowding out the 2D display of the classroom to its right.

If the controller bar does not appear under the image, or if the image looks distorted, there is another optional step that can be taken. One can right click on the file in whatever folder in which it is located and select Get Info if using a Mac or Properties if on Windows and have the dialog box tell the precise image dimensions. Whatever the height figure given, add 16 to allow space for the controller bar under the image then change to number given above accordingly.

Unfortunately, returning to edit the HTML Object code once the page has been saved, the editor turns the pasted code into an incomprehensible chunk of text that would have to be deleted and then the object code inserted again in order to know where to edit the numbers. So instead, don't use the HTML choice taken originally. This time, when in the Editor mode, click what it calls the gadget area for the VR image, and choose the Properties link underneath it. There you will see a clean display of the numbers that can quickly be changed in both places. If interested, try different numbers but don't crowd out the 2D display in the column to the right.

6. Cut the pasted web address from where it was just pasted and re-paste it, replacing the red boldfaced text in the object code between the quotation marks that says "http://www.example.com/video.mov". This must be done in two locations for two different kinds of Web browsers.

7. Save the page. It should now be possible to click and drag within the image to rotate and zoom the 360 panaroma in all directions.

8. Complete any other needed changes to the page. See this example for how the finished Class Display Table page should look.

Fixing Unit View

1. Open the page titled something like Unit View and select Edit Page.

2. Assuming that the VR panorama file has been uploaded to the File Cabinet, right click on the Download link under the filename for the panorama file and copy its link or Web address.

3. Select the HTML symbol on the right side of the editing symbol choices, then scroll downward carefully looking for this HTML code. Click to move the editing or insertion point cursor after <br>

4. Copy and paste this Web address at the insertiont point, then deleted any characters after the end of the file name (.mov). That is, when you paste it, the text looks

something like this,

http://sites.google.com/site/myclasswcusec70/feature-test/file-cabinet/fourth-grade-classroom.mov?attredirects=0&d=1

Removing the un-needed characters highlighted in purple above will produce the example below.

http://sites.google.com/site/myclasswcusec70/feature-test/file-cabinet/fourth-grade-classroom.mov

Next, press the enter key twice to move down two lines.

5. Copy and paste all the object code below into the next insertion point.

<object width="300" height="188"
classid="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B"
codebase="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab">
<param name="src" value="http://www.example.com/video.mov">
<param name="autoplay" value="false">
<param name="controller" value="true">

<embed src="http://www.example.com/video.mov" width="300" height="188"
autoplay="false" controller="true"
pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/">
</embed>

</object>

It is best to leave the width and height numbers as they are so as not to crowd out the right hand side of the page.

6. Cut the pasted web address from where it was just pasted and re-paste it, replacing the red boldfaced text in the object code between the quotation marks that says "http://www.example.com/video.mov". This must be done in two locations for two different kinds of Web browsers.

7. Save the page. It should now be possible to click and drag within the image to rotate and zoom the 360 panaroma in all directions.

8. Delete the text in the upper right quadrant or quarter of the page and then copy and paste in the unit plan description from the upper left.

9. Make sure the two links to your movies are linked to the two video files in your File Cabinet. That is, the picture of a camera should link to the small version of the movie and the text below should link to the larger version of it.

10. Complete any other needed changes to the Unit View page. See the original version and this example for how the finished page should look. Make any needed changes to complete the page.

Summary and Reflections

Virtual reality provides many options for educational application. The focus of this composition has been on applying VR to considerations of classroom designs. Study the completed views of your room. Further, as your classmates complete their panoramas, give their views a spin to study their classroom designs for features that you may wish to include in yours. Talk with them about the effectiveness and usefulness of their classroom layouts. Hopefully, seeing a wide variety of arrangements will increase the motivation to change classroom structure more often to meet changing instructional needs.

Such work raises further questions. Is the blue zone in the red zone? What criteria should be used in determining the most effective classroom arrangements? Where should a computer go if there is only one in the classroom? If more than one, where should they go? If every student should have a computer, what kind of computers should a classroom have to work well with existing classroom space? How often during the year do teachers on average change their classroom layout in significant ways? Changing classroom layouts is time consuming and hard work. Is it valuable to growing minds to change the physical environment of the classroom more frequently than the average? From the viewpoint of mental stimulation, how often would be too often? To what degree do school administrators support classroom layout change through encouragement and through the promised assistance of physical plant staff?

Click the Chapter Parent Frame button below to return to further discussion of some of these questions.
 
 

Bibliography

VR in the Schools, a quarterly refereed publication of the Virtual Reality and Education Laboratory, distributed in both print and electronic versions.

Farley, A.C.  (1994). Altered Earth Arts. Retrieved  January 8, 2001 from http://www.alteredearth.com/vr/cubicvr/shaft1.htm

Moreno, Roxana; Mayer, Richard E. (2002). Learning Science in Virtual Reality Multimedia Environments: Role of Methods and Media, Journal of Educational Psychology, 94(3), 598-610. [EJ653379]

No name  (n.d.)  Spatial Intelligence..  Retrieved November 11, 2003, from  http://www.ul.ie/~mearsa/9519211/newpage2.htm

     Live Searches

Shelves: Search the ERIC database for "spatial ability" or "computer simulation" and search by selecting major descriptor.

Drives: Search Google.com for: "spatial intelligence" ; "spatial ability" ; "virtual reality".

Chapter Parent Frame | created March 3, 2002 | version 8.04 updated November 30, 2009|   Page author: Houghton