In Room 218 of Thornton Hall, red lights guided students to an exhibition where they could discover various virtual reality, artificial reality and extended reality technologies on Wednesday. 

Sanika Doolani, an assistant professor, hosted a Reality Experience Design Lab event where student researchers’ works were presented and companies like Update, Flow Immersive, Aatral and Vive presented their technology. 

Doolani launched the RED Lab earlier this year for two purposes: To bring the tech industry to students and to expose new technology to students. 

“Giving them direct access to speaking with the people working in these different companies, experiencing their tech, learning about the tech stack and what’s required, and how can they use it for their own professional development,” Doolani said. “The second intention was to expose the students to these new emerging technologies so that they can have a hands-on experience with the new virtual reality headsets or maybe the new tech stack that’s coming on for this development.”

Computer science student Thamizarasu Sankara created “Empathy in Storytelling,” a project where avatars can walk into spaces with different scenarios, such as watching planes fly at an airport. Sankara’s project did not use a VR headset for the demonstration.  

“The best thing about this project is that it’s also available on the web,” Sankara said. “I think the best part is since many people who might not be able to afford a VR, which is pretty expensive these days, they could go onto their laptop and go to this website called Arrival Space and check out the space that I’ve created.”

Kaitlyn Yip, a computer science student, presented a project titled “Self Identity.” It is based on the identity of different environments, showing the strength of an individual with a tree representing someone who is more grounded within themselves. 

On Yip’s computer screen, her avatar is in a green room with two entries. “The animal in me” is on the left and “The human in me” is on the right. When the avatar walks into “The animal in me” room, there is a tree in a meadow that the avatar walks around to gather their feelings. In “The human in me,” the tree is in a colorful room with a small strip of land for its roots.   

“‘Animal in me’ is really about the emotional aspect of someone and the strength of someone, and then for ‘The human in me,’ it’s about a meadow with flowers and also a tree and it’s more emotional in it,” Yip said. 

Another use of VR showcased at the event was training employees to operate cranes.

“Employees can get trained here and then when they go and use the actual physical devices, their overall training period is reduced and they make less mistakes,” said Revathi Pushpam Balachandran, an Aatral representative. 

Update, which also attended the event, used a 360-degree image to see the warehouse while standing still. Customer Success Manager Léa Cassis said she has noticed students using technology from Unisys, a global technology solution to help reach a breakthrough, and possibly wants to recruit them as interns, apprentices or for a position at Update. 

Then there is Vive, which makes VR headsets, goggles and other accessories. They promoted two of their headsets during the event. 

“Promoting our two standalone headsets, the Vive XR Elite and the Focus Engine,” Director of Business Development Dave McDowell said. “Both new mixed reality headsets.”

Gordon Bell, the VR/AR Association Silicon Valley chapter president, said virtual reality can be more than just video games. 

“You’re also looking at other things like virtual tourism, you’re looking at digital artwork,” Bell said. “So, although we’re still at the very infancy of this technology, we’re very excited that San Francisco State University is beginning to really invest into a curriculum for this.”

VR mentor Kevin Ang presented how to make art using VR on a big television screen in the room. 

“Using something like Open Brush, which is a painting tool, a free painting tool that’s accessible to anyone who has a headset, or Gravity Sketch … both have different purposes,” said Ang. “One is to do things along the lines of industrial and product design, but it’s also great just to sketch in. Whereas the other one is really meant for spatial painting with a variety of different brushes.”

Angelie Bautista, a computer science student, saw posters for the RED Lab exhibition. 

“I also knew that one of my friends was participating in the showcase, and I was like, ‘Hey, I got the time, I should check it out,’” Bautista said. “I used to play a couple VR games, so I was just interested in the premise of it.”

The event also helped companies hire unpaid summer interns. 

“They got six interns out of this event today, so it’s amazing that students use this opportunity for getting internships,” Doolani said. “It’s so nice to have an industry experience on their resume.”

Doolani will be using the lab for research and will need funds for her equipment.

“I’ll be using this lab to do active research in this space — human-computer interaction, virtual, augmented reality — and planning to buy headsets and computers,” Doolani said. “​​I would look out for donations and potential partnerships on collaborations where I can work with a company and they can provide equipment and headsets and maybe funding for students to do an intern project or two.”