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Climate Change

150 Projects Advance to the MVP Phase in AWE’s XR Prize Challenge in a Bid to Combat Climate Change

Augmented World Expo (AWE) announces that 150 projects have moved to the MVP phase of the XR Prize Challenge: Fight Climate Change competition.

Augmented World Expo (AWE) launched the “XR Prize Challenge: Fight Climate Change” in October 2022. The competition has four key categories: Replace, Visualize, Educate, and Optimize, where the winning group or individual can stand to win a cash prize of $100,000.

This January, 150 projects from diverse teams spanning six continents advanced to the competition’s “MVP Phase,” bringing them a step closer to the grand prize. Winners will be announced on June 1, 2023 at the AWE 2023 event in Santa Clara, California.

The Global Metaverse Community Bands Together to Combat Climate Change

AWE’s competition has enabled the XR community, including XR technologists, climate change experts, as well as individual and corporate participants, to come together and take advantage of AR and VR technologies in a bid to come up with innovative, functional, and impactful XR-based solutions to fight climate change.

The varied projects that have advanced to the MVP phase cover topics such as clean energy solutions, biodiversity, visualizing the causes and potential impacts of climate change, climate challenges, and potential solutions, and how today’s industries are being reimagined to make way for a more sustainable future.

150 projects MVP phase - AWE XR Prize Challenge Fight Climate Change

Check out the 150 MVP projects here.

According to AWE co-founder Ori Inbar, the goal of the $100,000 cash prize is to inspire creators, XR developers, companies, and academics to direct their talents toward finding solutions to fight humanity’s greatest threat, which is climate change.

Aside from announcing the 150 projects that have moved to the next phase of the competition, AWE has also announced its lineup of judges, after a comprehensive review. The panel of judges includes global experts from various fields, such as immersive technology, sustainability, and climate science.

The judges are as follows:

Katerina Cizek – Award-winning documentary director whose body of work includes documenting the Digital Revolution. Cizek is also the co-founder of the Co-Creation Studio.
Robert Fine – Executive director and founder of the International Virtual Reality and Healthcare Association (IVRHA).
Marina Psaros – Sustainability expert who has over a decade of experience leading climate action programs. Psaros is also Unity’s global sustainability lead.
Dr. Erika Woolsey – Dr. Woolsey is a marine biologist, as well as the chief scientist and co-founder of the Hydrous, a non-profit organization that uses science-based experiences and scalable solutions, such as VR, to further our understanding of and education on ocean science.

Harnessing the Power of XR Solutions to Fight Climate Change

AWE’s XR Prize Challenge: Fight Climate Change Competition gives subject matter experts, engineers, entrepreneurs, technologists, and other professionals an avenue where they can use XR technology to visualize information and create potential solutions to fight climate change.

Through projects that leverage XR technologies, the participants can simulate potential scenarios that will help make the problem that climate change poses more real and personal. Furthermore, through XR, people can have a better idea of how climate change can potentially impact our lives and encourage them to take action to combat one of our greatest challenges.

Quelle:

150 Projects Advance to the MVP Phase in AWE’s XR Prize Challenge in a Bid to Combat Climate Change

10. Februar 2023 0 comment

Knowledge Research

AWE announces $100,000 XR Prize challenge to encourage XR innovations to help fight climate change

Augmented World Expo (AWE), the leading series of worldwide events focused exclusively on the business of augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and extended reality (XR), has today announced at AWE USA 2022 that it is launching an ‘XPrize’-style challenge to try and solve the effects of the greatest threat facing mankind in the 21st century – climate change.

This new, year-long innovation challenge will enable any team in the world to vie for a USD $100,000 cash prize – no strings attached. No strictures or limitations are placed upon the winning entry, and all Intellectual Property (IP) will remain the sole ownership of the winning team, according to AWE.

The winning team will be announced at next year at AWE USA 2023, during the event’s Auggie Awards ceremony. To propose a partnership, learn more about the challenge and to sign up, visit awexr.com/global/XRprize.

“The last two decades have demonstrated all-too-conclusively how climate change is in the process of dramatically reshaping everything from global terrain to water shortages and threatening humanity,” said Ori Inbar, co-founder of AWE. “We believe in the power of AR and VR to simulate and visualize the invisible, which can help change people’s behavior and simultaneously have a positive impact on climate change. It is incumbent upon every man, woman and other of conscience to strive to solve this potentially apocalyptic scenario – and there are no better tools than VR and AR to accomplish this! Since 2010, the AWE community of 50,000 AR and VR professionals has been inspiring a movement to advance AR and VR to advance humanity. I am looking forward to seeing firsthand how this contest will galvanize the XR community towards presenting truly innovative solutions!”

