The Library wanted to add an immersive space that could be used for existing and new classes, and for faculty and students to research projects related to collaborative virtual reality (VR) experiences. The Library also wanted to use the studio to support advancements in digital humanities, health sciences, psychology, architecture and theatre studies research, while providing opportunities for faculty and instructors to create engaging immersive experiences and course content.
The Library team was aware of Igloo Vision’s tech, since we’d hired out a cylinder for a student orientation day in the past to the university. To get more of a feel for just how it could apply Shared VR across the curriculum, it spoke to our good friends at Michigan State University - before taking the plunge and enlisting us to install a 6-metre Shared VR cylinder.
Equipped with our flexible content-agnostic Igloo Immersive Media Player, the system is the perfect solution to meet the Library’s needs, and for collaborativeprojects with members of the university community.
The project presented some quirks that we were able to overcome with some creative thinking. For example, there was limited ceiling space in the spot intended for the cylinder. So, we used windable truss-legs to build the cylinder frame low, and then wound it up to the correct height.
Toronto Metropolitan University Library is now the first Canadian academic library to have implemented our technology and has been experimenting with creating its own content in Unity, and putting it into Shared VR with our Igloo Realtime plug-in.
