Class 6 Assignment 1: Improving 2 Reports with my Group Members, using Google Hangout

There are 16 screenshots below, on describing my step-by-step report editing process. As a group, our group (Shane Hewson, Alex Lau, Ryan Rolfsen and Seungyoon Lee), we have collaboratively edited two reports: the report on Virtual Reality and the report on Wearable Devices.

As an individual, I have made my edits and additions to the report in a light green color.

Below are the shared link for our Google Doc documents for the two reports listed above:

Report on Virtual Reality:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JqZjb7Ksol8dX-zWrrn7LV59XCquHHkrN8PoYs2OYZ4/edit?usp=sharing
Report on Wearable Devices:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AlH-QDwHY9y4JjWpW1t8Zsra-vtt5O8PcsFsxW4PMiA/edit?usp=sharing

1. Listening to the original assignment instruction from Prof. Walsh

2. Using Google Hangout's video chat function to discuss the work allocation with my teammate

3. Using Google Hangout's chat functionality to discuss the individual jobs on the reports

4. Editing the basic format for the virtual reality report, according to the original format for the reports (introduced in previous classes)

5. Talking with my teammate Ryan on the wearable technology report

6. Adding a paragraph on the Apple Watch on the wearable devices report

7. Conversation with Ryan regarding what to put on the wearable device report

8. Adding multiple paragraphs on the Samsung's products onto the wearable devices report

9. Final format editing on the wearable device report, along with adding the link to BC's immersive education website

10. Adding a conclusion on the wearable devices report

11. Editing the introduction for the virtual reality report

12. Adding paragraphs on Samsung Galaxy Gear VR onto the original virtual reality report

13. Adding a conclusion to the virtual reality report

14. Writing additional information on the Microsoft HoloLens onto the original virtual reality report

15. Making final changes and edits to the virtual reality reports

16. Discussing with my teammates on finalizing the report on virtual reality.

This is an assignment from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Collaborative Computing. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc

Class 6, Assignment 2

Attached are the screenshots of me implementing the sidebar with all the links to my classmates' blogs. I have attached two screenshots describing the process.

This is an assignment from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Collaborative Computing. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc 

Google Hangout for Group 1 (Lau, Hewson, Rolfsen, and Lee)

1. Alex introducing himself

2. Introducing myself to the group

3.  Ryan introducing himself to the group

4. Shane introducing himself to the group

Google Hangout

I searched Google Hangout on Google and clicked the first link that showed up on the result. Next, I proceeded to https://plus.google.com/hangouts and added the members in the group to my friends list by inputting their emails.

Then, on the hangout page, I simply started a video chat and included three of my remaining teammates to the Video hangout.

The attached photo shows that our group, comprised of Ryan Rolfsen, Alex Lau, Shane Hewson, and myself, has successfully created a video hangout.

The Google Hangout successfully allows the users to video chat with multiple people and allows a lot of functionality. Such functions are drawing, remote desktops, sending videos through YouTube, sending pictures, Google Effects, screenshare, and chatting functions.

Immersive Illness?

"A challenge that concerns me the most is lurking on the horizon, one we don't yet understand the full scope of. As Immersive Education and other forms of personal virtual reality become more realistic and compelling we're going to see "immersive illness" become more common and more difficult to deal with. Although this is an issue today we're somewhat protected by the limitations of today's personal computers and game consoles (they just aren't powerful enough...yet), but in another decade or more it'll be a different story altogether. Nobody knows exactly what impact insanely realistic, media-rich virtual reality will have on society. We're already dealing with early forms of immersive illness, such as addiction, alienation, mental schisms, and more, but today it's not a problem that affects a large percentage of users. We don't see massive problems today for a number of reasons, including rather low-quality virtual environments and limitations on how much time we spend in these environments. But what happens when the visual and audio quality becomes indistinguishable from reality, the technology becomes truly mainstream, and a substantial portion of education takes place in such environments and not in a real classroom? With massive power comes massive problems. Last week I was asked how big this problem will be, and I responded that nobody knows for sure but I'd estimate that the at-risk population can be calculate by adding the percentage of people with addiction problems to the percentage of society that suffer some form of mental illness. That's a big chunk of society. Is it all gloom and doom? Certainly not, but it's a grand challenge we're not even remotely prepared for today. As with other disruptions society will eventually adapt, but I think we're in for a very rough ride." - Professor Aaron Walsh