Since its inception in 2010, more than 5,000 companies and 50,000 professionals rely on AWE as their primary venue and community to connect, learn and grow their businesses throughout the XR hardware and software ecosystems, according to the company.

AWE offers a true XR ecosystem, event and marketplace where end-users are able to meet solution providers in the form of:

An endless stream of online webinars and local meetups in 20+ cities around the world;
Educational classes and workshops with the best instructors from the XR community – for the XR community;
Free access a large collection of free videos of talks and webinars on augmented reality and virtual reality;
AWE’s long-standing awards competition for the XR industry – The Auggie Awards.

AWE USA 2022 begins today at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, USA. The company also holds events in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, all of which consistently bring together a mix of CEOs, CTOs, designers, developers, creative agencies, futurists, analysts, investors and press in a unique opportunity to learn, inspire, partner and experience firsthand the cutting edge of the XR industry.

For more information on AWE, click here.

Quelle:

https://www.auganix.org/awe-exclusive-awe-announces-100000-xr-prize-challenge-to-encourage-xr-innovations-to-help-fight-climate-change/

Image credit: AWE

7. Juni 2022 0 comment

Examples

Stunning Virtual Reality Project Takes You to the Arctic — and Into Climate Change

Think caribou in the arctic tundra have nothing to do with you? USC students use immersive technology to explain their urgent message for us all.

AMID A FLUTTER of snowflakes floating aloft on gentle winds, you hear the snorts of caribou and the crunch of their hooves on the frozen tundra. But you’re not watching the herd while shivering in the Arctic.

You’re in the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

The museum has long offered visitors a window into the habitats of wild animals by recreating snowy landscapes, lush jungles and more through its dioramas. (Just ask the average Angeleno who trekked there on school field trips.) But now people can go beyond looking at the landscape. They can immerse themselves in environmental education through virtual reality, thanks to USC students.

A group of game design, computer science and journalism students relied on a high-tech 3D scanning tool and hours of research and design to create “Beyond the Diorama,” an interactive VR experience that transports you to an icy world.

It’s a project with purpose. “We wanted to create something that could help with climate change,” says Rong Deng, a master’s student in interactive media and game design at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and the project’s creative director. “For both the caribou and permafrost, there is a direct connection with climate change.”

As Deng explains, the trouble starts with bugs. Insects called warble flies surround the herd and lay their eggs in the caribou’s hair. When the larvae hatch, they burrow into the flesh, leaving the caribou wounded and at risk of infection and predators. Normally, the herd would seek refuge from the flies in colder areas during the summer. But climate change means they have fewer places to escape the pests.

THE CLIMATE PROJECT REVEALS THAT MELTING PERMAFROST COULD RELEASE UP TO 53 TIMES AS MUCH CARBON AS SOURCES OF POLLUTION LIKE CARS IN A MAJOR CITY LIKE LOS ANGELES.

Another major consequence: As the tundra’s permafrost thaws, it emits carbon, creating a feedback loop of more warming. The USC student-led interactive virtual reality climate project reveals that this melting process could release up to 53 times as much carbon as sources of pollution like cars in a major city like Los Angeles.

“The caribou turned out to be the perfect heartbreaking story,” says Robert Hernandez, professor of professional practice at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. He has led similar immersive journalism projects with his students as part of an initiative called JOVRNALISM. “It has such good conflict and drama.”

How USC Students Turned a Museum Diorama into an Immersive Experience

The caribou project brought together students and other collaborators from across campus: USC Annenberg, the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, USC Games and the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies. Overseen by Hernandez and Vangelis Lympouridis, a lecturer in computer science at USC Viterbi and USC Games, the project received support from the USC Office of the Provost.

“This was an opportunity for students to make something that has an impact and is not in the traditional realm of a video game or cinema,” Hernandez says. “But the true secret was these students with different backgrounds coming together to work as equals.”

Lympouridis has seen a trend toward more virtual and augmented reality experiences in media and entertainment, not to mention other industries like education, so the cross-campus partnership felt like a natural fit. Leica had loaned him a high-end lidar scanner to use in his class on augmented, virtual and mixed reality. The powerful device uses lasers to create a 360-degree digital model of an environment.

And what better fit for this high-tech approach than digitizing the natural history museum’s famed dioramas?

“These dioramas were the virtual reality technology of the 1920s,” Lympouridis says. “Explorers were traveling to exotic, undiscovered places and then trying to recreate these environments to show others what it’s like to be in Africa or the Artic pole, what it’s like to experience the animals and their habitats there, and so on.”

