MIT.nano Opening Event
MIT.nano, a new center for nanoscience and nanotechnology, has launched an advanced facility open to the entire community of faculty, researchers, partners, and students. As part of the MIT.nano opening event, Virtual Experience Design Lab has created virtual and augmented reality experiences to showcase the laboratory spaces and clean rooms within MIT.nano, which are close to the public and will not be accessible during the event. The VR/AR experiences provided an opportunity to explore and to better understand how nanoscience and nanotechnology laboratories operate.
Virtual Reality Experience / Guided Tour: This experience showcases a 3D model within which guests can walk around and examine the clean rooms. There are two sets of immersive virtual reality devices and 6 mobile headsets so that eighth visitors can view the experience simultaneously. Using HTC Vive Pro, guests have more immersive experience, where they can walk around, and interact with the environment. This system requires two motion tracking sensors to be installed in space (which comes bundled with HTC Vive Pro). Oculus Go mobile headsets enable people to be in the same experience, however, visitors are not able to physically move around the space and has more limited experience compared to HTC Vive.
Augmented Reality Window: This experience allows people to look through an iPad and have an impression about how the laboratory space is used in the future. We use one of the windows that looks into the clean rooms for creating an augmented reality experience that blends digital animations, such as researchers moving around and using equipment, with the physical space of the laboratory.
