A group of speech pathology graduate students are standing in front of a “patient.” They listen as she tells them about the difficulties she’s encountered since returning to work after getting treatment for cancer.

“Everyone tells me I look great,” the patient says, “but I still don’t feel like myself.” She adds that she gets tired easily and has started to cough when she eats, which she finds embarrassing.

One student asks her how often she gets the coughing sensation.

“Usually if I drink too fast or I’m not paying attention,” she says while looking at the student. She also provides more details about her symptoms.

The “patient” is an interactive AI hologram speaking from within a lifelike holographic display, a device about the size of a refrigerator that creates the illusion of a 3D and life-size person. It’s all part of a pilot program at the University of Central Florida designed to utilize holographic AI avatars to help give students the experience of interacting with actual patients.

Bari Hoffman, Associate Dean, Clinical Affairs and Healthcare Innovation, is leading this effort and is a proponent of hologram use in education. In 2024, she spoke with Tech & Learning about how holograms can provide lifelike lessons in STEM and other fields. The tools allow educators to “beam” in experts to speak in class, display intricate machinery, and provide more immersive examples of various kinds.

Hoffman has also recently begun using the technology in coordination with AI, a pairing that she believes will have significant impact for her students.

AI Holograms

The term “AI hologram” conjures all kinds of science fiction imagery, but in practice it can be a way for students to get more real-world, hands-on experience and be better prepared for careers. Students, such as the ones in the YouTube clip above, get a chance to learn more about what it’s like to interact with a real patient.

Traditionally, health students at the UCF have had the opportunity to interact with real patients who volunteer to come to campus, but such an opportunity is limited out of necessity.

“Somebody who has maybe some mobility challenges or other health-related challenges, it isn’t necessarily safe or easy for them to come to campus,” Hoffman says. So AI and hologram technology have allowed the school “to create something that is reproducible across programs, across days, across semesters; it allows us to really scale those experiences,” she says.

This principle extends beyond just working with AI avatars. Hoffman’s institution has also created realistic 3D videos of actual patients discussing their treatments and struggles. These stories can be replayed via hologram technology, and AI can make these even more accessible through its ability to translate patient testimony (with permission of course) into various languages that can reach students from different backgrounds, and be used for other educational purposes.

“We’ve been able to take our existing content and really translate that in any language, and that’s allowed us to scale application and integration in a more culturally sensitive way, and even to expand our work in collaboration internationally,” Hoffman says.

The Power of The Hologram

Hologram technology goes beyond what students might glean from an AI avatar alone on a standard computer screen, Hoffman says. One of the reasons is what is called “copresence.” Holograms seem to fill up the room the way a real person might.

“You get that sense of realism, that eye contact,” Hoffman says. “When you create your content properly, the content kind of has this Mona Lisa effect, where anywhere you are in the room, those eyes are going to follow you.”

For example, Hoffman points to pediatric physical therapy students. “The students are able to do assessments with children two months of age to 10 years of age, and looking at individuals with low muscle tone or spasticity, that volumetric image allows the students to appreciate the center of mass and subtle changes in muscle tone that often are lost on traditional 2D platforms,” she says.

These types of realistic insights for students are part of why Hoffman’s become such a strong proponent of the technology. She regularly hears from educators at other institutions and even some K-12 leaders looking to learn more about how hologram technology might fit into their institutions. She always advises teachers to find faculty champions, and make sure to keep learning objectives and the student experience in mind.

Hoffman also urges educators who are using holograms to think about how the technology can be used to create meaningful experiences for students. Then it’s important to measure that experience in some way, either through objective or qualitative data, that shows how holograms were used to achieve something new or different.

“That’s got a lot of ROI to faculty, to programs, and to institutions,” she says.