This was an opportunity for students to make something that has an impact and is not in the traditional realm of a video game or cinema.ROBERT HERNANDEZ

During COVID-19, when all museums had closed, he says this project illustrated the potential global reach of museum exhibits via VR and immersive technologies.

Users can download the USC “Beyond the Diorama” content and watch it on a virtual reality headset, including interactive quiz questions about climate change and its impact on caribou. An augmented reality version lets viewers enter the diorama through their handheld device. (iPhone and iPad options are currently available.) The team also created a 360-degree video version so people can watch the experience play out, even if they don’t have a VR headset or smartphone.

Virtual Reality Environmental Education Project Carries a Critical Climate Change Warning

More than 15 students worked on the project over two semesters. As creative director, Deng still marvels at how the effort involved many different disciplines across the university.

“I worked with scientists and journalists and engineers — so many different perspectives,” she says. “The journalists were super professional. They did research and prepared questions and worked so hard on the script. The engineers said: ‘Tell me what to do.’ So I’d tell them, ‘We need snow here and the flies should move like this.’ It only took them a short time to create a vivid game experience.”

Along with capturing the diorama with the lidar scanner and translating the data into an immersive experience, the team also had to ensure they used scientifically accurate content. Students interviewed experts at the museum and the USC Wrigley Institute to learn more about the caribou’s plight. Once they gathered their material, they had to shape it into an emotional arc to keep viewers engaged.

We make the people think about how this is an environment we need to protect.RONG DENG

“I hope users initially have curiosity and want to explore the environment,” Deng says. “After 45 seconds or so, we build into our story. These caribou are living in a terrible environment right now with these terrible flies that bite them. We make the people think about how this is an environment we need to protect. And we actually can do things to make this better, to stop the glaciers or permafrost from melting, like driving less or using public transportation.”

Lympouridis said the project offered a valuable opportunity for his students to work with the latest 3D scanning technology and learn to collaborate with people from different fields. “They got a chance to create a project that demonstrates their ability to understand the medium of augmented and virtual reality and engineer solutions that have purpose and impact,” he says. “This is a lever for students to excel in their careers and get good opportunities in the industry.”

Similarly, Hernandez sees immersive reality as the future of journalism and entertainment. And he doesn’t want to wait for media companies to determine the path forward.

“I want diverse voices — voices that are often left out — to proactively shape this world,” he says. “Projects like this position them to be leaders and pioneers in those spaces.”

Quelle:

Foto: The changing climate’s effect on caribou comes to life in a unique student-led project. (Photo/Courtesy of Robert Hernandez)

Stunning Virtual Reality Project Takes You to the Arctic — and Into Climate Change

3. November 2021 0 comment

Examples

VR and Its Impact on Sustainability

The impacts of climate change, though very real, are exceedingly hard to imagine. Climatologists say the icebergs will melt, the weather will hit extremes, and cities will be arid concrete jungles—these are scary probabilities, so why isn’t more being done to mitigate this future? One answer may be that individuals simply cannot visualize how the effects of climate change will impact their lifestyle. Few people have experienced the magnitude of an actual iceberg to understand what it means for it to melt away.

While some environmental advocates, governments, and scientists are doing their best to shed light on the urgency of the issue, there are a substantial amount of people across the globe who still do not grasp the severity of climate change. A 2019 study by Pew Research Center shows that “a median of 20% of people across countries (surveyed) consider global warming a minor threat, while 9% say it is not a threat.” So how do we change this? Step in, Virtual Reality.

Using VR for the Climate Change Cause

Virtual reality (VR) refers to a simulated environment created by software that uses sight and sound to produce a seemingly physical or real experience of that environment for users. There are a number of reasons VR is a promising option for helping scientists advocate the need for climate action, the primary one being how it can create an immersive, almost physical experience.

One of the most notable demonstrations of this is Stanford University’s Ocean Acidification Experience (SOAE). As described in an article on Forbes, the SOAE project portrays the effect of climate change on marine ecosystems by letting the user choose to be a diver or a pink coral living in an underwater reef. Over a specific period (quickened through time-lapse), the user begins to see sea creatures around them dying because of ocean acidification. This goes on until the reef is left almost barren. While the experience itself is astonishing, the results are even more staggering. Studies showed that those who participated in the simulation retained information about ocean acidification more than three weeks after the experience, and their test scores on the topic increased by more than 100%. The most noteworthy finding though was perhaps how VR increased participants’ knowledge and empathy, with the Stanford study noting that “participants who explored more of the virtual space formed deeper cognitive associations with the science content.”

