{"id":6764,"date":"2018-04-24T15:53:50","date_gmt":"2018-04-24T21:53:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/?p=6764"},"modified":"2018-06-22T22:00:07","modified_gmt":"2018-06-23T04:00:07","slug":"exploring-vr-and-ar-at-the-ehsl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/2018\/04\/24\/exploring-vr-and-ar-at-the-ehsl\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring VR and AR at the EHSL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have a cool job. I\u2019m a student intern at the Eccles Health Sciences Library. I seek out emerging technologies&#8211;things like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR)&#8211;and then I play with them. These are fringe technologies that didn\u2019t exist 5 years ago, but increasingly, healthcare providers and researchers are seeing the potential of tech-assisted visualizations to communicate and teach. It\u2019s my job as a VR development intern to experiment with these tools. Two of which I highlight below.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_81 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/2018\/04\/24\/exploring-vr-and-ar-at-the-ehsl\/#Enter_the_Oculus_Rift%E2%80%A6\" >Enter the (Oculus) Rift&#8230;<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/2018\/04\/24\/exploring-vr-and-ar-at-the-ehsl\/#Enter_the_AR_Alternate_Rift_No_Augmented_Reality\" >Enter the AR (Alternate Rift? No, Augmented Reality)<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Enter_the_Oculus_Rift%E2%80%A6\"><\/span>Enter the (Oculus) Rift&#8230;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/files\/2018\/04\/61ueGFutGgL._SX342_.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6767 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/files\/2018\/04\/61ueGFutGgL._SX342_-300x279.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"279\" srcset=\"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/files\/2018\/04\/61ueGFutGgL._SX342_-300x279.jpg 300w, https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/files\/2018\/04\/61ueGFutGgL._SX342_-215x200.jpg 215w, https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/files\/2018\/04\/61ueGFutGgL._SX342_.jpg 342w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Foremost among these tools, and available at the EHSL, is the Oculus Rift. You may have heard of the Rift; it\u2019s arguably the first mass-market VR headset, and parent company Facebook\u2019s multi-billion dollar bet on the future of virtual reality. And we have one!<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To find it, visit HSEB room 3100, the computer lab on the third floor. The techies there&#8211;myself included&#8211;would be happy to show you what\u2019s possible in the Rift. There is a little setup involved, mostly placing infrared sensors to act as the boundaries of the virtual space, but we\u2019re pretty practiced at it. Once you\u2019re in, you can throw virtual game cartridges at a virtual robot, or check out the medical visualizations we\u2019re working on. At present, there are a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">lot<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of VR experiences ready to go, and we\u2019re busy making even more. Check out the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/campusguides.lib.utah.edu\/c.php?g=735207&amp;p=5253793\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Virtual Reality LibGuide <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for more information about the technology, games, and interesting articles on the topic.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Enter_the_AR_Alternate_Rift_No_Augmented_Reality\"><\/span>Enter the AR (Alternate Rift? No, Augmented Reality)<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6765\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6765\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/files\/2018\/04\/maxresdefault.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-6765 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/files\/2018\/04\/maxresdefault-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"Screen grab VR robot\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" srcset=\"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/files\/2018\/04\/maxresdefault-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/files\/2018\/04\/maxresdefault-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/files\/2018\/04\/maxresdefault-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/files\/2018\/04\/maxresdefault-700x394.jpg 700w, https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/files\/2018\/04\/maxresdefault-356x200.jpg 356w, https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/files\/2018\/04\/maxresdefault.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6765\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Get started by throwing things at this robot!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If VR allows you to step into a completely virtual environment, AR takes virtual objects and \u201cplaces\u201d them in the real world. If you\u2019ve played Pokemon GO or used a Snapchat filter, you\u2019ve gotten a taste of AR, the overlaying of virtual objects onto real-world images. Unlike VR, which requires you to strap a headset to your face, AR can be accomplished with nothing more than a phone or a computer. The result? Something like this:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/files\/2018\/04\/Screenshot-48.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-6766 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/files\/2018\/04\/Screenshot-48-1024x451.png\" alt=\"AR objects\" width=\"1024\" height=\"451\" srcset=\"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/files\/2018\/04\/Screenshot-48-1024x451.png 1024w, https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/files\/2018\/04\/Screenshot-48-300x132.png 300w, https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/files\/2018\/04\/Screenshot-48-768x338.png 768w, https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/files\/2018\/04\/Screenshot-48-700x308.png 700w, https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/files\/2018\/04\/Screenshot-48-456x200.png 456w, https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/files\/2018\/04\/Screenshot-48.png 1893w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is Vuforia, a free software that allows users to place virtual objects (like the skeleton above) and attach them to specific images (in this case, my university ID). Your computer or phone camera will then pin the virtual models to the image.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Want to try it yourself? Just go to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/developer.vuforia.com\/license-manager\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/developer.vuforia.com\/license-manager<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Register for a free account there. Then, follow <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=HnjbTytHH6U\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">this charming, gentleman\u2019s tutorial<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. In 20 minutes, you\u2019ll have a 3D model pinned to a real-world object. You\u2019ll have to know a little bit about <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/unity3d.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unity<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a cross-platform game engine, but assuming you do, you\u2019ll find that implementing a futuristic tool like AR is far easier than one would expect. It\u2019s really just a matter of dragging and dropping. The heavy lifting is all done by Vuforia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Between VR and AR technologies, it\u2019s clear that the boundaries between our world and the virtual world are starting to bleed. I\u2019m fortunate enough to get paid to investigate these increasingly permeable boundaries. If you have questions about AR\/VR or any other virtual environment, email us at <\/span><a href=\"mailto:ehsl-techies@lists.utah.edu\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ehsl-techies@lists.utah.edu<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have a cool job. I\u2019m a student intern at the Eccles Health Sciences Library. I seek out emerging technologies&#8211;things like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR)&#8211;and then I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":151,"featured_media":6765,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[312,77],"tags":[5038,5039,5037,5030,5029],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-6764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-library-services","category-technology","tag-ar","tag-augmented-reality","tag-ehsl","tag-virtual-reality","tag-vr"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-18 21:29:05","action":"category","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6764"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6904,"href":"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6764\/revisions\/6904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6764"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.med.utah.edu\/blog\/eccles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}