Classroom Technology

               From 1996 to 2001, ANS led and funded the National Tele-Immersion Initiative to connect users at a distance and permit them to play in the same virtual world. Our dream was to produce the illusion that individuals in distinct places were present in the same room and then let them use any pc backgrounds and simulations they desired to create the reality they chose.

                As builders of the Net, we saw the prospective for this new technology to change the way we discover. Tele-immersion is a technology that does exactly what its name implies: It engages all the senses and totally immerses us in our subject matter. And it can be utilized to create a variety of scenarios and learning environments. The beauty of tele-immersion is that it entails the whole body and mind in the learning method. Chemistry no longer has to be about memorizing tables and abstract properties. Instead, students can walk into a telecubicle and interact with an atomic structure that’s projected in 3-dimension. Using a robotic glove, they can really feel the forces that hold molecules together.

                Educators believe that tele-immersion will eventually do away with textbooks and allow kids to step inside a issue and see it from the inside out, making learning a lot more visceral and intuitive. It will also engage a greater portion of the brain-not just the region responsible for logic and linear thought but also the areas that deal with spatial relationships and visual and kinesthetic memory.

                Back in the 1996, nevertheless, our goal was to produce the 1st national demonstration of the new technology and show how it may well enhance creativity and collaboration. As the chief architects and engineering group for Internet2, ANS had access to really high bandwidth, and we had been able to use that bandwidth for our experiments. Tele-immersion is the most is the most challenging application of all due to the fact it pushes both the speed and the latency (the delay between transmission and reception) of a network to the outer limits.

                As the developers of this technology, we envisioned a brave new world where surgeons would guide their colleagues, and even their robots, by way of complex operations from a distance. Architects would make key changes in building design with out having to go on-internet site or coordinate five sets of blueprints. Archaeologists would be able to “sit in” on remote digs from the comfort of their living rooms. NASA engineers would be able to address operating issues on a space shuttle from the safety of mission headquarters. This technology would also revolutionize distance education. Our best teachers would reach a larder audience, making eye contact with their viewers. One day telecubicles would be built big sufficient to accommodate music and theater audiences, because this new technology is capable of conveying all the nuances of a live performance.

                In 2001, the Los Angeles Times predicted that tele-immersion would lead to a new wave of innovation. “The telecubicle provides a glimpse of the Net of the future-one that will be liberated from personal computer monitors and infused with the essential sense of sight, sound, and touch. The goal is to produce digital worlds where computer-generated avatars will turn into realistic stand ins for actual people, surround-sound audio will emulate real-life noises, and force-feedback technology will reveal the shape and texture of physical objects across a personal computer network.”

                ANS spent roughly million to get these new technologies off the ground. And over the past eight years, NSF has invested much more that million in tele-immersion, working with the University of Southern California (USC) to make this dream into a reality. At present, USC investigators are studying the details of facial expression-the sly smile, the sarcastic roll of the eyes-so computer models could supply us with far better clue about a person’s emotional state. These researchers are also making advances in haptics, or the “technology of touch” that, for example, will allow users of a museum web site to feel the surface of a Grecian urn and let online shoppers feel the texture of a coat or shirt. A program called Cybergrasp will also aid in the rehabilitation of stroke patients and offer “visualization exercises” for the blind.

                Tim O’Reilly, a blogger who watches the alpha geeks to figure out emerging technology trends, has said, “The network is opening up some incredible possibilities for us to reinvent content, reinvent collaboration.” This will promote innovation across the board and give us a lot more eureka moments.