In fact, other studies also show that VR can change one’s attitude towards the environment, thus promoting positive climate action. This is one of virtual reality’s many capabilities that can promote climate adaptation and mitigation. Consider the case of Turner Station, an African-American community southeast of Baltimore. As sea levels rise, the town is facing increased flooding. Due to this, residents were directed to virtually watch their home’s flood and experience the impacts of climate change at a community meeting, so as to better understand the situation and prepare for it. To quote Jackie Specht, the coastal science program manager for The Nature Conservancy’s Maryland/DC Chapter, “If it’s hard to imagine, it’s hard to face and prioritize, especially when there are so many tangible issues that [people are] facing in the day-to-day.” In this way, awareness-building experiences through VR can help garner community support for climate resilience projects.

Bringing Climate Change Home

Bringing these experiences to consumers is no longer out of reach with companies now creating more approachable and affordable VR products that use headsets and smartphones alone to transport users to new virtual worlds. Innovations like these show that VR can be accessible to the masses. Expanding libraries of virtual experiences and games, coupled with portability and ease of use mean scientists can finally educate and demonstrate the urgency and magnitude of the climate crisis to a captive audience in the comfort of their homes.

Scientists can now use the technology’s engaging features to demonstrate how the growing danger of climate change will affect not just the world at large but the actual lifestyles of individuals. This could range from showing individuals what climate change means for their residential expenses, including altered heating and cooling expenses, to longer-term implications like experiencing heatwaves in cooler regions and tropical storms in coastal regions. “This is Climate Change” is one such experience by Participant Media and Condition One, which takes participants through a four-part virtual docu-series that fully immerses them in four jarring impacts of climate change: Famine, Feast, Melting Ice and Fire.

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Virtual Reality’s ability to immerse and engage users can be used to finally get people to be proactive about climate change. Projects like SOAE or climate researcher Julian Calil’s rising sea levels VR program for cities like Turner Station can help turn the vague, imperceptible issue of climate change into a tangible reality. In turn, this can motivate people to push for policy change for a sustainable future.

QUELLE:

Foto: image credit: Image found on Pixbay: https://pixabay.com/photos/clouds-virtual-reality-game-ar-1845517/

https://energycentral.com/c/ee/vr-and-its-impact-sustainability

18. Dezember 2020 0 comment

Examples

VR Forests Could Help Understanding Of Climate Change

A Wisconsin type forest created in virtual reality to illustrate the effects of climate change scenarios on the trees and forest. IMAGE: ALEXANDER KLIPPEL AND JIAWEI HUANG, PENN STATE

The effects of climate change are sometimes difficult to grasp, but now a virtual reality forest, created by geographers, can let people walk through a simulated forest of today and see what various futures may hold for the trees.

„The main problem that needs to be addressed is that climate change is abstract,“ said Alexander Klippel, professor of geography, Penn State. „Its meaning only unfolds in 10, 15 or 100 years. It is very hard for people to understand and plan and make decisions.“

The researchers combined information on forest composition with information on forest ecology to create a forest similar to those found in Wisconsin.

„As part of an NSF-funded CNH program grant with Erica Smithwick (E. Willard and Ruby S. Miller Professor of Geography at Penn State) we are working with the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin,“ said Klippel, who also is director of Penn State’s Center for Immersive Experience. „Inspired by the Menominee’s deeper connection to the environment we believe that experiencing the future is essential for all environmental decision making.“

The virtual-reality experience takes the extensive climate change models, sophisticated vegetation models and ecological models and creates a 2050 forest that people can experience by walking through it, investigating the tree types and understory, and seeing the changes.

The first step, of course, was to create a forest of today. Using data on a typical Wisconsin forest, the researchers could have used strict or deterministic rules and placed trees in the forest. However, they chose to use a procedural method that would populate the forest using a set of ecological rules, creating a more organic, natural feel.

„Orientation and small details of the trees are also randomized in the approach so that the trees don’t look exactly the same,“ said Jiawei Huang, graduate student in geography, Penn State.

The researchers report today (Nov. 11) in the International Journal of Geographical Information Science that, „Procedural rules allowed us to efficiently and reproducibly translate the parameters into a simulated forest.“ They used analytical modeling to convert the data for procedural modeling. They also worked with ecological experts to provide feedback and evaluate the results.

To capture the ecology of the forest, the researchers used LANDIS II, a well-established, powerful model.

„Our ecologist colleagues, coauthors on this paper — Melissa S. Lucash, research assistant professor of geography, University of Oregon, and Robert M. Scheller, professor of geography, North Carolina State University — ensured the expertise that is necessary to make the predictions accurate,“ said Klippel.

The researchers note that the model is powerful enough to deal with events such as windstorms, fire and flooding, and, of course, climate change.

