Future of Education

I'm looking for a video I posted some time ago, and have been reviewing.

This was really cool.

Ed Sim Award

Mercedes-Benz Are Embracing Hololens at training center

There will be a place for the world's best near eye displays.... 


Blog Post

And in keeping with Bauch’s growing digital appetite, they rely heavily on Microsoft HoloLens to conduct faster, more engaging training sessions, they say. The training center is now equipped with more than 100 HoloLens units.

***

“Ralf and I are fascinated by the possibilities of mixed reality,” says Bauch, project manager for HoloLens applications at Mercedes-Benz Global Training. “We both want to see where the boundaries are, especially in a challenging work environment. “

At work, the main idea behind their HoloLens applications is to consolidate complex, technical concepts for the people in their classes, effectively simplifying their lessons in visual and relatable ways.

VR Focus

“People come in and hear my story,” says Bauch, 51. “They realize: Here is this guy who never used a smart phone until two years ago and now he is using HoloLens in his job. People do not believe it. This is the signal we send out to our visitors: It’s not the age of the user that matters. This device is for people of all ages. Our oldest participant was 89. He attended with his 60-year-old son. I will never forget what he told us: ‘I wish I’d had this technology when I was young and handsome.’”

The Mercedes-Benz Global Training center educates employees worldwide in management, products, branding and sales with a network spanning 800 trainers working across 150 locations in 120 countries. The duo say that Microsoft HoloLens has injected an unprecedented level of transparency into their process. The introduction of MR technology into the training has motivated employees to try out the new technologies to improve their training and jobs, leading to improved engagement.

VR in Education

It's interesting that this showed up today

I'd just paused a couple of days as I was really excited about the potential mixed reality, VR & AR have for education. I typed out a bunch of my thoughts, and then thought maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, and should think about it for a while.

So, I thought about language learning. I taught English in Japan for a year. I tried to learn Japanese while I was there. I learned some. I can get around, but I'm not fluent by any stretch of the imagination.

So, I put myself back in Japan. With a pair of glasses. The glasses are connected to a scanner that scans my surroundings. I can set the glasses in various ways: It can scan the area, and each thing the glasses recognize, it can label. There's a car. The glasses highlight the car, show me the character for "car" and I hear it pronounced in my ears. It doesn't intrude on anyone else. 

Anything else I see -- it gets labeled. It can quiz me. when It highlights the car and with no delay I call it out.... it doesn't highlight it anymore... then more and better and better.... without having to sit down and force attention, without memorization, without drills... fluency could be achieved at enormously accelerated levels.

Children who learn the language and everything else the best are those kids whose parents talk to them. They're seeing things and having them labeled, learning little bits -- and learning it constantly.

It can work the same for teaching skills mechanics, technicians, surgeons, and pilots. (What's next... the glasses can highlight the surroundings, and prompt at the right time.)

Imagine learning history, by having it created in front of you, or with something like google street view in History. (Victorian London in Pictures) 

Or, check out the last 8 years in London on Schrewsbury Road use the clock on the street view map, upper left.
(London Street Scene, Google Maps, with History view.)

MVIS will be everywhere.

Thanks to the French Investor.


Virtual Reality Training

Virtual reality hasn't quite changed the world the way we were promised, but that doesn't mean its effects aren't profound. In recent years, VR has even made positive impacts in a somewhat surprising place: the restaurant industry. 

In the midst of high turnover, cook shortages and rising minimum wages, VR training companies have positioned the technology as a potential remedy for many of the issues the industry faces today: more accessible and in-depth training, improved employee retention, targeted advancement of high-performing employees, and, through that, better margins and long-term sustainability. 

Hololens Update

Later this year. MVIS has "advanced ToF" sensors, and the best near-eye displays.

While this article states that it's at least through the second version, I have zero doubts about the future of the technology.

There are three reasons for zero doubts: 

1) Absolutely incredible gaming. (You think Pokemon Go got big?)
2) Amazing increase in productivity (From Here)
3) Training and education opportunity

Mixed Reality. 

Kipman on Hololens

Kinect lives: the Kinect for Azure. Microsoft’s latest take on Kinect is a connected device with onboard compute, access to Azure AI, an advanced time of flight (ToF) sensor, RGB camera, 360-degree mic array, and accelerometer. Microsoft asks developers to use it and help build an ambient intelligence.


Kipman told the audience that the HoloLens lived a perilous existence throughout its early development, which began back in 2007. He said the period between 2010 and 2016 in its incubation period was the most dangerous. “HoloLens was always on the chopping block,” but Kipman now sees that process as a necessary part of product development. The HoloLens developers had to fight for their project every day, said Kipman.

Today, the HoloLens is assured life through at least a second version. While Kipman was speaking at LiveWorx, rumors about the due date for the HoloLens 2 leaked out of Microsoft HQ. It is said, the lighter and less expensive version will be announced later this year and will arrive in 2019. It’s also being reported that the HoloLens 2 will have a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 processor. This processor has already been picked up by HTC for their Vive; Pico (which debuted its Neo headset at E3), and Vuzix.



Pokemon Go Reminder

Increased productivity

Elevator Maintenance

The new face of reliable elevator maintenance

The building manager is anxious – she wants an update. In front of the elevator she finds a technician, a metallic band and shaded glasses partially covering his face, he moves his hands through empty space. Wait – are we in a film? No. This is the real-life story of modern service, coming soon to an elevator near you.

The technician wears Microsoft HoloLens, mixed-reality glasses. This new tool places all the data culled using digital technology directly at the disposal of over 24,000 service engineers. Linked with the Azure IoT-enabled predictive maintenance service MAX, HoloLens will fully bring elevator maintenance services into a new era of optimal reliability.

A virtual desktop in the office and on-site

With HoloLens, the work begins even before arrival on site. As soon as the glasses are on, the technician sees from where a service request has come. A 3-D picture of the elevator pops up. Parts can be enlarged and looked at from all angles, so it is possible to immediately visualize and identify problems.

Once on site, the HoloLens displays a virtual desktop with an overview of the task orders, the latest safety alerts and the historical notes on what has happened with the elevator before. And with the laptop a thing of the past, it all happens hands-free, allowing a unique freedom of movement and safety.

Even a video call can be voice activated, so another engineer can remotely view what the technician is seeing on site, and they can discuss a solution together.

Education

Augmented Reality Image Problem?

Check the article out at the source. Basically, Augmented Reality has enormous potential. 

MicroVision leads in Augmented Reality Patents.

From TechCrunch

To date, Augmented Reality (AR) has been referred to as “the biggest technological advancement of our lifetime” by some, a mere “gimmick” by others or, worst yet, the next iteration of the QR code. The divisive term was introduced more than 25 years ago (although elements of AR technology have been used in science labs around the world since the mid-20th century), but if there’s one thing AR proponents and its naysayers can agree on, it’s the simple fact that AR, as we know it today, has an image problem.

...AR, in all its many forms, will be at the forefront of the next revolution in the way we connect with the world around us.

...Education provides perhaps the most tangible example of the power of AR. AugmentedReality technology in the classrooms — from today’s tablet- and mobile device-based approach to tomorrow’s heads up displays — empower the sort of visual and contextual learning proven to improve information retention to the extent that an estimated 80 percent of visual content is retained by short-term memory compared to an estimated 25 percent for spoken content.

...Take for example APX’s Skylight that offers a hands-free, AR-powered solution to empower workers across various fields to directly connect with each other and their environments to create a more efficient workforce. Companies like Daqri and WaveOptics are creating devices to enhance visual knowledge of the work environment while keeping both hands free.