Researchers from 10 universities were recently chosen through a grant competition to receive developmental versions of the HoloLens, the first untethered holographic computer that allows users to view high-definition holograms and interact with the physical objects represented in the images. The units are not yet available commercially.

The customized headset weighs less than a laptop computer and allows users to view images with more reality than ever before with an advanced optical projection system that generates multi-dimensional, full-color images with low-latency.

“The HoloLens allows the user to see the mixture of the physical world around them and the 3-D image of a virtual object at the same time. The user can use natural gestures and voice and gaze direction to interact with the system and other users,” said Eileen Smith, director of UCF’s E2i Creative Studio in the Institute for Simulation & Training. “It’s in essence a wireless, self-contained, computerized visualization łÜ˛Ôľ±łŮ.”

The team of Smith, Lori C. Walters, Robert Michlowitz and Alexia Mandeville from UCF, and Fran Blumberg of Fordham şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą, were awarded two of the units that have the capability of mapping a room and adding in holograms. Some of the other university recipients were Carnegie Mellon, Dartmouth, Virginia Tech, and şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą of California/Berkeley.

“We are thrilled to be around the table with such eminent research universities,” Smith said. “It’s an example of how much UCF’s reputation is growing in the research world.”

UCF’s research project, Memory Lens: A Dynamic Tool for Capturing Societal Memory, will explore the capabilities of the HoloLens to facilitate the intergenerational transfer of knowledge about historical periods and gather what the team calls “micro-oral histories” (MOH).

The centerpiece of Memory Lens is intergenerational learning through child-adult interaction, according to the proposal. The experience is an interactive correspondence that recreates the gestures of the HoloLens users to examine preloaded and user-generated content based on a topic or era. Objects can be 3-D models, photographs, video, audio, and related micro-oral histories. Users learn through interaction with the virtual objects, the contribution of oral histories and scanned materials, and the personal reflections that are triggered between users on both ends of the conversation.

“The HoloLens will be the interface for an experience using 3-D and other objects that provide discussion cues to facilitate elders’ sharing of personal MOHs,” the team said. “Users also can capture 3-D objects to be added to the experience, thus creating a dynamic intergenerational sharing and learning platform.”

For example, if a child and grandparent were on the HoloLens and there was an image of a small Saturn V rocket, the child may inquire about the grandparent’s remembrances of the lunar landings.

“The grandparent may then talk of where they were when Neil Armstrong first set foot upon the moon and how it inspired them to become an engineer,” said Walters, content specialist for the HoloLens project and a research assistant professor with the Institute for Simulation & Training and UCF’s Department of History. “The concept utilizes objects, in this instance a model of a Saturn V, to spur intergenerational conversation. They can manipulate the 3-D object and their recorded conversation is the micro-oral history.”

Walters’ research interest is “virtual heritage,” a multi-disciplinary approach using the latest digital technology to explore the past.

Earlier this year, the Microsoft grant program challenged academic institutions to submit ideas to harness the potential of the HoloLens and holographic computing.

“The submissions exceeded our expectations,” Microsoft said. “We were blown away to observe such creative, compelling and promising academic applications for HoloLens across art, medicine, visualization, education and more.”

With the grant, which was issued by the NIH National Institute of Nursing Research, Loerzel will design, develop and test an interactive educational tool that will engage and prepare older adults who are being treated for cancer to make better self-care decisions at home. The tool will allow them to practice at-home symptom management with a character and real-life scenarios to visualize both good and bad outcomes based on their self-management choices. For example, if the character in the “game” is experiencing mild nausea from chemotherapy, the patient will have the option to choose how to manage it. They can decide to take medication, take a nap, watch TV and wait for it to pass, or do something else. Based on their answer, the nausea will either go away or get worse. After the “game” is played, the patient and their nurse will discuss the outcomes and decisions.

“It may sound simple, but a lot goes into decision-making for symptom self-management for older people,” Loerzel said. “They often don’t think about how their actions impact their symptoms.” Older adults are less likely to effectively manage chemotherapy side effects at home, placing them at greater risk for adverse events, such as dehydration, weight loss, low blood pressure and more. This results in reduced daily function and an increased chance of an unplanned hospitalization.

The project will be conducted in two phases over a nearly three-year period. For phase one of the project, the team will recruit and work with older adults at the cancer center at Orlando Health to understand their experience with chemotherapy induced nausea and illness. Phase two will be a clinical trial where the “game” will be piloted and tested in the outpatient ambulatory treatment center.

Once shown to be effective, Loerzel hopes this innovative educational tool will be widely used at the bedside to educate patients, improve symptom management at home, reduce severe symptoms, reduce unplanned hospital visits and ultimately, improve quality of life.

Co-investigators on the study are Dr. John Clochesy from the College of Nursing at the şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ą of South Florida, Eileen Smith from at the , Dr. Patricia Geddie from the UF Health Cancer Center at Orlando Health who will serve as research nurse, and UCF professor Dr. Xin Yan who will be the statistician.

Loerzel, who is an oncology certified nurse and has been a cancer nurse for more than 20 years, has focused much of her research on improving symptom management and quality of life for older adults with cancer. “Older adults, ages 65 and older, are the most common group to be diagnosed with cancer, but are the least researched,” she said. “Life stage, life experience and personal beliefs about illness should be considered for approaching symptom management and educating patients on how to care for themselves.”

The 20 chosen competitors, which have already been placed on four teams, will be locked in a lab that has see-through walls, so visitors to Otronicon can observe them at work. The competition was organized by the UCF’s School of Visual Arts and Design and the E2i Creative Studio in the Institute for Simulation & Training.