A virtual walk through this Wisconsin forest shows tall trees and understory. Strollers, using VR headsets and controllers, can reveal the types of trees in the forest, change elevations from forest floor to birds-eye view and in-between, and more closely examine the forest composition.

The researchers chose two future scenarios, a base scenario and a hot and dry scenario. Using VR, visitors to the forest can see the changes in tree types and abundance and compare the base scenario to the hot and dry scenario.

„Our approach to create visceral experiences of forests under climate change can facilitate communication among experts, policymakers and the general public,“ the researchers report.

The researchers aim is to create a medium to communicate things in the future or the past that allows for a more holistic and visceral access so that non-experts can see the changes brought on by climate change. The National Science Foundation supported this research.

Quelle:

https://www.vrroom.buzz/vr-news/trends/vr-forests-could-help-understanding-climate-change

https://phys.org/news/2020-11-virtual-reality-forests-climate.html

18. November 2020 0 comment

Examples

These 5 VR Projects Help Tackle Climate Change

Environmental organizations have launched several virtual reality projects in an effort to keep people informed about the effects of climate change.

Virtual Reality projects have provided a novel approach to issues ranging from military training to fitness. Unsurprisingly, ongoing efforts to tackle climate change can also benefit from VR.

Climate change is a significant threat that has raised concerns all over the world. From shifting weather patterns to rising sea level, the impact of climate change is global, and at an unprecedented scale.

According to reports, 11 percent of the world’s population – about 800 million people – are vulnerable to these impacts. So, it’s not surprising that the United Nations described climate change as the defining issue of our time.

Concerns about global warming have increased significantly since 2013. Climate activists across the world are now organizing protests and non-violent civil disobedience to raise awareness about the issue.

Be that as it may, a few people are less concerned about the effect of climate change.

According to Pew Research, about 20 percent of the world believes that global warming is a minor threat. Meanwhile, 9 percent say that it’s not a threat at all.

In the United States, 23 percent say that climate change is a minor threat, while 16 percent believe it’s no threat at all.

Although various approaches can help address the divided opinion on the extent of the threat, Virtual Reality may be the most effective.

Why Virtual Reality Can Motivate Us To Solve Climate Crisis

VR is engaging and immersive. As a result, it’s could be a useful tool to drive empathy and motivate action.

Moreover, past studies suggest using virtual reality to engage and change behavior.

Researchers at Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab revealed that a person is more likely to conserve paper if they had the VR experience of cutting down a tree. These include feeling the chainsaw’s vibrations and sound, as well as experiencing the Tree’s crash.

With this in mind, here are some of the most immersive VR projects out there.

5 Virtual Reality Projects To Help Tackle Climate Change

Consider the VR projects outlined below.

1. This is Climate Change

This is an expansive virtual reality docu-series from Participant Media and Condition One. It allows viewers to explore the far corners of the earth to discover people being hit the hardest by climate change.

This is Climate Change provides an immersive view of how people endure the impact of global warming, deforestation, wildfires, drought, and famine.

Danfung Dennis and Eric Strauss created the 29-minute long docu-series which premiered in 2018.

2. Tree

Tree is a virtual reality project that transforms you into a rainforest tree. As such, your body can serve as the tree’s trunk, while your arms would be the branches.

Along with offering a first-hand experience of the tree’s growth from seedling to the fullest from, viewers will also witness its challenges.

Trees are our best defense against climate change. Yet, a study in the journal Nature suggests that 46 percent of global trees have been cut off since humans started cutting down forests.

The VR project, Tree, can educate viewers on the beauty and fragility of nature. This could ultimately lead to more empathy for plant life.

3. Greenland Melting

Greenland Melting is a VR experience that educates viewers on the effect of warm waters from the ocean on glaciers in Greenland

Viewers will experience being in Greenland and standing in the water in front of a glacier. They ‘ll also witness stunning scenery beneath the ocean, while two NASA scientists explain how the warm waters are melting the glaciers.

The Virtual Reality project was inspired by the calls for the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement.

4. We Live in an Ocean of Air

This immersive VR experience reveals how breathing connects plants and humans. It takes you to an ancient forest to see the Sequoia tree and witness the visible exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide.

Although We Live in an Ocean of Air is not as haunting at the other three Virtual Reality projects, the 20-minute experience provides a visual insight into our place in the world.

It helps us become more aware of the planet and its parts. And this could increase the willingness to protect it.

5. IMMERSE

A 501(c)3 non-profit organization, The Hydrous developed IMMERSE, to raise awareness about the threat coral reefs to face due to rising ocean temperature.

In the experience, you’ll become a diver accompanying marine biologist and CEO of Hydrous, Dr. Erika Woolsey, as she swims next to sea turtles, manta rays, and sharks. As Hydrous described it, it’s a journey of science, love, and magic in the ocean.

