This semester for Transdiciplinary Inquiry the small project that has been taken was about comparing virtual reality to static images. The image to the right is the process in which was taken to test whether or not virtual reality can be used to convey messages more clearly and impressively than static images.
The project I took on produced this report as the final outcome, due to the theoretical approach I took during this project.
Transdiciplinary Report:
Proposal:
The purpose of this research will be to see if there is a better way to convey an important message to people, rather than the usual film or written piece. This project will gather data through a survey of people’s opinions of current ways of telling stories. (film, games, written etc.)
This project will focus on ways it may be possible to convey ideas and messages to the larger masses of people more effectively.
The aim for this research is to see if it is worthwhile to change the ways in which people convey messages to multiple people. With the focus of using technology available now such as virtual reality. The research will focus on the students in the BCT (Bachelor of creative technologies) and their opinion on it. Future research can include the different forms of technology such as virtual reality or augmented reality.
The research question can be shortened to “How can we use virtual reality to improve presentations of messages to groups of people”.
The project was changed from the original proposal due to the inefficiency of it and the bad interpretations of it; hence the focus on getting raw data from a survey to conclude the value of this project. This will allow for the project to focus on a more theoretical outcome,specifically a report, more than just physical. However saying this the theoretical outcome can provide information to better create a physical or digital outcome for future projects for those interested in seeing if it is worthwhile pursuing it. The survey also helps minimize the risk to the person being interviewed due to the anonymous nature of the survey. Also it minimizes the risk of data being incorrect due to the participant being nauseous in the interview, and affecting the outcome of the study.
The research will include an odd number of participants so there will be a certain output, no matter how minuscule. The data will be collected in a survey due to the less complex and simple format of it all. This is due to the ease of collecting data this way and is easier to manage and keep anonymous. Also it's easier to come to conclusions using specific numbers rather than comments which can have many interpretations.
This data is valuable to anyone deciding whether or not to use virtual reality in their projects in the BCT or in industry. The data gathered will help answer the research question I have decided to undertake.
This study will specifically provide information for those interested in looking at new ways in which they can convey messages to masses of people.
Plan of study:
The question of this study being, “How can we use virtual reality to improve presentations of messages to groups of people”, will be what drives this study to finding out from BCT students on whether or not virtual reality could be used as a valuable resource. The study will be gathering of data via a survey and finding out the value of the data for people to use. The survey will have next to no risk compared to the previous idea of being a more hands on gathering of information and is also more time efficient. The data will be collected in the space of a week and the people who participate will be kept anonymous.
Questions asked / Results:
Would you use virtual reality viewers in a classroom if provided?
Yes:14 No:3
Would you pay to see a landmark/object when there's a free option of using virtual reality?
Yes: 9 No:8
Are you worried about possible nausea when using VR?
Yes: 2 No:15
In your opinion could VR be immersive in film? (Short film or videos)
Yes:13 No:4
In your opinion could VR be immersive in Gaming?
Yes:15 No:2
Would you consider using VR in any projects you are a part of?
Yes:14 No:3
How likely are you to use VR as a substitute for visiting a landmark? (Scale of 1-5, 5 being most likely)
1:6 2: 7 3:4 4:0 5:0
Data Analysis:
Most people seemed in favor of the virtual reality being used as a tool for classrooms and other forms of media. This can be looked at how convenient the technology is at the moment, the only issue is making it more immersive as it's mostly just videos and images that look realistic at the moment. Although the video game industry has taken a foothold and seems to be setting standards already for the technology, e.g. Sony, vive and oculus. A developer that specializes in virtual reality states: "WebVR content can be enjoyed on mobile or PC using a modern browser that can be experienced in a VR headset like Rift, Gear VR, Daydream, and HTC Vive using a WebVR-enabled browser." (Andrew Mo).
It's interesting that there is less spread in the paid landmark against free VR option. This may be due to the people questioned lacking funds or perhaps people aren't interested in using VR as a substitute for seeing the real thing, this is supported by the ratings given by the participants about using VR as a substitute.
