UNC Reese Innovation Lab

Health Greeter Kiosk Q&A with Daniel Sanchez and Max Hudnell

By: Claire Revere
Blog
Date: January 12, 2021
To provide a deeper look into our work on the Health Greeter Kiosk project, we sat down and talked with project leads Daniel Sanchez and Max Hudnell. The two were instrumental in rolling out this novel application of AI technology, a mobile solution that encourages proper mask wearing, social distancing and helps keep our community safe! Read on to learn about their involvement with the project, important takeaways and feedback they received from our partners at Lenovo.

WRAL: Kiosks help stop spread of coronavirus at UNC-CH football games

By: Kirsten Gutierrez
Press
Date: October 22, 2020
Students and staff at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill are using artificial intelligence technology to help slow the spread of the coronavirus as fans return to on-campus sporting events. Students and staff at the Reese Innovation Lab designed kiosks that will greet fans and make sure they are following coronavirus safety protocols.

Triange Business Journal: As Tar Heels and Wolfpack battle on the field, Lenovo teams with UNC to fight Covid-19 in the stands

By: Lauren Ohnesorge
Press
Date: October 22, 2020
As it battles North Carolina State University on the football field this weekend, UNC-Chapel Hill plans to faceoff against Covid-19 at Kenan Memorial Stadium, thanks to AI-equipped kiosks.

The News & Observer: How UNC is using AI to encourage people to follow COVID-19 policies at football games

By: Zachery Eanes
Press
Date: October 22, 2020
As UNC-Chapel Hill welcomes fans back into Kenan Memorial Stadium, the university is deploying a new artificial intelligence tool it hopes will improve fans’ adherence to COVID-19 safety policies.

UNC Develops New Social Distance Technology

By: CBS News
Press
Date: August 4, 2020
The UNC Reese Innovation Lab has spent the summer working on a project designed to promote campus health and safety guidelines. Health Greeter kiosks use artificial intelligence to detect if people are wearing masks and practicing proper spacing guidelines.

Steven King and his VR classroom on ABC News

By: Betsy Mann
Press
Date: May 21, 2020
Steven King, UNC professor of Emerging Technologies at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media/Kenan-Flagler Business School and Chief Innovation Officer of the Reese Innovation Lab, was recently featured on ABC News’s “Pandemic: What You Need to Know,” hosted by Amy Robach and Dr. Jen Ashton. The story highlighted King’s pivot to virtual learning in response to COVID-19.

Visualizing Data Beyond Flatland

By: Peter Andringa
Blog
Date: May 13, 2020
I took on these questions in my Senior Honors Thesis in the Hussman School of Journalism, conducting a usability testing study to see how real users interact with augmented reality. Seeking feedback directly from users would allow the Lab to produce better design guidelines for our AR projects and to identify ways to make sometimes-clunky AR experiences better.

GEAR UP VR during COVID-19

By: Carol Cutler White
Blog
Date: May 6, 2020
Since the COVID-19 pandemic has forced colleges and universities to shut down, virtual visits such as those accomplished through the app – known as GEAR UP VR for North Carolina and Get2CollegeMS – have taken on a more important role, and not just for students who lack the means to visit a college in person.

Planning in Full Gear

By: Betsy Mann
Blog
Date: April 22, 2020
The art of making plans has gone numb over these past few weeks. A “fluid situation” means anything can change (or cancel) at any minute. COVID-19 has drastically impacted our country’s health and economy, and it’s drastically impacted you (yes, you reader!) and the routine you once carried out a few weeks ago. For those celebrating milestones this year, this virus has wrecked those plans, especially for high schoolers and their spring semester.

How to: AWS C++ SDK with Unreal Engine & VR

By: Daniel Sanchez
Blog
Date: April 22, 2020
AWS has fundamentally changed the way that software is developed. It provides instant access to an incredible amount of computing services each with almost infinite scale, but this post is not about how amazing AWS is on its own. This tutorial is about how pairing AWS with another great piece of software can expand the range of applications developers can make.

Teaching and Presenting in a VR Class

By: Steven King
Blog
Date: April 15, 2020
How to manage a VR classroom in AltspaceVR or Mozilla Hubbs. Part 4 of a series on Teaching in VR.

Learning Empathy through Emerging Tech

By: Betsy Mann
Blog
Date: April 15, 2020
Empathy. It’s a term that’s been used by designers, storytellers, marketers, engineers, and so on… The way we understand empathy is by asking a question like how can I understand you in order to create a product, service, experience, etc. that will delight you, our end user?

If a picture is worth 1000 words… how about XR?

By: Gabri Mannino
Blog
Date: April 9, 2020
I was first exposed to XR- Virtual reality, Augmented reality, etc- when I started working at the Reese Innovation Lab last summer. After a staff meeting one afternoon, my manager Alexis handed me a VR headset and let me play a National Geographic Oculus Quest that transported me to Antarctica. The first thing you do, after you get transported, is hop into a boat. I felt like I was going to fall into the water. Then you start paddling. As you paddle you see all sorts of animals around you. Eventually, I reached the whales and I felt so afraid. The ability that forms of XR give you to feel emotions fascinates me. That ability is why I believe they are one of the most engaging forms of technology.

