'Hologram' Lecturers To Teach Students at Imperial College London (bbc.com) 57
Imperial College London will be using holograms of lecturers to teach students from afar. "Imperial will initially limit its use to its Business School's activities but expects the technology could eventually become common," reports the BBC. From the report: Strictly speaking, the illusions are not holograms but neither are they the Pepper's Ghost effect used by politicians including French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well the entertainment industry. Instead, they use a technique developed by a Canadian company, Arht Media. "The problem with Pepper's Ghost is that it can be intricate to set up and can cost about $200,000 to run an event," said Dr David Lefevre, director of Imperial's Edtech Lab. "This is simpler -- you project upon a glass screen, and a backdrop behind it uses software to give it an illusion of depth. "It runs at the low thousands each time, so for the first time universities can afford it." To send their image, lecturers need to use a "capture studio," which involves filming them against a black backdrop while being lit from both sides.
NOT holograms (Score:2, Insightful)
Could people PLEASE stop calling these 2d projections 'holograms' and learn what an actual hologram is??
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Could people PLEASE stop calling these 2d projections 'holograms' and learn what an actual hologram is??
This. So much this. For reference, here's a list of things that are holograms:
Tthings that are not holograms:
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This is /. It's actually just lying.
Business courses.. (Score:2)
Not Science... You are asking far FAR too much of such a department (and probably too much of both the administration and a science department also, sadly..).
They should however not be doing this on the basis that there is little or no cost/return benefit over using a standard camera/big screen (ie: video conferencing).
This is just gimmickry.. not the BEST thing to be promoting to business students (or perhaps it is, teach them how to extract money from over-funded universities with BS ideas..)
Peppers ghost (Score:2)
is there something wrong with just saying pepper's ghost
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Yes, if you say it three times, Pepper will appear and steal your soul.
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Which is kind of strange given that Imperial college pretty much invented holography (Dennis Gabor's work there).
The point? (Score:3, Insightful)
Unless something radical happened lectures tend to just be some guy droning on about a subject, often as not with his back to the audience so he can read off the power-point presentation. How does this benefit from being in pseudo 3D?
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My thoughts as well. The novelty effect will only last a short time. And it isn't like he can see and interact with the students like they are there too.
Most colleges have smart boards and projectors. What can you do with all this to enhance learning, that you couldn't do over skype onto a projection in front of the class?
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Almost as good as.. (Score:3)
The University of You Tube
With YouTube, I can pause, watch again, skip the parts I found easy, repeatedly watch the challenging parts
Real time learning is non-optimal
Re: Almost as good as.. (Score:3)
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For a _small class size_ real time learning is actually very effective where the students and professors interact with each other.where students can give feed back if a particular idea they are not getting or not, and the professor can explain things differently vs the same same way over again.
However for many learning centers, class sizes are too large for that level of interaction, and there are too many students who really don't care enough about that particular topic to give feed back either way. Unle
You left an important bit out (Score:2)
The bit where it's of any additional value to anyone but the company selling this junk.
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It looks cool. I'm sorry the fun child in you who likes cool looking things died.
Effective? (Score:2)
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It could go beyond just basic telepresence; you tell me if it has the potential to change the classroom experience [youtube.com] for the weirder.
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Cool, but is this really any better than a video conference?
It is a video conference. The "capture studio" sounds expensive, but "low thousands" for the projector doesn't sound all that obscene. Whether it's worth it depends on how beneficial the illusion of the instructor's physical presence is in terms of classroom interaction &c. is relative to the price premium over a 2D projector.
Stop the marketing bs, they are not holograms!! (Score:1)
They are simply projections, holograms do not require a surface project light on to.
Why is it always biz or law schools that get toys? (Score:1)
Way back in the stone age, my alma mater's campus had 11mbps wifi. We were told that 54mbps wifi was going to roll out but that the law school building and library was going to get it first.
Cue me and two other idiots replacing the routers overnight (They were those blue and grey WRT routers so they looked the same).
Best part is that the law school guys bragged with us about their wifi once or twice afterwards.
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Law and Biz schools have more money, more donations, etc. Hence, better toys.
Color me skeptical (Score:1)
Obligatory Star Trek (Score:1)
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From the near future
EEH mk1.:Please state the nature of your educational crisis
Student: All the lectururs are gone even the department deans are MIA/AWAL
EEH: What about the lecture archives?
Student: Off lime and the it departmet is on strike
EEH: (sigh) I seem to be at the University of the damed
(freely modifed from EMC MK1 Voyager: Cartaker. no intelectual property violation intended)
Om e serious note tho without the lecturing fees how can the researchers fund that part of the reserch now funded by
Nice (Score:2)
So it just costs a few thousands more per lecture than a video and it gives the fantastic bonus of almost being 2.5d?
What a progress for the learning experience that must be for those schools who swim in money.
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It's the business school. They're not going to be any good at raising the next generation of CEOs without 'wowing' them with some shiny new technology, now are they? I'm told they're going to be marking end of term papers using blockchain and industry-standard REST APIs.
Sigh... (Score:2)
Now a student gets nothing but a virtual assistant...what will they remember of this after a few years ?
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It looks like you're trying to understand supply & demand growth? Would you like some help with that? Woof!
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It looks like you have a dog's dick in your ass and it's shit in your mouth. Gross! You really need to be more hygienic.
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Also, it looks like you didn't understand the reference to "Bob".
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He might have been a more impressive lecturer (although, what you describe is kinda standard for any emeritus—or near-emeritus—professor), but here's the more relevant question: how many of your classmates were able to follow the lecture for 2 hours? How much of the material do you remember (can you write down the Hamiltonian of a spin-1/2 particle in an applied magnetic field)?
The "virtual assistant", as unimpressive as they might be, have a potential for being a better teacher, only unsurpasse
Huh? (Score:2)
Only a Few Thousand a Time (Score:2)
No money for essential services but let's spend a bunch of money on faux holograms that don't really add much to the teaching experience over a projection TV. With the projection TV you can save the lecture and post it on YouTube so the students can watch it later.
Put the money into the basic essentials and leave the fancy light shows for the entertainment industry or even CEOs introducing products.
hologram! (Score:3)
Imperial Professor? (Score:1)
uhm... (Score:2)
I also wonder, neat as this idea is, is there a clear advantage to doing this ove