It could dramatically change the way we use technology, and a group of local students are at the forefront of the revolution.



They’re from schools across Fresno and Clovis, and they attend the Center for Advanced Research and Technology (CART).



These 17 and 18-year-olds work on tech that isn’t even on the market, and it may not be for years.





CART wars demonstration of mixed reality

It’s not virtual reality, and it’s not augmented reality, either

The students in the Interactive Game Design class at CART are designing video games, and now they’re testing out what’s called a “Hololens.” It could be the next big thing.Technology is an integral part of our lives.“I can’t go anywhere without my phone; I would cry,” said CART student Faith Blue.Technology is all around us. Computers – home appliances – video games.The young men and women at CART develop four projects per year; each one takes months to work on. They’re not just learning programming, but also technical skills combining art and math at levels which their teacher said some students may have never attempted otherwise.The teachers at CART are using “Star Wars” to make that math exciting.“… but if you say, ‘hey, let’s make some TIE fighters and blow them up with an X-wing,’ suddenly the product becomes fun,” said Matthew Hodge, CART Interactive Game Design teacher. “And you find you’re doing levels of math that you didn’t even think were capable of.”The student’s current project ties in with their English requirement. They read a “Star Wars” novel, and now they’re designing gaming products to go along with it.Droids to Jabba-the-Hutt themed challenges. This year they’re working with something that looks like it came out of a “Star Wars” movie – the Hololens.“Microsoft’s taking a stab at what the potential future of computing could be,” Hodge said.It’s not traditional VR or augmentation like “Pokemon Go.”“It’s not virtual reality, and it’s not augmented reality, either,” CART student Landon Houze said.It’s called “mixed reality,” according to Hodge and his students.Hodge is a Microsoft developer, and he brought the geat into his classroom. The school even purchased a headset for the students to use.The headgear scans your environment and drops digital content into your world.