According to the University of Hawai News, the American Samoa Community College has started a ground-breaking digital way of education through the streaming of 3D holograms of the University of Hawai (UH) professors. The students were able to join their first Holo Campus on 20th August with environmental researcher and professor Chris Shuler on the subject of “sustainability and resilience”, a topic that is of special significance for the American Samoa and Pacific Islands nations as they face challenges such as increasing plastic waste and dramatic weather systems caused by climate change.
“It’s definitely super cool to go to American Samoa as a hologram. This setup is kind of novel. Doing distance learning on larger screens or on Skype is pretty cool and I think this new internet connectivity is really going to make that a possibility,” said Shuler who presented his recent research done in American Samoa.
“HoloCampus enables a remarkable new approach to distance learning,” said UH President David Lassner. “We expect that our work with ASCC will spark new ideas and approaches for academic collaborations across the Pacific and beyond.”
How does Holo Campus work?
According to the University of Hawai it is super easy: The holograms are created using the ARHT’s patented “capture studios,” which allow people and 3D content to be broadcasted live, virtually anywhere, in HD or 4K, on a variety of devices, with virtually zero latency. The teacher/professor is able to see the room via video signal back to the capture studio and speaks to students responding to their questions and reactions in real-time. Streaming on platforms like Facebook and YouTube is quick and easy, while broadcasts are also able to be recorded to the cloud and shared after the event.
More information: https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2019/08/20/uh-launch-3d-learning-platform/