 Hello, my name is Michael Carter all time the immersive technology specialist here in the TMU libraries. So TMU is short for Toronto Metropolitan University. And for anyone who doesn't know Toronto Metropolitan University is Ryerson University and with the name changed, we are now Toronto Metropolitan University. Hi, everyone. My name is Farming Wang. I'm a librarian at the TMU libraries. Previously, I was the head of the library information technology services. That's why I was, I was kind of helping developing the emergency view. And also hopefully today, our presentation can give you some insight into how academic library can adopt XR technology and help enhance the teaching learning research experience. Before we start our presentation today, there are a few technical term I want to mention here. Since we're going to talk about those terms throughout our presentation. The first one, the VR. So VR is equivalent to virtual reality. So, for example, the Oculus Rift is a quite a well-known virtual reality headset. A second term is AR. AR is equivalent to augmented reality. If you happen to play the Pokemon Go on your smartphone, that's a one example for AR app on your phone. The third term is MR. MR is equivalent to mixed reality. So Microsoft HoloLens is one of the well-known mixed reality headset, for example. The last term I want to mention is XR. XR is equivalent to extended reality. XR actually is the umbrella of the term for AR, VR and MR. My very first experience with XR technology project was with actually a collaboration with the architecture prof at the TMU more than 12 years ago. So we actually developed an architecture AR app based on the back of the days called a layer AI application. And so this is probably explaining why the academic library should consider embrace XR technology. The main goal is to enhance teaching learning and research experience. So we have reviewed a very good report from ACRIL in 2021. It's the environment scan report. Part of the report to talk about XR implication in the academic setting. So I really liked the full recommendation from this report, particularly about XR technology. So the first recommendation is talking about the library should have stayed up to date on new development in XR, VR and AR technology. And the work and the collaboration with the CAMS partner to support a useful application implementation. So I totally agree with the recommendation based on my past few years experience working with the faculty and the students is the key for success. The second recommendation is about academic library should consider creating a collaborative space for accommodating and incorporating immersive technology in the library setting and support curriculum development. So we actually have quite a few examples that we will explain in our demos, particularly with our immersive technology studio. Third recommendation is about library should look to supplement instruction, the classroom practices and examples and that promote immersive technology. And at the same time, should the library should also provide development opportunity for faculty staff to do so. For that part, I think we have a couple of years experience for the library and the library staff to get familiar with XR technology, but that's still a long way to go. The last recommendation is from that report is about academic library should have a real opportunity to use XR technology to support their IECA, the museums and the special collection initiatives. For that note, for that part, we actually did a collaboration with Alconcom Museum in terms of the XR technology pilot. So then the next question is we always ask us is where and how to start. So I can share a little bit of experience how we get it to get here today. So, at the TMU library, a very probably back to go back to around 2015, when we opened our Digimini Experience Lab. That's where we started looking to the XR technology as the Digimini Experience Lab is a peer to peer learning space to make a space. So we have a pilot a few different VR technology assets, particularly Oculus Rift and VR headset. So we observed a strong interest from students who want to try this kind of new technology. In 2017, when we opened another new technology which into this research hub, we called the library collaboratory. The main purpose is to support faculty and grad students their research activities. And we also observed quite a strong interest and particularly from grad students using XR technology for their MRP projects. In the last few years, we have a great understanding when we engage with our students and faculty. We also gained a lot of hands-on experience through our collaboration with organizations such as the Alconcom Museum or XR projects. At the same time, our library has also conducted an environment scan for the strategic plan. Part of it is looking at what's upcoming for the new technologies. So that environment scan really made us seriously thinking about adopting XR technology into the library to support teaching learning and the research. Another very important experience I want to share is that you have to have a really good talent in terms of supporting those kind of emerging initiatives. So we fortunately created a position called Immersive Technology Specialist, which is Michael and he joined us a couple of years ago. And we also recently, this year we hired a part-time Immersive Technology Specialist who also has both the general media and architecture academic background. Looking back, I couldn't believe we did this, you know, even through the pandemic time. But now we're coming back to the campus. I'm more optimistic about our future in this emerging initiative. Here, a couple of pictures I want to show you. On the left side is my colleague Steven Marston, who wears VR headset in our digital media experience lab. I believe that picture was taken in 2015. On the right side, it's a picture taken probably in 2019, which is actually Michael. Back in the day, he was still a graduate student working on his MRP project based on XR technology. He was actually doing a demo to our present. So I think you can see we did a lot of work and engage you with our academic community that really helped us get to where we are today. So now I want to review what we have got so far in terms of XR technology and equipment and initiatives. So for TMU libraries, we actually have quite a lot of different kind of XR technology. And we have quite a few VR headsets like a meta quest that students and faculty can have access. We also even have a drone learning and research program that come with a LiDAR capture cameras. A lot of faculty from geography and urban planning, they actually have used our service and support using drone and LiDAR as a combination for their research project. And we also have