{"id":3889,"date":"2018-11-01T19:51:22","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T19:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/hologram-lecturers-to-teach-students-at-imperial-college-london\/"},"modified":"2018-11-01T19:51:22","modified_gmt":"2018-11-01T19:51:22","slug":"hologram-lecturers-to-teach-students-at-imperial-college-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/hologram-lecturers-to-teach-students-at-imperial-college-london\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Hologram’ lecturers to teach students at Imperial College London"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"HologramImage copyright<\/span>
\n Imperial College London<\/span><\/p>\n

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University classes are set to be given a futuristic spin by letting lecturers appear as hologram-like apparitions beamed in from afar.<\/p>\n

Imperial College London will show off the technology at a special event later on Thursday before deploying it more widely.<\/p>\n

It believes it will be the first academic body to do so regularly.<\/p>\n

A similar effect has been used to animate images of Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and other celebrities.<\/p>\n

Imperial will initially limit its use to its Business School’s activities but expects the technology could eventually become common.<\/p>\n

“The alternative is to use video-conferencing software but we believe these holograms have a much greater sense of presence,” Dr David Lefevre, director of Imperial’s Edtech Lab, told the BBC.<\/p>\n

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Image copyright<\/span>
\n Imperial College<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n The technology will be used to beam in speakers from New York and Los Angeles
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“The lecturers have a high-definition monitor in front of them which is calibrated so they can point at people and look them in the eye. They can really interact.”<\/p>\n

More than one person can also appear at a time.<\/p>\n

Indeed, at the Women in Tech event on Thursday, a panel will feature two guests whose images will be transmitted from the US alongside a further two actually on stage. All four are expected to be able to intercommunicate.<\/p>\n

On budget<\/h2>\n

Strictly speaking, the illusions are not holograms but neither are they the Pepper’s Ghost effect<\/a> used by politicians including French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well the entertainment industry.<\/p>\n

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Media caption<\/span>WATCH: Jean-Luc Melenchon used the Pepper’s Ghost illusion to appear at seven places at once in 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Instead, they use a technique developed by a Canadian company, Arht Media.<\/p>\n

“The problem with Pepper’s Ghost is that it can be intricate to set up and can cost about \u00a3150,000 to run an event,” said Dr Lefevre.<\/p>\n

“This is simpler – you project upon a glass screen, and a backdrop behind it uses software to give it an illusion of depth.<\/p>\n

“It runs at the low thousands each time, so for the first time universities can afford it.”<\/p>\n

To send their image, lecturers need to use a “capture studio”, which involves filming them against a black backdrop while being lit from both sides.<\/p>\n

Imperial plans to make use of two external studios – one in Los Angeles, the other Toronto – as well a portable kit to invite overseas-based guest speakers to give talks to its students.<\/p>\n

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Image copyright<\/span>
\n Arht Media<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n Imperial can deploy a portable studio to invite speakers from across the world
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In addition, it intends to use the equipment to let one of its lecturers give a presentation to a Spanish business school in February.<\/p>\n

Beyond providing a less disruptive means of attracting foreign talent than flying them in, Imperial says there are other advantages.<\/p>\n

A popular invitee can be beamed to several lecture halls simultaneously. <\/p>\n

Talks can also be recorded and played back for later use, although this would rule out interactions with the audience.<\/p>\n

The downside is there is less likelihood guests will stay around for a chat once their scheduled appearance ends. Plus there is always the risk of a technical hitch.<\/p>\n

But Imperial believes the benefits should outweigh the drawbacks.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to be one of those technologies that gets used,” Dr Lefevre said.<\/p>\n

“So long as the technology works the way we believe it will, I can see this becoming fairly mainstream.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source<\/a> by [author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image copyright Imperial College London University classes are set to be given a futuristic spin by letting lecturers appear as hologram-like apparitions beamed in from afar. Imperial College London will show off the technology at a special event later on Thursday before deploying it more widely. It believes it will be the first academic body … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}