IMMERSE was co-developed by Horizon Production. And it first premiered at the International Ocean Film Festival at Fort Mason, San Francisco.

Quelle:

Foto: © Shutterstock

https://vrroom.buzz/vr-news/entertainment/these-5-vr-projects-help-tackle-climate-change

10. Januar 2020 0 comment

Knowledge Research

Could VR Make Us Care More About Climate Change?

A new equation showing that the world is in a “deep state of climate emergency” was unveiled on 24 September by Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, one of the world’s leading authorities on climate change. Talking to Horizon he said, “we don’t want to see the truth” and “I would like people to panic and take action according to the state of emergency we are in.”

Like Professor Han Joachim Schellnhuber, Extinction Rebellion believes the time for denial is over, it’s time to act. The movement also believes the world’s leaders are failing in their duty to act on our behalf. Therefore, Extinction Rebellion promotes mass above the ground, nonviolent, civil disobedience to shake the current political system and raise awareness.

On the other side of the coin, some are less concerned and don’t view climate change as such a serious threat. Across the countries surveyed by Pew Research, a median of 20% consider global warming only a minor threat.

There may be divided opinion on the extent of the threat, but no one can argue with the fact that we need to do something. Many different approaches are being used. Virtual reality is just one of these.

Why Virtual Reality?

The immersive and engaging nature of virtual reality has been used to help tackle the impact of climate change and motivate and inspire us to solve the climate crisis. Filmmakers and advocacy groups have turned to the medium as a tool for building empathy and driving action.

Research has shown that using virtual reality to engage and change behavior works. Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab found that if a person has a VR experience of cutting down a tree—during which they feel the vibration and sound of the chainsaw and the crash of the tree—that person is more likely to conserve paper.

I’ve taken a look at some of the immersive projects that are trying to make a difference.

Tree

This project transforms you into a rainforest tree, with arms as big as branches and your body as the trunk. You experience the tree’s growth from a seedling into its fullest form and learn firsthand the challenges that it faces throughout its lifecycle. Since humans started cutting down forests, a staggering 46% of the world’s trees have been felled, and around 17% of the Amazon rainforest has been destroyed over the last 50 years. Trees are vital for human existence, absorbing the carbon dioxide we exhale and the greenhouse gases we emit. These huge numbers can often be overwhelming and it is hard to see just how devastating the effects of deforestation are—which is where Tree comes in. It aims to educate people in a hauntingly entertaining way, showing equally the beauty of nature and its fragility.

This is Climate Change

In this virtual reality docu-series from Participant Media and Condition One, you go on four journeys across the globe to be fully immersed in the direct impact of climate change: Famine, Feast, Melting Ice and Fire. Each short film takes a look at a key topic—deforestation, global warming, wildfires and famine—and shows you the people that suffer as a consequence of these changes. Al Gore, American politician and environmentalist, provides the voiceover for the “Melting Ice” film as you observe the melting glaciers and the impact this has on the environment all over the globe. It is a raw and harrowing set of films that educate and shock in equal measure.

We Live in an Ocean of Air

We Live in an Ocean of Air uses awe and wonder to instil a curiosity in the user about other living things on the planet. The project is about how something as simple as breathing, connects humans and plants to each other to create a whole ecosystem of life.

Throughout the 20 minute experience, the cutting edge technology sheds light on the connection between the human and natural world. Breath and heart sensors track your breathing and encourage you to reflect on our impact on the organisms we share our planet with.

While this experience isn’t as hard-hitting and haunting as the others in this list, it’s a beautiful way to visualize our relationship with the world around us. In understanding this connection, the hope is that those who have been through the experience are more aware of our planet and its individual parts, and more willing to protect it.

Greenland Melting

This experience was inspired by the calls for the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, which was met with strong emotions from US citizens. Created in collaboration with FRONTLINE and NOVA, Greenland Melting from Emblematic provides a “rare, up-close view of icy Arctic scenery” that is quickly disappearing. Utilizing 360-degree video, CG models, 3D data visualizations and holograms of NASA researchers, Greenland Melting gives you a unique perspective on the impact of global warming, showing just how devastating the effects will be.

IMMERSE

Developed by The Hydrous, IMMERSE is a 360-degree film aimed to generate awareness and scientific understanding of coral reefs and the threat they face due to rising ocean temperatures. In the experience, you become a diver and follow Dr Erika Woolsey, marine biologist and CEO of Hydrous, as you swim next to sharks, sea turtles and manta rays. The Hydrous believes that VR is the best medium for education about this topic as it allows people to visit places they may never go to in their normal lives. The immersive nature of VR connects the user to the underwater world and encourages them to understand life below the surface. As Woolsey puts it—“How can we protect what we don’t see or think about?”.

