Google Daydream & Jump VR Pilot Programs

We are happy to announce that the Information Interaction Lab was selected as one of a few university labs to participate in two virtual reality (VR) pilot programs around Google Daydream and their Jump camera. These are two main VR initiatives by Google and we are happy to support them.

Daydream is a smartphone display wrapper with a tracked controller (like a wand) that turn an existing smartphone into a fully immersive headset. We already use Daydream in several of our research projects and so we are glad to participate in a broader pilot program to bring these technologies to campus and into classrooms.

What is of course also very exciting for the lab is that we have been selected as participants in Google Jump’s loan program. This is a highly sophisticated and expensive piece of equipment that we will install in the lab and use in various ongoing projects around AR/VR usability. Our current plan is to make use of this equipment specifically in a funded 12-week summer research position in our lab.