Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) offers increased user engagement with the subject matter in question than a traditional image. AR involves applying a simulated layer that allows users to experience a layered, computer-generated enhancement to their real-world perception. VR involves creating and/or experiencing a computer-simulated world. AR and VR technologies are continuously evolving with AR, in particular, becoming easier and more affordable to create.
Augmented Reality
BC Libraries' Digital Studio has been working with the Center for Digital Innovation in Learning (CDIL) and Apple to develop ways to integrate AR into the classroom through Apple's new Reality Composer platform. The examples below will open on any iPhone or iPad and represent, in the first case, a "born-digital" object (the robot) while the lion stamp is a real-world object of which a 3D representation was made in the Digital Studio.
An animated robot AR model from the gallery projected on to a real-world table:
Lion-headed stamp AR model created using ARKit:
Virtual Reality
Created by Jessica Linker and her Bryn Mawr College students, this VR reconstruction of an early 1900s biology lab was based on Bryn Mawr archival records. It was created with , a commonly used VR platform.
