It is a difficult task to get students to attend a morning seminar. Even the most hungover of freshers would be attracted by a physics lecture from Albert Einstein, or a masterclass in design from Coco Chanel.
Some universities are bringing back dead or retired singers to the stage using holographic technology.
Loughborough University is the first university in Europe to explore this technology. It plans to use the technology to bring sports scientists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology to teach fashion students to create immersive shows and to test management student on how to navigate tricky business situations.
Prof Vikki locke, director of undergraduate studies, Loughborough Business School, says students “absolutely” love the technology. They have begged for selfies using the gadget. She added that students would prefer “a speaker from the industry beaming in to a classroom than a 2D figure on the wall”.
She said that zoom calls made students “feel as if they were watching television… there is a distance.” Holographic images are more real and engaging for students.
After a year-long experiment, the technology will be officially introduced to the curriculum by 2025.
Proto in LA sells the box-based holographic unit. It is used by companies like BT and IBM to reduce corporate travel. Proto works with H&M, a fashion retailer in Stockholm, to create interactive displays of products.
David Nussbaum founded Proto in 2004 after working with dead celebrities’ holograms. He said that his company may soon be able to bring back some of the greatest thinkers from the 20th century.
He said: “Proto can project an image of Stephen Hawking or anyone else, making it appear as if he is really there. We can connect it to books, lectures and social media, anything Hawking was associated with, any questions, or any interaction he had. A Stephen Hawking AI would sound like him, look like him and act like he was there.
It’s amazing, it’s mind-blowing, I was in awe at the interaction. AI will be a part of our lives, whether we like it or dislike it. He said that the firm was aiming to show “you don’t need to be a millionaire eccentric to have a Hologram”.
Gary Burnett is a professor at Loughborough University who specializes in digital creativity. He said that different immersive technologies and AI were the new forms for literacy. Students must understand how to use these technologies, be immersed in them, experience them, and interact. These are skills they will need for their future career.
Prof Rachel Thomson said that the technology would help the university to achieve its sustainability strategy. It could reduce the need for guest speakers, facilitate international research collaborations and also reduce the amount of materials used by students in the engineering, design, and creative arts.
A lecturer could display an engine or other complex equipment more easily via video calls.
Nussbaum says that businesses and large institutions like universities are the first step of his plan. But within the next 18-months, he hopes that smaller units will be available that cost less than $1,000 (£800). These would project a shrunken picture that he compares to the “Wonkavision”, in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
He added that the technology’s AI capability allows an avatar to be created that can resemble anyone in the entire world. However, this could lead to legal complications.