Using virtual reality to explore rising seas and a changing South Florida
Sudyen Navarrete (center) and Kayleen Padron (left) train Visual Storytelling students on how to use the Kodak PixPro and stitching software in the Mobile Virtual Reality Lab.
Students this summer will work in post-production to finalize VR projects.
Students from the Mobile Virtual Reality Lab spent Sunday in Southwest Miami-Dade County, recording footage for an experiment we are conducting that examines the degree to which perceptions of race and geography may influence credibility of witnesses to crime.
Students and faculty presented a bit on this work previously this semester:
Gutsche, Jr., R. E., Bilge, N., Marino, M. I., Shumow, M., Holt, L., Castro, C., Ovalle, L., Falkenhagen, J., Hernandez, D., Garcia, E., de Armas, A., Forte, A., Hanna, T., Meléndez, C., & Reyes, L. (2017). “Creating (and examining) immersive environments and nonverbal communication in virtual reality,” FIU College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts Research Retreat, Kampong National Tropical Botanical Garden, Coconut Grove, Florida, March 31.
Castro, C., Ovalle, L., Falkenhagen, J., Hernandez, D., Garcia, E., de Armas, A., Forte, A., Hanna, T., Meléndez, C., Reyes, L., Holt, L., Bilge, N., Marino, M. I., Shumow, M., & Gutsche, Jr., R. E. (forthcoming). Creating (and examining) immersive environments in virtual reality. 2017 Conference for Undergraduate Research at FIU, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, March 29.
Photo by Derek Hernandez
More than 260 people experienced “A Sea Change” — the interdisciplinary theatrical performance focused on climate change and rising seas — at FIU’s two performing arts locations on April 4 and 7. The events included work by FIU’s Mobile Virtual Reality Lab and VirtualEYES. Continue reading “The Final Performance”
More than 200 people attended “A Sea Change” on April 4, a theatrical performance that brought together disciplines across FIU to discuss the threats of and possible solutions to sea level rise and climate change. VirtualEYES highlighted the power of immersion into natural environments.
Photograph by Nicole Betancourt
FIU student and MVR Lab producer, Christian Colevas, introduced his business communication class to virtual reality today, showing how the medium immerses users in ways that can influence empathy, emotion, and possibly behavior. He also discussed how these efforts can be monetized.
By Annabelle Santos
Since January, the Mobile Virtual Reality Lab has been working with a young startup, Viar360, to create immersive virtual reality experiences through the company’s cloud-based VR platform. Continue reading “How Does It Work? Beta-testing New VR Platform”
Digital Media Studies students from the Department of Journalism + Media presented their research using virtual reality to understand the medium’s ability to examine environmental communication and racialized geographic imaginaries at the 2017 Conference for Undergraduate Research at FIU event on March 29. Continue reading “Students Share VR Research”
Students spent this week planning out the scene for a VR piece that we will be using to conduct research on race, legitimacy, efficacy, credibility, and perceptions of geography.
By Leslie Ovalle
Three Mobile Virtual Reality Lab students – me, Cindy Castro, and Johanna Falkenhagen – attended a brainstorming workshop at MIT this past weekend as part of the Lab’s partnership with Before It’s Too Late, a VR program focused on telling stories about climate change.
The workshop began with educational discussions geared towards understanding the conversations happening about the topic of climate change and environmental crisis. We studied two opposing viewpoints of the topic by watching a debate between Bill Nye and U.S Rep. Marsha Blackburn, and later that night attended a lecture on personal activism where we leaned about Patagonia Inc. and other companies that have placed sustainability as a priority.
Our team workshops focused on the topics of storytelling, environmental solutions and impacts.
We began discussing the journey we want to take our audiences on during the virtual reality experience as well as after.
“Putting all of these environmental concepts together and discussing them all as a team really was an eye-opening experience which paved the way to what BITL will consist of,” said Johanna Falkenhagen, an FIU Digital Media Studies student. “Our target has been focused on making this as bi-partisan as possible and for it to be moving and impactful enough in order to successfully implement change and awaken those disengaged people.”
For more on the program see, http://www.vrbeforeitstoolate.org and eyesontherise.org/virtualEYES.
Photo: FIU Mobile Virtual Reality Lab and MIT students meet with Patagonia VP for Environmental Affairs, Rick Ridgeway, at MIT in March.
Robert E. Pierre, a former Washington Post reporter and editor, author, and president of Bald Cypress digital PR firm in Washington, D.C. visited the Mobile Virtual Reality Lab this week as part of his time as a Hearst Distinguished Lecturer at FIU.
Besides meeting with journalism, digital media studies, and communication students – nearly 200 of them – in classes on Monday and Tuesday, Pierre met with the MVR Lab to discuss the future of VR, storytelling, and the role of entrepreneurship.