The Reality of Global Climate Change: A Mixed-Reality Hackathon

This annual event challenges the brightest minds from Yale University to create applications that gamify real-world data with mixed reality to better understand themes of global climate change by looking at them in a new way. At last year’s event, students created virtual worlds where carbon emissions formed towering columns, life-size graphs reacted to policy decisions, and a game-world where players plugged holes with carbon dioxide pouring through them.

This hackathon is intended to challenge students to not only stretch their technological skills, but also think about how the issue of climate change can be made accessible through the medium of XR.

Quelle:

Image: GETTY IMAGES

https://vrroom.buzz/vr-news/trends/could-vr-make-us-care-more-about-climate-change

15. November 2019 0 comment

Examples

TIME Immersive AR Experience Shines A Spotlight On The Rapidly Shrinking Amazon Rainforest

TIME turns to AR and Jane Goodall to help expose deforestation in Brazil.

TIME Turns To AR And Jane Goodall To Explore The Rapidly Shrinking Amazon Rainforest

TIME Magazine is launching a new AR experience called Inside The Amazon: The Dying Forest, marking the second immserive experience to launch on their AR/VR app TIME Immersive, which was made available to all iOS and Android users this past July.

When TIME Immersive arrived it came bundled with the publications first AR activation, Landing on the Moon, which brought the infamous Apollo 11 moon landing to life via an AR experience that included detailed information regarding the historic mission.

TIME’s Inside the Amazon takes the same meticulous detailed approach as Landing on the Moon, only instead of taking you beyond Earth’s atmosphere and into the vastness of outer space, you are instead transported deep into the wilds of Brazil for an intimate tour of the most remote and difficult-to-reach locations within the rapidly shrinking Amazon Rainforest.

To create the experience, TIME sent two AR producers into the infamous jungle alongside reporter Matt Sandy and used hi-def cameras mounted to powerful drones to capture a collection of detailed 3D scans of the Amazon that could then be displayed in augmented reality.

Much like how Landing on the Moon celebrated the anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, Inside the Amazon coincides with the release of a TIME Magazine special edition issue that will focus on the current ongoing climate crisis. The issue, which will be available in newsstands September 12th, will use the magazine’s cover as the mechanism to launch the AR experience. The experience will include a piece from Sandy about how the Amazon Rainforests ecosystem has reached a point of no return. How with continued neglect it could potentially devolve into a dry, savanna-like environment; or worse, it could trigger a scenario of runaway global warming.

Featuring a stunning 3D visual AR experience, Inside the Amazon uses spatial sound design to take you out of your reality and deep into the jungles rich and eclectic ecosystem. Dr Jane Goodall, who has worked tirelessly on conservation and animal welfare issues for an incredible 59 years, lends her voice to the project, guiding you through the experience while exposing the primary factors that are driving deforestation.

She’s also there to convey the stories of people currently fighting for the Amazon and the motivations behind their passion for conservation. More importantly, Goodall provides a voice to every human, animal, insect, and plant that has the most to lose if the Amazon disappears from the Earth.

TIME’s Inside the Amazon is the latest example of how AR and VR is changing journalism by giving the audience a rich and more personalized news experience. The New York Times used AR last year to take their readers deep into the Thailand Caves, while the Weather Channel is using immersive technology to give viewers a more comprehensive perspective on how dangerous a storm can really be.

As AR/VR technology continues to evolve, its impact on storytelling and journalism will only progress. Using immersive technology, journalists and activists can create experiences that deliver a stronger sense of empathy between the viewer/reader and the subject matter.

Inside The Amazon: The Dying Forest and Landing on the Moon AR experiences are available now on iOS and Android via the TIME Immersive app.

Quelle:

Image Credit: TIME Immersive

https://vrscout.com/news/time-immersive-ar-amazon-deforestation/

21. September 2019 0 comment

Examples

Immersive Exhibit Brings Climate Change To Life

It’s almost a cliché to say this, but the best art does more than just look appealing. It reaches into your brain and soul and won’t let go. You’ll still be thinking about it days later trying to piece together what exactly you experienced. Arcadia Earth, a fully immersive art installation focused on environmental issues, is exactly that kind of experience.

Experiential artist Valentino Vettori is the brain behind the design of this 15-room journey examining the plight of our planet. Human scale art installations, many of them making use of augmented and virtual reality, overpower your senses, and force you to contemplate the subject matter.

Each of the rooms has been created to highlight a specific challenge facing our environment—challenges including overfishing, plastic pollution, food waste, deforestation and climate change.

