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Education United Kingdom

UK University To Beam in Hologram Lecturers (theguardian.com) 16

Loughborough University will use holographic tech to beam in guest lecturers from around the globe, allowing students to interact with top international experts without leaving campus. The university, the first in Europe to explore this, plans lectures from MIT scientists and tests where management students tackle tricky situations under the guidance of industry leaders. Students have welcomed the lifelike holograms as more engaging than Zoom, The Guardian reports. Following a pilot scheme in 2024, the technology will likely become part of the formal curriculum in 2025. The box-based units are sold by California's Proto, whose clients include BT and IBM for corporate meetings. Proto's founder says the technology could even revive some of history's greatest thinkers to lecture students.
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UK University To Beam in Hologram Lecturers

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  • I looked at the company that makes these "holograms" and I cant really tell if its a pepper's ghost effect, projection off a curved mirror, or just a screen in a box, either way its just a video conference with a heavy price tag, glad the kids have the tuition money to pay for it

    • If it's just a screen, maybe it generates the dropshadow of the subject, and the shadow picturing the "box", to make it look like the person is in that box.

  • by diodeus ( 96408 ) on Monday January 22, 2024 @02:33PM (#64179981) Journal

    .....they're merely projections. No holographic interference found here.

    • by jddj ( 1085169 ) on Monday January 22, 2024 @04:06PM (#64180281) Journal

      Yeah, I really wish the marketers would cut the shit, and that people would quit handing them money for zip.

    • You are correct, according to Proto's patent no. US 11,428,952 (B2):

      A holographic display device for presenting a hologram-like image and a method of use are disclosed. The holographic display device includes a box-like structure, a translucent panel, and light panels extending the entire length of the box-like structure...

      Emphasis mine. Proto also claims that this is a true volumetric display, which is bullshit. The have lights all around the box to simulate shadows from the image projected onto the translucent panel.

    • by mjwx ( 966435 )

      .....they're merely projections. No holographic interference found here.

      Having worked with some in UK academia... I dare say the students probably wont notice the difference (between projections and the real thing, a holographic interface would probably be a huge improvement).

  • by VeryFluffyBunny ( 5037285 ) on Monday January 22, 2024 @04:26PM (#64180323)
    Imagine the UK's Open University's very late night/early morning BBC broadcasts combined with Gavin Belson's hologram call with Big Head: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    What on earth do they need to teach with a hologram that isn't better learnt via another medium? The science of seances?
  • I would have thought that with a little practice, some briefing ahead of the lecture, and a 1s tape delay, that an actor in the room could mime the actions of someone on the other end of a zoom call.

    It's not easy to see the lecturer's lips move in a large lecture theatre anyway, so just have the actor watch the lecturer and move around the stage copying gestures, and let the real dude run the display and talk through the audio link.

    Something for the SAG guys to do that can't be destroyed by AI yet, and wh

  • They make it sound as if they will be able to pull in Chomsky but in reality I suspect the "visiting professor" will be more likely a (probably great) professor from a school you've never heard of where the wages are far lower than they are in the UK.

    I'm not sure I'm opposed, it's good to see opportunities expand globally, but I'll bet the resident local professors are not best pleased at this cost-cutting measure, especially if it cuts into their ability to strike effectively

  • The best lecturers engaged with the students. They made sure that the students were following them. They were answering questions of people. They were clarifying. This might as well be watching a random YouTube in a theatre.

One good reason why computers can do more work than people is that they never have to stop and answer the phone.

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