We are happy to report a successful deployment of Kvasir-VR networked educational VR between Lafayette, LA and Chattanooga, TN. We connected the two gigabit communities and showed a teacher from Lafayette, LA streamed into an educational VR environment on display at the Downtown Library Branch in Chattanooga, TN. Adding to prior work with Austin, TX and Adelaide, Australia, this marks yet another connection established between Lafayette, LA and other gigabit communities to bring innovations in educational technology to community members, including high school students, educators, and professionals.

During our time in Chattanooga, we are offering library patrons the opportunity to learn about an energy plant from a remote teacher in Lafayette, LA. We are also meeting with teachers from local Chattanooga schools to discuss VR course activities and explain Kvasir-VR. Several have expressed interest in adding VR scene creation into their curriculum, following our pilot course during the previous round of Mozilla’s Gigabit Community Fund.

Downtown Branch of the Chattanooga Public Library

Visitors were impressed by the realism and immersion they experienced with educational VR.

We worked through some technical difficulties before arriving in Chattanooga. Collaborating with staff from the Downtown Library Branch and the Enterprise Center, we tested the high-speed connection via Internet2. After meeting with library staff on the first Monday morning of our visit, we tested and calibrated the Internet2 connection. Some synchronization parameters needed to be measured between Lafayette, LA and Chattanooga, TN. The route taken for our virtual avatar passed through Internet2 nodes in Baton Rouge, LA, Jacksonville, FL, Atlanta, GA, and Nashville, TN. From there the Universities of Tennessee at Knoxville and Chattanooga provided transit, and the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga provided last mile service. From UL Lafayette to the Downtown Library Branch we experienced just 35 ms of network delay.

Internet2 and university networks connecting UL Lafayette and Chattanooga, TN separated by about 1,350 miles. Image courtesy of Google Maps.