used the Microsoft Connect IR camera for motion detection related initiative. Another really interesting technology we have is a holographic display. It's called a looking glass. We actually apply that technology when we collaborate with the Alka-Ka Museum owner R&D project. And also, I think last year we also got a two to five mixed reality system. And then we're still kind of trying to figure out how that mixed reality environment can be used for teacher learning and research. Last and not least, and we set up this immersion studio based on the eGlobal Vision technology. I would say two or three years ago and since then has been pretty popular within our faculty and students. Now I would like to explain a little bit about why we select the eGlobal Vision technology as a kind of core technology facility for immersion studio. We have actually reviewed quite a few different options and we also talked to several academic institutions including Michigan State University. And we got a lot of good inspiration from those institutions. Many thanks to all those institutions that provide feedback and share their experience with us. It's very easy to, through our review, we realize it's actually very easy to make this kind of immersive space for the population purpose. However, we do find PR is important, but the long term, what really matters is how this kind of technology environment can support, truly support teacher learning and the research. Therefore, when we review the different options, the software compatibility, the flexibility of content creation and ease of use of the equipment essential. So after, you know, I really saw the review, we decided on the eGlobal Vision as our immersion studio kind of technology solution. So now I would like Michael to discuss more about the technical feature of our immersion studio and give a, and also give a few project demo. Okay, so yeah, so now I would like to talk about some of the more technical aspects of the immersion studio. So I've provided a, an actual graphic here on the right, and basically it shows kind of a top down view of what the emergency looks like. It's essentially six meters in diameter, and essentially it's a full 360 projection cylinder. So it has five ceiling mounted projectors that stitched together essentially a full 360 image. It's got five point surround sound speaker so you can actually see that here on the graphic, including the subwoofer here in the back. It provides essentially a better accessibility for people with physical challenges so if you think about VR headset sometimes you have to move your head around a lot to see all the content around you otherwise you're just looking straightforward whereas in this space, you can maneuver yourself a little bit easier you don't have to necessarily turn your head, but you can see also in the peripheral your peripheral vision you can see a little bit better in VR content and 360 content. Essentially this also allows educators to explore new ways of presenting 360 content, and also to a larger number of students. So if you think traditionally speaking, when it comes to VR content usually we have to pass one VR headset around to different students one at a time, but in this context you can actually bring a whole group of students in here up to words of let's say 12 people seated, or 20 people sitting on the ground, and you can essentially present your content, much easier to a larger group of people. And then recently I also equipped it with VR controls such as the HTC live base stations we see here and then also for body tracking and motion tracking there's a Microsoft connect. And so what is the really the need of a 360 environment. So there's a few main points here but there's a whole list that could go on but the main things are, well one it's a more attractive alternative to the traditional VR so I have a picture of a VR headset here to show you that like pretty much any VR headset you have to physically strap it to your face. So, if you think about cove it for example, even before cove it some people might not have been comfortable with that and now post cove it. If they're not sanitized correctly a lot of people are just not comfortable with wearing them on their face and that is totally acceptable right so we have to think of different alternatives to presenting VR content and this is one of the ways to do it. This is a shared collaborative VR experience so this is a little bit self explanatory but if you think about having a VR headset on it's generally speaking, very isolating and it's an individual experience where the immersion studio is a collaborative shared experience. It also encourages cross discipline and collaboration. This is the mainly because we have the immersion studio here in the library and it allows us to collaborate with different programs across the university. This is something we've generally seen increased demand for immersive spaces on campus so I have already been getting a lot of emails since we've had this actually at the beginning of the semester. We've been getting a lot of inquiries about capstone student projects using this for their immersive final projects. So yeah generally speaking, we, there's been a need for immersive spaces on campus and we're really happy to have this now in the library. This is an example of 360 documentary media from a digital media student so I'm just going to kind of play just a few excerpts of this of this clip just so you can get an understanding of what video looks like inside the immersion studio. I'm just going to put it on pause there because one of the things that I want to highlight is this video exists on YouTube, but the student uploaded to YouTube so that it's easier for people to see online as you know a more individual experience but because it's on YouTube she can actually send me the YouTube link and I can stream it directly into the immersion studio. So it allows me to play 360 videos straight from YouTube. So you can kind of get an understanding of some of the shots that she's done here where she just has her 360 camera on a tripod. Right and this is like you know her basically experience in Union Station, different shots of Toronto. And so the next example I have here is architectural simulation so I've been working with the architecture program a lot with creating a workflow that's easy for students to use undergraduate students particularly graduate students are, you know on a different level they can handle multiple programs a little bit easier but undergraduate students considering they're learning all these things for the first time we're trying to create a very streamlined workflow for them to be familiar with their own 3D software and bring their 3D content into the immersion studio so on the left hand side is actually a full render of architecture