Extremely catastrophic situations are rare in Sweden, which makes training opportunities important to ensure competence among emergency personnel who should be actively involved during such situations. There is a requirement to conceptualize, design, and implement an interactive learning environment that allows the education, training and assessment of these catastrophic situations more often, and in different environments, conditions and places. Therefore, to address these challenges, a prototype system has been designed and developed, containing immersive, interactive 360-degrees videos that are available via a web browser. The content of these videos includes situations such as simulated learning scenes of a trauma team working at the hospital emergency department. Various forms of interactive mechanisms are integrated within the videos, to which learners should respond and act upon. The prototype was tested during the fall term of 2017 with 17 students (working in groups), from a specialist nursing program, and four experts. The video recordings of these study sessions were analyzed and the outcomes are presented in this paper. Different group interaction patterns with the proposed tool were identified. Furthermore, new requirements for refining the 360-degrees interactive video, and the technical challenges associated with the production of this content, have been found during the study. The results of our evaluation indicate that the system can provide the students with novel interaction mechanisms, to improve their skills, and it can be used as a complementary tool for the teaching and learning methods currently used in their education process.

3DVista offers software that lets you create panoramic images, professional virtual tours and 360-degree videos. With over 18 years of experience, 3DVista is the trusted partner of realtors, photographers and corporations in over 70 countries. Compatible with any camera (DSLR, Ricoh Theta, Samsung Gear 360 etc.) and VR headsets (Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Rift, Cardboard etc.).

In July, we wrote an article about using 360-degree video in immersive and interactive environments. Today, we’ll do a deeper dive and show you how to actually do it. The full process is too long to explain in an article, so we made an explainer video in which we explore the first step to developing interactive capabilities using the Unity game engine: creating your virtual reality (VR) Skybox Panoramic scene.

Recent advances in mobile virtual reality (VR) devices have paved the way for various VR applications in education. This paper presents a novel authoring framework for mobile VR contents and a play-based learning model for marine biology education. For interactive and immersive mobile VR contents, we develop a multilayer 360° VR representation with image-based interactions such as mesh deformation and water simulation, which enable users to realistically interact with 360° panoramic contents without consuming excessive computational resources. On the basis of this representation, we design and implement play-based learning scenarios to increase the interactivity and immersion of users. Then, we verify the effectiveness of our educational scenarios using a user study in terms of user-created VR contents, interactivity, and immersion. The results show that more experienced elements in VR contents improve the immersion of users and make them more actively involved.

If you've ever considered using 360 cameras to make training or educational videos (or just for fun) but were intimidated by the cost and apparent complexity of the gear, fear not.

Learn more about our new Saimaa user interface and the many exciting new enhancements it brings for streamlining your usage of ThingLink!

360-degree videos, also known as immersive videos or spherical videos, can be effective training tools that allow participants to engage with concepts in unexpected ways. This article explores the potential for using 360-degree video for eLearning experiences.