This is the ninth year of the technology festival, which runs today through Monday, Jan. 20. The event is to explore Orlando’s technological impact on the worlds of entertainment, simulation, education, health care and other fields. Visitors can also see dancing robots, interactive technologies, a demonstration of a bionic suit to help people walk who have lost the use of their legs, and other activities.

The center is at 777 E. Princeton St., Orlando. Hours of the show are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday and Monday.  The cost is $19 for adults, $17 for students and seniors, $13 for ages 3-11.

I learn at my own pace, with my own methods, and make my own connections as they relate to my life, both personal and professional. I feel confident in my ability to find answers to questions that I have, either on my own or by connecting with someone who has the answers. I say this as someone with a high level of self-empowerment and self-confidence.

So how can we as a society infuse the ability for every child in school to feel like me?

Every child knows how to learn. Watch 2-year-olds and see how they figure things out every moment of their day. 

We need to have educational systems that are geared toward empowerment and encouragement, rather than, as a friend said, “systems that drive kids into conformity and don’t encourage unique discoveries, interests and perspectives.” We need to be actively engaging them in their learning, and creating tools that grow the natural engagement and unique perspective that they have been developing since birth. It’s a lifetime skill to use every day as their future unfolds.

An interesting strategy being tested involves turning the idea of homework on its head: Use “introductory homework” as a way to present a topic in a variety of modes (reading an article, playing a learning simulation, watching a video) to attain a basic understanding of a topic, and then attend class to discuss it in more depth.

That allows the classroom environment to be used for active discussion of something familiar to learners in unique ways depending on the introduction they chose. For some topics the teacher absolutely needs to give guidance. However, we must make sure that we don’t stifle each student’s personal approach before they get a chance to get excited about a topic.

And as class discussions progress, the teacher has opportunities for layering content onto the students’ deepening understanding.

Today’s technology offers an interesting array of tools to aid in that learning process. There are many quality simulations for learning that teach a specific fact or phenomenon with a short interactive game or a video. These are useful and necessary to give a basic understanding of a topic – and then the time is ripe to place learning into the everyday context and let students play with variables in simulations to see the results.

Experimental learning through play (another term for hypothesis testing) is hard-wired into us as mammals.

Interesting opportunities for research into successful learning can be pursued by designing simulations that are more like playgrounds, offering the learners the opportunity to choose their involvement and customize their level of engagement.

For a first exposure to a topic, any learner wants to just “poke around” and see what’s interesting – just like students visiting a science center, for instance, as they first enter a large exhibition hall and run from one exhibit to another. That can develop interest on the topic and motivation to explore about it, a key element in learning.

Once introduced during “homework,” the topic is expanded upon in class with discussions and challenges in class groups, raising the performance level of students in an environment overseen by dynamic teachers.

Then students can return to the simulation they first used as a “homework introduction” to work on higher-level experiences, using that new knowledge and understanding gained from classroom discussion.

Students would be satisfied that wow – they ARE successful learners!

Then perhaps they would be off and running to tackle the next lesson on their own.

As Albert Einstein said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” His point was that a vivid imagination is essential to the pursuit of knowledge.

One of the best ways educators can accommodate this is to engage a student’s imagination through simulation. Failure is absolutely a possibility, however, and that is one thing that makes interactive simulations exciting as a learning tool.

Simulation, at its most basic stage, is imitation – of roles, processes, or conditions. 

We have been doing simulation for centuries, if not millennia, starting with storytellers recreating a past event and leading us on an imaginative journey. 

Simulation technology had its beginnings in the 1930s when Edwin Link created his Link Trainer to reduce the cost of training pilots. His machine was a skills trainer that helped pilots fly using only instrumentation, and became invaluable during World War II for training. This set the stage for the widespread application of simulation training in the aviation industry.

That begs the question, however, of whether simulation should be the only way in the future that people learn? No, no and no.

The use of simulation is not always the best solution for instruction; the best training/learning regime combines the appropriate technology for the educational situation. If you want to help someone understand the basic interaction of oil and water, for goodness sake you don’t need simulation! Just pour water in a clear glass, add some oil, and swish it around. The direct learning experience of the glass and visible interaction between the oil and water are all that is needed.

However, if you want to explore time or scale, for instance, simulation is a valuable tool.

Simulation can help make the invisible visible.

If you want to explore prehistoric Florida, I can use a simulation to take learners back 65 million years ago to the Cretaceous Period. If you want to teach students about nanotechnology, I can create simulations changing the scale of the particles so they can be more easily manipulated. 

Interactive simulation – a blend of content, technology, processes and objectives – all revolve around the most important person in the learning picture: the learner. And more learning takes place in interactive environments than in passive ones.

Interactive simulations are designed to put learners into a dynamic situation where they seize ownership of the scenario from the simulation designers. As opposed to a training video – where the developers decide what information to present, what order to present it, and what factors drive the events – in an interactive simulation the learner drives their experience. 

Rather than passive learning, active learning is taking place with shared control of the outcome. As decisions are made by the learner, the simulation reacts with good or bad results toward the end goal.

Failure is a powerful learning experience; we arguably learn more from our failures than our successes.

That is especially true if we can systematically examine our failures to explore why we failed. We can capture with the computer every move a learner makes, when they make that movement, and track their decisions over time. So the “what” and “when” questions are answered objectively by the computer.

This allows the human trainer/educator to focus on what computers do not do well: examine the “why.”

That makes the computer and the human instructor a compelling team, and jointly, a powerful tool for learner success.

UCF Forum columnist Eileen Smith is director of the E2i Creative Studio in the şŁ˝ÇÖ±˛Ąâ€™s Institute for Simulation & Training and can be reached at esmith@ist.ucf.edu.