Can virtual reality help people become more compassionate? ( Stanford )
Fernanda Herrera, left, watches as fellow student Hannah Mieczkowski navigates through the VR experience that begins with an eviction notice.
Herrera helped to conduct a two-month-long study of over 560 participants from the ages of 15 to 88.
In two studies involving 560 participants, virtual reality was shown to affect people's level of empathy for others. More specifically, people who experienced via virtual reality what it would be like to lose their jobs and become homeless developed longer-term compassion for the homeless compared to those who were exposed to the information in different ways. Participants were also more likely to sign a petition in support of affordable housing after the study was over.
"Experiences are what define us as humans, so it’s not surprising that an intense experience in VR is more impactful than imagining something,” said Jeremy Bailenson, PhD, a professor of communication and a co-author of the paper.
See the full story here: https://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2018/10/22/can-virtual-reality-help-people-become-more-compassionate/
Oculus Chief Scientist Dives Deep Into the Near Future of AR & VR
PhilNote: this is a write-up of his Oculus Connect presentation.
Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence
To advance AI research, education, policy, and practice to benefit humanity.
See the full site here: http://hai.stanford.edu/?fbclid=IwAR0WyBWBnl2_VrkymJMWnm2YeAbjCMsd0qKA8N32p8r1ylHqUVNZ4YsApeY
David Lynch and Showtime Are Creating a Virtual Reality Experience for Twin Peaks
David Lynch wants to bring Twin Peaks viewers into his imaginary world via virtual reality.
The scene begins in Glastonbury Grove, the forest setting familiar to anyone who’s seen the show. Using a flashlight in one hand, the viewer is able to “walk” through the forest at night before coming to a small pool of water that suddenly fills with blood.
See the full story here: https://www.adweek.com/digital/david-lynch-and-showtime-are-creating-a-virtual-reality-experience-for-twin-peaks/
Virtual Reality Game Chainbreakers to Be Developed on Ethereum-based Decentraland
[Philip Lelyveld comment; Other than promoting Libertarianism and enriching the developers, what's the point of this game and why is it using Blockchain?]
As described by Decentraland’s blog post, Chainbreakers is a “strategic role playing game” - which has been developed to capture a “fictional and stylized rendition of Ancient Greece.” The main theme, or story, of the VR game is based on the idea of “a corrupt, evil government” and those opposing its authoritarian regime.
In the VR game, these items are “represented” by non-fungible tokens (NFTs) - which are crypto tokens that represent “something unique” and are “not interchangeable.” Users may receive NFT-based rewards after successfully completing in-game tasks.
See the full story here: https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2018/10/virtual-reality-vr-game-chainbreakers-to-be-developed-on-ethereum-based-decentraland/
Teaching Platonic Polyhedrons through Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
The act of teaching has become a challenge as the content becomes more democratic and present in the daily life of elementary and middle school students. Mathematics has presented great difficulty for students to understand since several of its contents, of an abstract nature, need to be presented efficiently, mainly due to the lack of appropriate didactic resources. The present work presents three software for the teaching of mathematics of Plato's Polyhedrons through the visualization of their characteristics: faces, vertices, edges, planning and separation of faces, using technologies of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, so that the user can manipulate and view in 3D. The goal of software development was to provide accessible, easy-to-use tools that draw students' attention to help math teachers in basic education.
Download the paper here: https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3274243&preflayout=tabs