How to build a classroom in VR using Groups and Events

By: Steven King
Blog
Date: April 9, 2020
AltspaceVR does a great job of bringing people together in public spaces or small private gatherings. But I wanted to host a large but private (invitation only) class in a setting that allowed for break-out groups and a presentation screen.

Professor uses virtual reality to replicate the classroom

By: The Daily Tar Heel
Blog
Date: April 6, 2020
If you ask a UNC student what their remote classroom experience has consisted of, they will likely tell you about video lectures through Zoom. But for students in Steven King’s class, they are experiencing remote learning differently — through virtual reality.

How To Put Pottery Class Online? Teachers Get Creative To Adapt Hands-On Classes

By: WUNC 91.5
Press
Date: April 6, 2020
Teachers and college professors have been given a huge challenge this month -- how to quickly adapt their classes for long-distance learning. North Carolina teachers are getting creative to engage their students.

The Best Platform for Virtual Reality Classrooms

By: Steven King
Blog
Date: April 3, 2020
Choosing the right technology platform for any educational experience is essential. Especially in VR. There are several solutions out there, but all are pretty young compared to other educational software, and most of the platforms I found were not built for educational purposes.

Space Matters: The Value of 3D Virtual Reality Classrooms

By: Steven King
Blog
Date: April 2, 2020
After my Virtual Reality class ended yesterday, eight to ten of the 28 students in the class hung around to catch up with each other. They were standing in groups of two or three well within the 6-foot social distance rule we now expect. Then I noticed two of the students started sharing genuinely about the crisis we are all in and how it was impacting their education and school work.

UNC students are learning in professor’s new virtual reality classroom during pandemic

By: The News & Observer
Press
Date: April 1, 2020
With the coronavirus pandemic forcing university students and faculty off campus, UNC-Chapel Hill professors are taking unique approaches to online and remote teaching, which began last week.

Staff spotlight: By minding the details, Alexis Barnes helps the UNC Reese Innovation Lab see the big picture

By: UNC Hussman School
Press
Date: March 30, 2020
Alexis Barnes likes the details and the nuances that keep a project running. She’s happiest when stitching together video edits or figuring out the minutiae of some new technology. She likes order and precision and following through on the day-to-day tasks that bring UNC’s Reese Innovation Lab projects to life.

So, we’re working, studying, learning, and communicating from home….now what?

By: Betsy Mann
Blog
Date: March 26, 2020
As someone who is a planner and thrives on routine, I have had a challenge adjusting to this new lifestyle. I’ve also transitioned from living independently in Chapel Hill to living (and working) with my family, two dogs, and cats back in Winston-Salem. These past few weeks in March have felt eternal, but every day gets a little better as we pull together as a society to fight this virus.

Remote learning begins with successes, surprises

By: The Well
Press
Date: March 25, 2020
In an unprecedented move, Carolina faculty began teaching remotely this week, re-starting courses suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Intro 588 Remote Learning in VR

By: Reese Innovation Lab
Blog
Date: March 23, 2020
Instructions to class members to prepare for remote learning in VR.

Tips and Tools for Managing Remote Teams

By: Steven King
Blog
Date: March 14, 2020
After my conceptual post about the future of remote work, many of you had questions about the practicality and how we manage our remote teams in the Lab to build creative projects and solve difficult problems. Here is a short video that goes through many of the concepts we teach to everyone on staff that will hopefully be helpful to you if you have recently found yourself managing a remote team.

The future of work and education just got a steroid called COVID-19

By: Steven King
Blog
Date: March 10, 2020
The technical capabilities for remote work and distance learning have existed for years. Numerous companies provide apps like Skype, Slack, Zoom, WebEx, and others so any organization can have remote workers, host meetings across time zones, and lead a classroom. But despite these technological abilities, wide adoption of remote work and distance learning has been slower than predicted.

Where Research and Tech Collide

By: Gabri Mannino
Blog
Date: February 22, 2020
Has your Chief Innovation Officer ever met you at Target while he was riding a robot segway? I’m an Innovation Fellow at UNC’s Reese Innovation Lab, and yes my Chief Innovation Officer has met me in Target riding a robot segway.

Reese Innovation Lab partners with brands like Lenovo to tell stories

By: The Daily Tar Heel
Press
Date: January 24, 2020
The new Reese Innovation Lab is working to create solutions to real-world problems with a unique method — using emerging technology such as augmented reality, artificial intelligence and virtual reality to tell stories. Check us out in the Daily Tar Heel and learn about our latest project iwth Lenovo.

Reese Innovates

By: UNC Hussman School
Press
Date: January 24, 2020
Read more about the how the Reese News Lab became the Reese Innovation Lab in this article from the Hussman School of Journalism and Media.