Libraries Announce Winner of Digital Media Lab Virtual Reality Competition

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The Libraries Digital Media Lab (DML) has announced Edwood Brice ’19 as the winner of its Lenovo Mirage Solo Virtual Reality Competition. Celebrating the release of “Avengers: Endgame,” the competition invited students to submit a 30-second video describing how they envisioned virtual reality (VR) technology and applications that could enhance student life on campus.

Brice’s winning entry introduced VR “exergaming” (gamified exercising paired with virtual reality) as a way to provide a balanced source of physical activity for the campus community.

“With results that say that VR exergaming is objectively easier to conduct and more fun than traditional physical activity, it is apparent that more should be done to understand how VR technology can impact other people and their varying states of health,” he explains.

The DML awarded Brice with a Lenovo Mirage Solo VR headset.

This is the second virtual reality pitch competition held by the DML.

“The VR competition reinforces our commitment to helping the university community learn more about and develop apps for virtual and augmented reality, as part of a makerspace initiative. The DML is here to help you build apps for teaching, research, or just for fun,” says Steve Acquah, Digital Media Lab unit coordinator and associate adjunct professor of chemistry.

As part of that commitment, the DML is also incorporating the Lenovo Mirage Solo VR headset, powered by Google’s Daydream VR platform, into its development support services to help students and staff create applications and immersive environments. The standalone headset uses 6 Degrees of Freedom (6DoF) tracking to allow a person to physically move around in a virtual environment and is a crowd favorite at DML events.

Currently located on Floor 3 of the W. E. B. Du Bois Library, the Digital Media Lab is a campus makerspace specializing in providing support for all students, faculty, and staff on 3D printing, video and audio production, 3D modeling, and virtual and augmented reality application development.