Full interview available at http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2007/05/teaching_in_vr_.html

The notion of "immersive illness" is relatively a newly developed term. In one of the articles that we were just told to read, Professor Walsh coins the term "immersive illness" as the following: "the growing problem of addiction to virtual reality." Can we actually become addicted to the non-real, virtual reality? To critically analyze this question, I believe we have to tackle the issue of general addictions that are prevalent among the society.

Does this condition of "immersive illness" have a possibility of becoming more common than now? Professor Walsh in the article notes that early forms of immersive illness are already present in the current era. These early forms of "immersive illness" are namely addiction, alienation, mental schisms and more. Although these issues only pertain to a small group of people, it definitely has the possibility to become more prevalent. As Google Cardboard, Oculus VR, MS HoloLens and many other virtual reality devices and modules grow popularity among the general public, people will depend more heavily on the information and other privileges offered by these VR headsets and devices. We currently can observe intensified degree of cellphone addiction, when smartphones took over the regular 2G cellphones. This immersive illness is definitely a possibility among the users in the future generation when virtual reality is widely adapted to replace real life, physical interactions and many experiences. For example, when classes are perfectly replaced by immersive learning environment, some students will certainly suffer a form of immersive illness due to lack of human interactions and many other reasons.

I believe the future of immersive experience depends on the VR technology developers' efforts to create a clear line between the real world and virtual reality, and thus immersive environment. If people lose the ability to distinguish the two environment, there will be a higher chance among people to obtain the immersive illness. People should acknowledge the values and importance of real life environment, while enjoying the comforts that come from immersive environment. 

Class 5 Assign. 1: Revising my Report on Wearable Devices

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Twg9wMdRIFPgtekRg6QUCK3VGiEytcnZU_Kl3ETUQg4/edit?usp=sharing

WEARABLE DEVICE REPORT

1. Re-formatting the original report according to the requirements in the lecture notes.

2. Deleting the contents on Apple Watch, because new and official information has been released by Apple

3. Adding a paragraph on Apple Watch's functionality and raising questions imposed on the product 

4. Researching and reporting on the arguments that oppose to the usefulness of the Apple Watch

5. Introducing innovative functions of the Apple Watch, and stating its significance (addition to the original report)

6. On the Samsung Gear Fit paragraph, I've added recently released information on the Samsung Pay, which is a counterpart to Apple's Apple Pay

7. Writing a new conclusion based on the newly inputted information on the entire report

8. Adding another conclusive paragraph to better project the future of the industry, and the industry's required action to promote the growth of the industry/ Also proof reading and checking for errors.

This is an assignment from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Collaborative Computing. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc 

Class 5 Assign. 1: Revising my Report on Virtual Reality

https://docs.google.com/document/d/15meLBSIoWSjbRNqVfyaAJIwHErMCtwqgCR1zdqFbU6Y/edit?usp=sharing

REPORT ON VIRTUAL REALITY

1. re-formatting the document as required in the lecture notes, without videos and images

2. Adding a paragraph on a specific VR technology: Microsoft HoloLens VR

3. Adding an additional paragraph on MS HoloLens; focusing on its functionality

4. Adding more information on another VR goggle technology: Samsung Gear VR

5. Adding a paragraph on Samsung Gear VR's functionality

6. Focusing on the smoother flow of the report, I have added an introductory paragraph that shifts the attention to virtual reality programs. The transition was not smooth in the original report.

7. Adding a conclusion to the original report, which did not quite summarize the entire report 

8. Proof reading and checking for grammar mistakes and typos.

This is an assignment from the Immersive Education course that I am taking at Boston College. The course is called Collaborative Computing. For details, visit the immersive BC portal at http://ImmersiveEducation.org/@/bc