An impressive roster of environmental artists—Samuelle Green, Tamara Kotianovsky, Etty Yaniv, Cindy Pease Roe, Poramit Thantapalit, Jesse Harrod, Justin Bolognino/META, Katie Donahue, Katharina Hoerath, Charlotte Becket and Emmy Mikelson—have worked to use upcycled and reusable materials to create their awe-inspiring pieces.

One room hits particularly close to home for New Yorkers, a cave created out of 44,000 recycled plastic bags by artist Basia Goszczynska that reflects upon the New York state ban on bags. That number isn’t just a coincidence either, 44,000 is the number of bags that New Yorkers use every single minute!

Each installation makes you confront the damage that we are doing to our planet on a daily basis. While it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the enormity of it all, that’s not the point, and each installation contains a placard with tips for what you can do to help on a daily basis.

Arcadia Earth has partnered with Oceanic Global, a non-profit dedicated to ocean conservation, and proceeds from all ticket sales will go to further raise awareness about how humans are damaging our ecosystem.

Arcadia Earth is located at 718 Broadway and is open to the public through January 2020. Tickets for general admission are $33, student tickets are $27 and tickets for children ages 6-14 are $12.

Quelle:

Foto: Arcadia Earth, David Mitchell

20. September 2019 0 comment

Examples

VR Short Film Depicts Life After Climate Change

The impact of climate change is often described with statistics or doomsday predictions about the future.

Yet in the Northern Territory, a new short film about what Australia’s most northern capital city could look like as climate change takes hold is using virtual reality (VR) to try to inspire people into action.

Beth Caird attended the launch of Storm Dog in Darwin this week and wore bulky goggles and headphones to view the artwork.

„It’s just so incredible,“ Ms Caird said while viewing the VR piece.

„We’re in a thick mangrove forest. A little girl is looking for her dog walking across the cracked earth.“

Shot in 360-degree landscape, the virtual reality piece is designed to look and sound evocative.

Yet the film’s creator, Caro Macdonald, said the place it is set — Darwin in the year 2049 — may not be so inviting.

„The film gives us a sense of what Darwin might be like in a climate change future,“ Ms Macdonald said.

At current greenhouse emission rates, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) claims temperature rises of 1.5 degrees Celsius will be breached as early as 2040, and 2 degrees Celsius would be breached in the 2060s.

What might the Top End look like as seas rise?

To depict that future in a VR film, Ms Macdonald worked with emergency physicians, scientists and traditional owners on what could be expected to happen locally in the Top End if temperatures and sea levels rise as predicted.

The film tracks a little girl who has lost her dog, and as she looks for her pet, she encounters different weather scenarios.

„One thing I picked out was a higher number of heat days,“ Ms Macdonald said.

„So I’ve used a poetic licence and created a high warning day — like a high UV day — and the little girl is a bit naughty and her dog disappears and she sneaks out and tries to find him on a high warning day.“

There’s also a bad cyclone on the way in Storm Dog.

Under IPPC predictions, there could be fewer cyclones in the future, however, those that do hit will be more intense.

There are also fewer magpie geese in Storm Dog than currently found in Darwin, to highlight how the bird species could be impacted by hotter and drier periods.

„Also featured in the film is increased sea levels,“ Ms Macdonald said.

„So the little girl talks about memories of a beach that her mother told her about but it’s now an erosion wall.“

Showing a capacity for change

Charlie Ward from local community group Climate Action Darwin was an advisor on Storm Dog.

„It’s so important because I think there’s almost a total vacuum of stories about climate change around the NT and the top end and Darwin,“ he said.

He believes the film is powerful because it’s fun to engage with and doesn’t preach.

„In the climate action movement, there’s a whole spectrum of opinion and people are always thinking about how we can communicate effectively,“ he said.

„You’ve got people using lots of harsh realities and back it up with data and scare the people into freaking out and demanding action.

„Storm Dog is more at the softly, softly end of the spectrum and I think that’s fantastic because anybody can watch it from children to anyone.“

Ms Macdonald hopes the film’s relatively not too distant setting will also bring the message home to viewers.

„I’ve intentionally set it 30 years from now because that’s all within our imaginable future,“ she said.

„It’s something we can grasp, we can think our children will only be middle-aged by then.

„I don’t want it to be a totally catastrophic depiction and help people see that we do have the capacity to make changes now.

„I want people to have hope and think about what they can do to enact change to tackle climate change.“

Quelle:

https://vrroom.buzz/vr-news/documentary/vr-short-film-depicts-life-after-climate-change

Foto: Beth Caird attended the launch of Storm Dog in Darwin this week. (ABC News: Emilia Terzon)

11. Juli 2019 0 comment