Recent Advances in VR Labs for Use in STEM Education

[EN] Virtual Reality (VR) is increasingly being used in the gaming and entertainment sectors.  It has also been gradually finding its way in the industrial training sector. But its potential in the education field has yet to be fully recognized. Recent breakthroughs have made head-mounted displays (...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Roy, Samrendra, Chang, Daeho, Stocksdale, Graham, Gunasekera, Manmitha, Rizwan-uddin, Rizwan-uddin
Format: book part
Publication Date:2024
Country:España
Institution:Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV)
Repository:RiuNet. Repositorio Institucional de la Universitat Politécnica de Valéncia
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:dnet:riunet______::f9ba21cf86555a6527be7b5f1e94261b
Online Access:https://riunet.upv.es/handle/10251/206821
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Virtual reality
STEM laboratories
Head-mounted displays
Haptic
Description
Summary:[EN] Virtual Reality (VR) is increasingly being used in the gaming and entertainment sectors.  It has also been gradually finding its way in the industrial training sector. But its potential in the education field has yet to be fully recognized. Recent breakthroughs have made head-mounted displays (HMDs) for virtual reality (VR) accessible to the educational institutions and to the public at a low cost.  Similar breakthroughs are on the horizon in the haptic gloves technology, which are likely to lead to low cost and functional haptic gloves. Combination of VR with haptic gloves is expected to significantly change the user experience for the better. This paper seeks to explore the untapped potential of VR technology in education, specifically focusing on its applications in STEM laboratories. After a review of our past work in the development of VR labs for STEM subjects, we will describe recent advances made in the development and implementation of VR STEM labs in engineering.