Learn by doing: Unimersiv educates in virtual reality

Virtual reality is upon us. New apps are delivered on a regular basis, and it’s available commercially for both mobile and stationary hardware. If you’ve been paying attention, it’s also easy to see that the steady stream of content isn’t just made up of games, but other applications have been found as well, including virtual reality education. Unimersiv is one company focusing on education in virtual reality, and it’s just launched an application for the Samsung Gear VR and Oculus Rift. It is, despite its name, not striving to counteract immersion. Unimersiv, a company focusing on bringing virtual education to the masses, believes teaching and learning can be as important to the platform as entertainment. It believes that VR education can bring a revolution to education. “As research has shown, students remember 20 percent of what they hear, 30 percent of what they see, and up to 90 percent of what they do or simulate. Virtual reality yields the latter scenario impeccably — students can interact with the virtual environment in person and manipulate the various objects within it. This supports ‘learning by doing’ and also results in creativity by constructionism.” Previously, you had to go to to Universiv’s home page to take part in its educational experiences. But with the recent app launch, these experiences are now easy to find via the default stores for both headsets. Today the app is available free of charge via the Oculus Store. It features three different takes on virtual education. The first gives you access to the International Space Station, where you can explore its innards. The second features a detailed human body to teach you about the human anatomy. Finally there’s a history lesson in the form of Wiltshire, England, and how it looked like 4,000 years ago. That’s where you’ll see Stonehenge and what it might have looked like originally. Unimersiv’s website says the company plans to publish new educational experiences every month. Meta’s newest VR headset, the inexpensive Quest 3S, boasts color passthrough cameras and a fast processor for great mixed-reality gaming. Meta also sells the Quest 3 that costs $200 more. As the name implies, Meta borrowed some of the best features of the Quest 3 for the new model. Whether you’re looking for a new headset or considering exploring VR for the first time, you need to know what’s new, which VR headset is the best, and whether the Quest 3S is worth its bargain price. At Meta Connect 2024, the company officially announced the anticipated Quest 3S, a $300 VR headset with many of the best features of the more expensive Quest 3 that launched last year. While the Quest 3 is a better headset overall, the budget model can run the same mixed-reality games, apps, and immersive VR titles.
Meta gave the Quest 3S a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chip, the best available in any Meta VR headset. That’s why it can handle big titles like Batman: Arkham Shadow and Asgard’s Wrath 2. If you buy a Quest 3S during the promotional period, Arkham Shadow is free. It also has Touch Plus controllers without the bulky rings of the Quest 2’s controllers. If you’re upgrading from an older VR headset, you’ll enjoy more freedom of movement without worrying about clashing rings when drawing a virtual bow or putting your guard up in virtual boxing. Newly leaked images of Meta’s upcoming Quest 3S have surfaced online, including one found in an official Meta app. That leaves no room for doubt when it comes to how the upcoming Quest 3S will look. If you have the Meta Quest Link app installed, you can see the image for yourself by searching for “oculus-link-hero-panther.png” in your computer’s program files. The image appeared online in a Reddit post by Gary_the_mememachine and was covered by UploadVR.