I’ve never worn a virtual reality (VR) headset before. They are used all the time by students at the VAR Lab at Penn State Behrend. I’m visiting the lab because there are two people here who will be wearing these VR headsets a lot. They are trying to get their names in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Chris Shelton is the founder of the Virtual Augmented Reality Lab, or VAR Lab for short. Lauren Cass is a Behrend student who has been working at the lab for four years. Her title is the Immersive Administrator. Chris and Lauren are preparing for an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for watching movies wearing a virtual reality headset. The record is 50 straight hours. Chris and Lauren are attempting to stay awake for 55 hours. I ask Lauren how anyone could even train for such a thing.

"The biggest issue is staying awake,” she says. “We have all kinds of good tricks for that. We have smelling salts. We have air horns. We have cold water to stick out hands into. All kinds of great stuff."

The main reason for the Guinness World Record attempt is to raise awareness of the VAR lab. Great work has been done here since Chris founded the lab in 2019. Chris is a psychologist. He's not an engineer. However, he realizes that virtual reality can be used to help treat mental health issues. Chris is now giving me my first experience with a VR headset. I'm on a virtual reality tour of a street in wartime Iraq. I'm seeing the same situations that combat veterans saw during their real-time tours of the Middle East. People walking the streets. Gunfire erupts. Aircraft fly overhead. Bombs explode. An Army Humvee is under attack. Using this technology, treatment plans for veterans with post traumatic stress syndrome are being developed at the VAR Lab. Chris says veterans can be helped by re-living their experiences through VR.

"Any one of those scenarios we can recreate and really fine-tune to meet what it was that they went through and then help them to extinguish the fear response.” he says.

Helping combat veterans is just one example of the important work being done at the Var Lab. An all-terrain Rover was built at the lab. It has a 360 degree camera and 3-D cameras that will be used to complete a virtual tour of Wintergreen Gorge near campus. Drone cameras are being used for a project to eradicate invasive plant species at Presque Isle. All the projects are student driven and conducted by student employees at the lab.

"I just love this lab,” says Lauren. “I have been here since my freshman year and just would do anything to promote it. Literally anything. If I've got to stay awake for 55 hours, I will."

Chris and Lauren will begin their Guinness World Record attempt Saturday morning at midnight April 5 and hope to set the new record at 7 am on Monday, April 7. Visitors are welcome to visit the lab Saturday and Sunday between 9 am and 5 pm both days. The lab is located at 5451 Merwin Lane  Suite 214. The attempt will also be broadcast live on various online platforms.