So people in the industry are looking like they want to incorporate this new technology into what they want to present. The statement also compliments how people would be interested in seeing media portrayed this way, thus messages also.
This brings up questions if the answers would have been different based on who was asked, for example different groups and degrees. Perhaps asking people in these different groups such as age for example would have skewed the results in a different way due to the course focused on being about tech of the future.
Limitations:
The limited time for this study limited me as to how I would have liked to conduct it. It would have been benificial to create a more immersive way of gathering data, however this survey gave access to the data faster and more efficiently than the other method of having two groups, as stated in the previous proposal. Time constraints also made the scope of people asked much more limited, it would have been beneficial to perhaps ask different groups the same questions my colleagues have answered, this means there may be a bias towards the idea of using VR due to the kinds of people asked, or lack there of. Also there could have been more questions asked to get more specific conclusions out of the participants, however this data will provide enough support to answer this specific research question.
Conclusion:
To conclude this study as of now, with intent of continuing, the results were in favor of using virtual reality, see the above charts. This will help to make an informed decision to utilize this tool in studio 3. The data helped to see where the strengths and weaknesses of the technology are and how to perhaps make it more viable.
The assumption that can be made here is that due to the popularity of virtual reality as of now could perhaps be skewing the results in favor of the technology, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. This means as of now the data collected and this project could be valuable especially for projects being undertaken as of now, however this may be necessary to repeat as the technology continues as it may be seen as a gimmick later in its lifespan. Also its interesting to perhaps compare and contrast it to augmented reality, which will be the focus of further studies later in the degree.
The research was able to come to a conclusion about the question posed, the people involved in the study indirectly answered the question due to the majority believing that film and video games could be immersive. It can be inferred, due to the answers that VR could show messages through these media, specifically film due to it being a popular way to show stories and messages. Touching on this there was a paper that was quite interesting that showed the use of VR to train people in medicine, the idea specifically being to create a space in which people can learn surgery without the added risk of someone's life (Misra A.). Which is essentially a way in which messages or information is given to another person, which could be seen as something similar to what has been researched in this report.
This links back to the proposal due to the results finding that people would like to see VR be used more and in a way that is more immersive. This allows us to come up with ideas of how to use this technology to create a new media to show ideas and how to spread them as per the research question. We can use VR in film, games or simply as an experience to show the masses the ideas we want to convey. People obviously like VR at the moment due to the positive outcome of the research and this gives us this lenience due to its popularity and people wanting to see it succeed.
In short the answer to the research question: (“How can we use virtual reality to improve presentations of messages to groups of people”)
would be to use the technology as a tool and perhaps a substitute for the already existing ways in which messages are portrayed. The film and video game industry are good for this due to the fact people are interested in seeing VR evolve in these fields, as the data shows. This gives researchers and other people interested in presenting messages a new and innovative way in which top share their messages and findings to the large masses they desire to share with.
Reflection:
Overall it would have been beneficial to have more time to continue this project, and it most likely will continue given the chance. In the case it is continued the focus would be on more interactive ways and gather responses and data in this way. This could prove to provide better results due to the interactive way it would be conducted. However it could again be interpreted wrong, so there's always a bonus to using numbers over words.
To reflect on the research as a whole it would had more impact if there was a larger amount of people who took part in the study, which was caused by time constraints. Also the project could have been more valuable if there were was a more diverse community that took part in the study as this was focused on the creative tech. degree. In saying this however there has been some valuable information that can be taken from the study. To further iterate the value to people who are interested in looking at using VR to present their ideas and messages this study was taken with them in mind.
The data produced by this research leads to question how virtual reality can make for a better way of living due to the idea of it being a catalyst for changing the already existing media forms for the better.
References:
Mo, A. (2017, May 17). Social experiences for people in and out of VR. Retrieved from Oculus: https://developer.oculus.com/blog/social-experiences-for-people-in-and-out-of-vr/
Beilenson, J. N. (2009). Virtual Reality. Stanford: Hogrefe Publishing.
Misra, A. (2017). Development of a virtual reality training cirriculum for laparoscopic cholecystectomy. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Unedited proposal:
