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[accordion title=”Q: Where do you see VR going in the future?”] A: It is our opinion that VR is here to stay. In future years virtual reality will likely be a part of our daily lives — whether it be in enhancing our learning experience in the classroom, or augmenting our media experience at home.
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[accordion title=”Q: What’s the state of Virtual Reality technology today? Can any scenario be played out in VR, or are there still limitations? “] A: VR technology is evolving rapidly as advances in hardware accelerate and as content creators begin to develop for different platforms. While you can create virtual environments for all kinds of different scenarios, it doesn’t mean that each simulation will necessarily leverage what makes VR special. VR is unique from other types of media in that when you move your body, the scene updates accordingly. So, for simulations where you get to embody someone else (or something else) or simulations where movement is especially impactful (training, therapy, etc.), VR is a home-run. But there’s also lots of content for which current technologies are already best suited. For example, directors are already great at framing the scene in movies — if we put those same movies in VR, you might miss the action because you were looking somewhere else in the scene. That’s not to say that there won’t be some great cinematic experiences in VR (and there already are), but there will also still be movies that work best in a traditional setting. So, VR is already in a state where you can create a lot of great scenarios — it really comes down to shaping the content in a way that works best for the medium.
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[accordion title=”Q: What kind of VR equipment is being used in the lab currently, and how many current projects are there?”] A: In the lab we are using a variety of different types of VR hardware: Oculus Rift Dk2s, HTC Vive kits, WorldViz infrared tracking systems, Google Cardboards, and more. We are interested in using all of the different great hardware options that are available and determining which work best in certain situations. At any given time, we have up to 10 projects running simultaneously — and many are concerned with social impact. We run research testing how we can encourage empathy, how we can encourage sustainable behaviors, and how we can improve social interaction, to name a few.
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[accordion title=”Q: What are a few key lessons/findings that you could share for other educational VR experience developers?”] A: One of the most important lessons in building educational (or any other type) or VR content is to remember to leverage what makes VR special. VR is unique from other types of media in that when you move your body, the scene updates accordingly. So, for simulations where you get to embody someone else (or something else) or simulations where movement is especially impactful (training, therapy, etc.), VR is a home-run. But there’s also lots of content for which current technologies are already best suited. For example, directors are already great at framing the scene in movies — if we put those same movies in VR, you might miss the action because you were looking somewhere else in the scene. That’s not to say that there won’t be some great cinematic experiences in VR (and there already are), but there will also still be movies that work best in a traditional setting. So, it really comes down to shaping the content in a way that works best for the medium.
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[accordion title=”Q: What has the typical development and testing cycle looked like for a project?”] A: Each project has a unique development cycle. Depending on the complexity of the environment, the virtual world can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to program. We also spend months before and during the programming process conceptualizing and sketching out the experience as well as doing background research and making sure our science is correct. For example, our large ocean acidification project is one of the most involved projects we’ve ever undertaken, and thus we’ve spent many months developing it.
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[accordion title=”Q: What’s a reasonable timeline for when VR units are at a price-point accessible to your common middle/lower class household?”] A: The timeline is upon us. Mobile platform VR is already very inexpensive. For people who already have smartphones (as most US citizens, across all socio-economic statuses do), you can purchase a Google Cardboard VR holder that your phone slips into for about $25 and view content from a variety of cardboard-compatible apps — and a lot of the content is free! As for other headsets that are emerging, they will likely be at a price-point similar to what companies charge for new gaming systems — which are marketed to all households (though they have a much larger income impact for lower socio-economic status households.)
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[accordion title=”Q: Do you think VR devices, like the Oculus Rift, will be a vehicle in the same mold as a smartphone that can download a wide range of applications? (E.g. you download yelp.com on your Oculus app marketplace and you can now virtually tour a restaurant in 360 degrees, with interactive/responsive features)”] A: While VR will be great for a huge variety of applications, and has already been successful in medical, training, and educational settings, it is distinct from other types of media. Some things that work great on a mobile phone platform may not translate well to VR — and that’s OK. There are many applications that will work best only in VR, and that will really be determined as content creators start developing more and more for this technology.
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[accordion title=”Q: Have you studied how VR may affect children?”] A: There has not yet been a vast amount of research that looks at children’s experiences in VR and how they might be compared to experiences at other ages. We are hoping to contribute to the research in this area by partnering with Sesame Street to study how children interact in VR. The research is in the early stages, but will definitely help to answer some of these questions that remain about how younger ages will be affected by VR.
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[accordion title=”Q: As the price of VR technology becomes more affordable, does the lab see more people buying such products, like the Oculus Rift? And how then does VHIL hope VR tech can be used outside the lab setting to promote social good?”] A: There are already thousands, if not millions, of people across the globe who own some version of a consumer VR product. As the lab does more and more outreach in the community, we find that people are responsive and appreciative of the work that we do in empathy, prosocial behavior, sustainability, education, and other positive fields. We hope that our findings will inform the way that content creators think about VR and it’s impact on society.
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[accordion title=”Q: Do you see virtual reality becoming cheaper and more readily available in the future?”] A: VR is already becoming quite inexpensive and definitely more readily available. There are likely over a million people across the globe who have some version of VR at home already — a Google Cardboard, a Samsung Gear, an Oculus developer’s kit. As time goes on, more companies will release consumer versions of their VR products that will come at a reasonable price. You can purchase a Google Cardboard for around $20. If you have a smartphone, you can download VR apps (many are free) and slip it into the Google cardboard to have a VR experience. Other consumer devices will come at around the price of an at-home gaming system or less.
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[accordion title=”Q: How long does it take to create a simulation for the VR lab?”] A: It depends on the simulation. If we’re creating a complex 3D modeled environment with a lot of interactivity, then it can take up to 2 months to create the simulation. If it’s a simpler environment, or a 360 video experience, it can be done within a week, or even a day
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[accordion title=”Q: Into which subjects do you see VR being implemented?”] A: VR could be implemented into a huge variety of subjects. History, language, art, science, engineering, medicine, and more. It really comes down to building content that will be particularly effective for each particular subject. Some things will work really well in VR, but some things won’t. I believe there are aspects of all kinds of subjects for which an immersive experience would be helpful.
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[accordion title=”Q: Which VR systems do you use in your university and from which companies?”] A: We use multiple systems here in the lab. Our programming tool kit is called Vizard, from the company WorldViz. We use Oculus DK2s, HTC Vives, Samsung Gears, and Google Cardboards as headsets. Each has their own benefits. We have two tracking spaces in which we utilize WorldViz’s Precision Position Tracking (PPT) system — which each include 6-8 infrared cameras and LED markers. We have been using DK2s in conjunction with those systems. The Vive comes with it’s own tracking system, and Gear and Cardboard do not allow for positional tracking.
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[accordion title=”Q: Is there any concern in the lab that VR will be used to encourage thoughts or behaviors that may be dangerous?”] A: As with any medium (television, smartphones, the Internet, etc..) there will be all kinds of content created for VR. Some of it will have a positive focus, and some of it won’t. While there’s a variety of research that looks at the possible dangers of violent or aggressive media, we choose to focus on simulations that can help the world. While we know that there’s potential for harmful content in any form of media, we hope that our work will help to steer creators and consumers in the direction of content that will help us to learn and grow as people.
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[accordion title=”Q: Is VR being implemented into education? If not, do you see it being implemented in the near future?”] A: Education is certainly an application of VR that will be very powerful. We’ve conducted research in the lab that suggests that an immersive experience can enhance the way you learn. We will be conducting research later this year to test VR applications in real classrooms as well. As we see it, VR will not replace the traditional learning setting, but instead provide the opportunity for traditional lessons to be enhanced with a virtual field trip, lab, or other immersive experience.
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[accordion title=”Q: How much space do you need to set up a VR room?”] A: You need at least 10X10X10 at a minimum to run positional tracking (walking around.) If no walking is needed, you can have a smaller space.
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[accordion title=”Q: From what you have seen in your studies, what situation has affected people the most? For example, in simulations, do people react most to stepping off the board into the pit, or do they react more to other situations?”] A: Reactions to VR simulations vary greatly between different types of people. I can say that our Pit demo is one of the most effective in producing a reaction (fear or heights), but there are still (a few) people who come in and are seemingly unaffected by the pit. Part of what makes VR special is that you can create an experience from the ground up. So, while many people will react differently to different simulations, there are definitely a variety of simulations that will effect many people greatly. Some of them will have an obvious effect (people shaking with fear as they cross the virtual plank), but other may have a psychological effect that is not immediately visible (experience what it would be like to become another person, then changing your thoughts or behaviors toward that group of people afterward.)
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[accordion title=”Q: What software can you program virtual worlds in?”] A: “There are a variety of options including Vizard, Unity, Unreal, etc … It may depend on what programming language a developer is comfortable using/learning. We use Vizard here in the lab, which utilizes the Python programming language.
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[accordion title=”Q: How much does your lab’s equipment cost approximately?”] A: When it was constructed, we build a million-dollar lab. However, with the advent of new types of hardware, you can build setups for much less. Our mobile labs involve either a DK2 Kit with the one included tracker, or the HTC Vive Kit and it’s tracking system. While the Vive kit has no price yet, the DK2 kit was originally $350. The computer needed to run the software well will cost in the 2-3k range.[/accordion][accordion title=”Q: What are constructivist learning implementations of VR?”] A: Constructivism is a theory that suggests that humans construct knowledge and meaning from their experiences. So, instead of telling you about something or having you read about, we want to allow you to experience the situation firsthand and learn from it organically. VR allows us to build virtual field trips that make this possible.
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[accordion title=”Q: What equipment is needed to build a VR lab yourself?”] A: You’ll need headset(s) of some kind, computers with high-end graphics cards, and VR development software.
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[accordion title=”Q: What’s the current process of converting 360 degree video/camera footage into VR?”] A: There are lot of different options emerging for the capture and conversion of 360 footage for VR. In general, you need a spherical rig that holds some number of cameras (usually 6-12), stitching software that combines the footage for each camera into 1 spherical output, and some sort of programming tool kit with which you import your spherical video to play it in a head mounted display. Like I said, there are many different options emerging — 1 camera with a spherical lens, different types of stitching software, new platforms for viewing the stitched video, etc … but the process I described is how most people are producing good spherical video for VR at this time.
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[accordion title=”Q: Has the lab found evidence so far that VR can be an effective tool in teaching people empathy and impacting how they might view the world? Why might we feel more inclined to change our behaviors if we experience situations through the lenses of others?”] A: We have conducted several research studies that have shown that VR can increase empathy and prosocial behavior. In a study where participants either became colorblind in VR or simply imagined that they were colorblind, those who experienced the actual visual impairment in VR were likely to spend more time helping someone with the same disability after the study. In another study, we found that having someone become a superhero made them more helpful in a real life situation following the study. These results show that an immersive experience, where you actually feel as if you are in the body of someone else, or feel as if you’ve taken on a new ability, can especially impact your thoughts and behaviors in the real world.
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[accordion title=”Q: What is the purpose of the superhero flying study? What are you trying to find out about human behavior, and how do you go about finding out that information (surveys, in person questions, etc)? What have been the results of the study, and what are you planning on doing with these results/this research?”] A: The superhero study was designed to test whether embodying a superhero in virtual reality would make you more helpful in real life afterward. Participants were immersed in a virtual city that had been evacuated, and were tasked with finding a child who was lost in the city. We compared the experience of those who were given the superpower of flight with those who completed the task as a passenger in a helicopter. Afterward, we used a behavioral measure to test how helpful the participant was following the virtual experience. The experimenter would have an “accident” by pretending to fumble with equipment and knocking over a cup of pens. The participant, who was seated across the room, was being video recorded. Research assistants would then analyze the video recording later on to determine if the participant got up to help, how quickly they got up to help, and how thoroughly helpful they were overall. We found that those who flew like superman were quicker to get up and were more thoroughly helpful than those in the helicopter condition. These results suggest that there’s something special about the superhero experience that influenced the participant’s behavior in real-life. This study is very much in keeping with the lab’s goals of studying topics like empathy, prosocial behavior, environmentalism, learning, and more. We hope that by focusing on these topics, we can reveal the potential of VR content that could impact the world in a positive way.
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[accordion title=”Q: What is the purpose of the walk the plank study? What are you researching, and what have been the results? Have you done anything with the research thus far?”] A: Walking the plank is actually more for demo purposes than for any particular research study in this lab. It is, however, relevant to applications in phobia treatment. There have been researchers in other labs that use VR for systematic desensitization, where the participant is carefully exposed to their fear in a virtual simulation over and over again, and over time may become less affected by that fear.
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[accordion title=”Q: What is the purpose of the study where you see a 65 year old version of yourself? What are you trying to find out about human behavior through this study, and what have the results showed? Can you tell me about how Bank of America has used this research on their website?”] A: In this study, participants met their future selves in VR. We then asked the participants about their preferences in receiving immediate rewards or delayed rewards. We found that participants who had met their future selves in VR were more likely to choose delayed gratification. This result has implications for the way people may prepare for their future lives — like saving for retirement. Bank of America uses this idea in their Face Retirement program. If you choose to use Face Retirement, you can see an age-progressed version of yourself (it is built automatically using a photo taken with your webcam) and learn about the benefits of saving for retirement.
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