Vr forskningsmedel
Thank you for visiting nature. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer. Credit: Stephen Hilton. No staff passes, qualifications or lab coats are required here; guests are welcome to wander around and prod at the equipment, even spill chemicals on the floor if they fancy it, without repercussions.
In fact, he encourages it.
Why scientists are delving into the virtual world
But the environment mirrors the space and design of the real-life wet lab he runs in the School of Pharmacy at University College London — where his group researches synthetic chemistry, including drug discovery — albeit with brighter colours and some supernatural add-ons. How virtual reality is helping to boost scientific engagement in rural Africa.
The VR concept has existed since the s, but any lingering perceptions of the technology as faddish — a toy with clunky graphics — are long outdated 1. In the past couple of years, accelerated by the COVID pandemic and thanks in part to the falling cost of headsets, more researchers have been exploring the potential uses and benefits of incorporating extended reality XR into their work — including VR, augmented reality AR and mixed-reality technologies.
His virtual lab was built using the 3D design software Unreal Engine from US developer Epic Games, and runs on a local server for single users, switching to a cloud-based one for multiplayer and voice-connectivity programs. Now, his virtual lab features a seat board room; in the real lab, the same space is a humble storage cupboard. These days, he uses the VR environment mostly to train students, who can practise running experiments or complete assignments that are accessible either through a laptop or through VR headsets at home and on campus.
Why scientists are delving into the virtual world - Nature
Three AI assistants — life-sized, cartoonish human-like figures that respond when users speak to them — are on hand to offer support. Each assistant has a dedicated role and backstory, and draws on a programmed knowledge base as well as on the artificial-intelligence large language model ChatGPT to guide users around the virtual space and answer questions about safety, inventory and stock.
Private customers, which include companies and research institutes, must pay a fee, bringing in cash for future lab projects. This is helping to make the science more accessible: where once Hilton and his team could supervise only a handful of chemistry students and lab members at any one time, now, limitless numbers of learners can practise experiments, safety assessments or other scenes at home or through partner institutions elsewhere, he says.
It also means Hilton spends less time repeating instructions or telling students where to find equipment, freeing him up to focus on other projects, including an expansion of the VR research programme. We see a big opportunity for this in many countries in the global south.
Forskningsfinansiering
One of the simplest ways to make virtual training more accessible could be by avoiding spoken languages altogether. Virtual-reality applications give science a new dimension. De Beer started using XR-based training tools for students at the university in In recent years, his work has expanded to deliver VR programs more widely across engineering and in health care, particularly in poor areas of rural South Africa.
They can simply be shown as robots, for instance, without the need for race or gender — although human biases present challenges when designing the figures. For now, Hilton says, his program uses robot avatars that have masculine, muscular torsos, for example. VR is also helping medical students to access learning opportunities sooner in their training. Simran Sharma, an obstetrics and gynaecology clinician at Cardiff University and the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, UK, was troubled by the lack of exposure to real-world practice in her early medical career.
Using medical dummies to teach students how to diagnose and treat sepsis is considered the gold standard for training, she explains, but the pandemic made in-person training difficult. Credit: Rescape Innovation. Sharma was inspired to change this in after witnessing pregnant people become dangerously ill from sepsis during labour. While a research fellow at Cardiff University, she helped to develop a VR education tool for sepsis recognition as part of Project Sepsis , a UK research collaboration across medicine and science.
Forskningsfinansiering
Its VR project works by showing students a series of simulations, demonstrating the differences between sepsis symptoms and similar conditions. The students are then tested on the knowledge gained during the experience through on-screen multiple-choice tests. See, for example, ref. Working scientist podcast: Talking about a technological revolution in the lab.
In , chemist Lee Cronin and his colleagues at the University of Glasgow, UK, designed a VR programme that allows him to control the robots in his lab remotely.