student project so this was done by two undergrad architecture students I believe in third year. And it was a very successful workflow going from reddit to motion to unreal and then this is basically what the export looks like an unreal in the immersion studio, and then on the right side. I'm going to play this video but it's essentially me inside the immersion studio using VR controls with the HTC by base stations. So you can kind of get a sense of what it looks like from my perspective when I'm on the inside. And then I'm going to walk over to this chair for example. And this is essentially what it looks like from a third person perspective so I'm picking up that chair, which I can do so in the immersion studio as well. And then again I go to pick up this table and you can kind of see what it looks like from my first person perspective and that's what it looks like from my third person for the third person perspective. And then we're really fortunate to have worked again with digital media students, because they come from various disciplines or different backgrounds some in a tier design some in architecture some in digital storytelling so these are two examples of actual projects using the immersion studio within different game engines so the one on the left is project within unreal five, and it was done by a master digital media student last year. So play a little bit of it it's a good example of essentially digital storytelling. And so I'm just going to kind of skip through this a bit. And then this volume a bit to explain that this is all running within a game engine so this is all real time rendering this is all real time animation. It all runs very, very fluidly and basically this entire project was presentation on the Hindu God Ganesha, and the student did a presentation basically where they were explaining the significance of Ganesha using the unreal engine and the immersive sorry the immersion studio to show that. So the one on the right here is a group of students actually. So the group of students inside the emergency kind of get a sense of just how many people can fit inside the immersion studio, but this is essentially a space simulation that was done by a group of students and again MDM. So the final thing that I want to show here is this is again running with within the unreal engine but this is essentially an indigenous VR simulation. Originally this was only created for a VR experience, but we later were able to port it into the immersion studio with a more shared experience. And so just like the last, just like the last example I'm able to use the actual controls to interact with objects such as pull up dialogue windows and maneuver around the actual environment in 360. Okay, so one of the things that I also want to talk about our faculty integration metrics, because this is very important when we're introducing these technologies in, you know, educational sending as we want to keep track of who exactly is using it, because this is very important. So there's a few different specific programs that we've been able to get classes in for which are digital media. So class sizes vary depending on the program but, for example, digital media 30 students class size for that interior design around 50 students documentary media this is graduate level documentary media, but those classes are usually around 30 students each architecture is a big program here on the campus and we do, we are working with a professor right now who usually has classroom classes of up to 120 students, and then communication and culture which is another big program that is interested in using this space, generally speaking that class size of around 90 students so I should also mention that the interest in the immersion studio has these particular class sizes but if students wanted to use this space for their own projects then usually the limit is around like 20 students per per section so we have to kind of split them up in that sense into different sections but we are able to get interest from again particular programs that have these various class sizes. So I'll let you think and conclude and then we have one final slide after this. Okay, Michael. So refracting on the past two or three years our experience with a wide range of exact technology implemented in our library, and particularly the immersion studio. So I would say, like many emerging initiative in the academic libraries to have a good faculty collaboration and a community engagement are the key. Fortunately, we have a pretty good momentum now, in particular with the immersion studio space. As Michael mentioned we have brought quite a few different faculty to the immersion studio, such as the law documentary media English aerospace engineering, new media computer science and actually next week we are going to discuss with our business faculty regarding using the immersion studio for a simulation pilot project. I expect we will see more interesting and a diverse use case going forward. But again, as I mentioned before, the key is really about building a community. Second important reflection I have is talent talent talent. And because immersion, you know, emerging initiative like immersive technology, or XR technology, require specialized talents. It is critical for academic library to, to have the talent in order for the success of any emerging initiatives. So we, I personally learned a great deal about from the from the immersion studio initiative, and without Michael and ever their efforts, we probably won't get get there to have so many kind of exciting projects. The third reflection I have is that patience for long term success. So the, our final goal, final goal is not necessarily about implement a specific technology, our final goal is about building a robust community. So technology can change very quickly, but that your community will be with you for the long run. So for example, if one day we no longer use the existing, you know, XR infrastructure or space, because there's better option. I'm confident that our community will be interested and continue to work with us, regardless of what the format of XR technology, we like to introduce to them. So, so here's kind of my reflection for the past two years of our project. So we like to conclude there and we wanted to just provide our contact information. In case you're seeing this at some point and you want to contact us in the future about anything you can. We do have a QR code here for if you want to learn more about the immersion studio you can scan that QR code and then you can also, you know, the link is also provided also the emails of all this too so if you wanted to contact immersion studio. You can do that for inquiries you can also contact myself directly or if I'm in one. So yeah, thank you for listening. Thank you so much.