Keio University SFC Establishes Virtual Campus

1. Digitalization of the Campus (Construction of a Virtual Campus)

As part of the “Digital Twin Campus Consortium,” SoftBank has provided various data necessary for the digitalization of the campus, including 3D maps created from aerial photographs and point cloud data measured by vehicles equipped with Mobile Mapping Systems (MMS). In this experiment, these data were utilized to construct SFC's virtual campus on O Ltd.'s metaverse platform “MEs.”
“MEs,” provided by O Ltd., is a collaboration tool for the next generation of metaverse creation, allowing visualization of various data formats such as text, images, web links, and 3D objects on the metaverse. For this project, the world map feature of “MEs” was used to replicate objects like roads, trees, and buildings of SFC in the metaverse. Accurate scaling and numerous photographs, along with aerial photographs and point cloud data captured by SoftBank, were used for this replication, and O Ltd.'s 3DCG artist team modeled the buildings, combining MEs Engine and Unreal Engine to map the entire SFC campus on the world map.

Students, as users, can freely move around the highly detailed virtual campus and place their creations within the space. Creative initiatives, impossible in physical space, are undertaken in the virtual campus to observe the effects in the real space.

2. Immersive Syllabus

When conducting classes on the virtual campus, the syllabus (class plan document) is presented in the metaverse. This not only involves laying out the traditional syllabus in 3D textures but also creating an exploratory and interactive syllabus experience for students. This experience includes interactions with various information sources such as reference literature, readings, 3D models of projects, and videos of assignments. This creates a space where teachers provide information interactively rather than unilaterally, and students actively engage with new subjects, enhancing their enrollment motivation before classes begin.