The Bellevue College Library and Media Center has long been interested in developing a lab at the cutting edge of technology. With the assistance of one of their founders, Fulbright Scholar James Riggall, they had looked into a lab that explored the benefits of virtual reality dating as far back as 2018. At the time, it was little more than a cluttered room with some technology I hadn’t seen before. But now, any student can sign up to use the Bellevue College Extended Reality (XR) lab for a variety of different projects.
You would expect that the lab and its functions have grown substantially since its inception, and you would be correct. The XR lab goes beyond virtual reality and also encompasses the other two main sections of the “virtuality continuum,” which defines the spectrum between our reality and a purely virtual one:
· Augmented Reality (AR) allows for the superimposing of virtual elements on a real-world space. “Pokémon Go” showed you a system of catching the Pokémon as if they were in front of you in real-time. Practically, there is also a somewhat new medical development called AccuVein, which utilizes AR to make the process of finding veins easier for nurses and doctors.
· Virtual Reality (VR) is the opposite end of the spectrum, blocking out the real world and granting the user a fully immersive experience in a “fake” world, though it could still be representative of a location on Earth. The most predictable use of this technology has been the gaming industry, where major companies have been developing games that place you directly in the middle of the action.
· Mixed reality (MR) is a more vague term, encompassing the space between fully virtual and the simpler applications of AR. Through MR, the user is typically interacting with the virtual space itself. The most prominent examples of this in the past has been the Apple Vision Pro and the Google Glass, which advertise as headsets and glasses respectively that allow you to watch movies or interact on social media while doing whatever else you want.
The technological implications of XR are vast, further blurring the lines between what is real and what is computer-generated. Bellevue College boasts about the educational purpose these systems can serve, and they certainly have a point. In the Spring Quarter of 2022, BC’s XR lab hosted multiple different students attempting their capstone project. One of the examples was a virtual shopping center, showcasing that someone could do their own shopping through a VR headset before having that food ordered. Additionally, Captain Dick Nelms, a World War II veteran pilot, now has his own fully online project that uses XR to tell the stories of his time in the war and teach about the planes he flew.
Appointments for BC’s XR lab are available on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays through Aug. 15 this summer. You can contact the lab itself at xrlab@bellevuecollege.edu.
