Purdue University Global now lets some graduates join in the 2020 commencement ceremony with quickly-evolving Virtual Technology. Around 75 students will get a unique Virtual Reality viewer that looks like Google Cardboard and watch the ceremony through a 360-degree camera feed alongside about 400 other students who will attend the LA ceremony later this week.
Virtual Reality – the Future
The project itself was conceived with assistance from the Research Computing Envision Center at Purdue University Global. In the center, they work on VR training simulations and many other projects. It sounds more elaborate than a simple static camera. Patti Pelletier states that when the ceremony begins, students will feel like they were in the procession line marching with the on-site graduates. The virtual graduates will walk onto the stage, hear their name announced, and see their portraits displayed before returning to their seats.
March While in the Comfort of Your Home With VR Technology
A press release explains that the camera operator will carry an Insta360 Pro II camera during the ceremony. He or she will stream to YouTube’s 360-degree video platform. There will also be a video feed with regular cameras on a Facebook Live feed. The project is beneficial, and it’s aimed at students who are unable to attend the graduation in Los Angeles. They will still see and hear everything during the event. Just like many VR projects, it’s also good publicity for Purdue University Global.
It’s a cool and exciting idea, and a great reminder that schools are still using Google VR Products – like Cardboard, etc. It’s got echoes of older quirky graduation experiments, like the Second Life commencement from 2009. With all that said, unless the ceremony is extremely short, most of those students will presumably get tired of holding the viewer to their faces. They will also probably need their phones to power the head side because Purdue is just providing them with the cardboard shell, a tassel, and a commencement program.