Students, especially international ones have a hard time seeking accommodation in big cities like Stockholm in Sweden at an adequate pricing. To facilitate such a search process and to create a sense of trust, tenants and landlords use video and/or voice calls for early communication with one another. However, the establishment of trust among tenants and landlords in this context is a challenging task. This study thus aims to investigate if innovative virtual reality (VR) approaches like 360° videos can be used to develop trust among tenants and landlords. This study undertakes an investigation from student perspective due to the limited timeframe. This study was carried out in collaboration with Ett tak (English: One roof) which is a startup working in the rental market in Stockholm. The tenants are the students and the landlords are senior people having spare space in their homes. A pre-study was conducted to identify the expectations of the students. A landlord was filmed for the 360° video which was developed into a Unity VR app. The results from the usability study indicate that most students felt a high degree of trust towards the landlord by using an immersive 360° VR tour. Conversely, the students showed hesitation to use the 360° VR by buying their own VR headsets unless VR becomes mainstream in the different areas of life. This study builds upon existing literature that validate the positive impact of attributes like profile photos, ratings and reviews on the trust level between the providers and the consumers in a sharing economy. / Studenter, särskilt internationella, har svårt att hitta boende i storstäder som Stockholm i Sverige till lämplig prissättning. För att underlätta en sådan sökprocess och skapa en känsla av förtroende använder hyresgäster och hyresvärdar video och / eller röstsamtal för tidig kommunikation med varandra. Upprättande av förtroende bland hyresgäster och hyresvärdar är dock en utmanande uppgift i detta sammanhang. Denna studie syftar således till att undersöka om virtuell verklighet (VR) som 360° video kan användas för att utveckla förtroende bland hyresgäster och hyresvärdar. Denna studie genomför en undersökning från ett studentperspektiv på grund av den begränsade tidsramen. Denna studie genomfördes i samverkan med Ett tak, som arbetar på hyresmarknaden i Stockholm. Hyresgästerna är studenterna och hyresvärdarna är äldre människor som har ledigt utrymme i sina hem. En förstudie genomfördes för att identifiera studenternas förväntningar. En hyresvärd filmades för en 360° video som utvecklades till en Unity VR app. Resultaten från användbarhetsstudien indikerar att de flesta studenter kände en hög grad av förtroende gentemot hyresvärden genom att använda en fördjupande 360 ° VR rundtur. Däremot visade eleverna att de inte skulle köpa egna VR-headset om VR inte blir vanligt i de olika områdena i livet. Denna studie bygger på befintlig litteratur och bekräftar den positiva effekten av attribut som profilbilder, betyg och recensioner på förtroendenivå mellan leverantörer och konsumenter i en delningsekonomi.

With an attempt to connect ecological sustainability to users in a fun and interactive way that can nudge them into reflection of their everyday actions, this design research project tries to answer the main research question: How might we use immersive experiences in virtual environments to nudge participants into reflection; specifically, on climate change and sustainable behaviour? The available context, both in terms of climate change and the opportunity that exists in the communication of it; along with the design tools and good practices available were studied. Different design methodologies were reviewed to formulate a personalised yet well-grounded method, that was followed in this project. Through the use of these methodologies, a concept and two versions of the prototype were developed using Unity. These versions were tested with participants for the impact, and the quantitative and qualitative data that was gathered from the testing were analysed using statistical and thematic methods, respectively. From the analysis of the data, it became clear that this was just one little step that opens up more extensive research in this area. It can be concluded that VR can be thought of as an empathy generator due to its almost-unreal ability to transport users into any virtual space and make it feel like they are there. This ability of VR must be exploited to raise public empathy by taking abstract environmental concepts and make them more visible and relatable to everybody.

This research study examined the implementation of an extended reality (XR) lab on a community college campus to facilitate student and faculty access to immersive learning resources. The study, conducted during one skills day, involved 46 students and was designed to understand if integrating immersive VR into emergency medical technician (EMT) education could enhance learner confidence and motivation, develop problem-solving and analytical thinking skills, and thus connecting the classroom learning with real-world application. The majority of participants reported increased motivation and engagement, alongside improvements in learning outcomes like knowledge retention and skill development. Applying the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model revealed performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions as key determinants of VR adoption in EMT education. While no significant overall performance enhancement was observed, VR training showed potential to boost motivation, confidence, and specific performance aspects. Furthermore, student perceptions towards VR in EMT education were largely positive, thereby suggesting its utility in immersive scenario training, skill acquisition in a risk-free environment, enhancing learner engagement, and real-world situational preparedness. VR demonstrated promise as a transformative tool in EMT education, necessitating further research to fully exploit its potential in diverse learning environments.

Situation awareness (SA) describes how well a person perceives and understands their environment and the situation that they are in. When working in groups, shared SA describes how similarly the team members view and interpret the situation in a given environment. Immersive technology comprises technology that integrates virtual objects into the user’s reality of a physical world. It holds great potential for the application in educational contexts and collaborative settings like group projects. Immersive technology can increase engagement, make complex concepts more tangible, and increase media fluency. When immersive technology is introduced into a real-world setting, it creates a mixed reality with virtual and physical elements. In mixed reality collaborations, the complexity of elements in the environment can negatively affect the shared SA of the group members. The research problem of this thesis is that the intersection between shared SA and student group work that involves immersive technology is under-researched to this date. The research question is ”How is shared situation awareness in student group work formed when using immersive technology?”. A case study of a student group containing a participatory observation of several of their work sessions was carried out, and the obtained material was analyzed using sequential analysis. It was found that the students do not prioritize shared SA but work individually, dividing smaller subtasks among themselves and focusing on their own tasks first and foremost. Communication is used sparsely to stay updated about the other students’ work status, which helps to build shared SA. Communication also plays a crucial role in building shared SA when using immersive technology. It was also observed that the students prefer to use immersive technology in a way that allows more than one person to see the same virtual environment, as it is the case when two virtual reality (VR) headsets are connected to the same application.

When striving for realism in first-person games, the use of sampled audio has been frequent, and it is often argued that a higher level of auditory authenticity will lead to an increased realism.However, in this paper, it is argued that, for the purpose of realism, attention should instead be directed at making players themselves a more contributing factor to how sound is perceived; the more the audio of a game changes with, or adapts to, player input, the more realistic it should be perceived. This idea is tested in a first-person game where participants play two different levels where one level’s wind sound has audio parameters adapt to the camera’s yaw rotator value, while the other level’s wind sound does not adapt at all. The participants’ experience of each design approach is evaluated using a quantitative and qualitative analysis. Results suggests that an increase of adaptive audio can lead to an increase in perceived realism in first-person games. A difference could clearly be perceived between the approaches and there were indications of preference for the adaptive approach. First-person games, such as simulators, as well as VR games, may well benefit from this approach in that it could increase the perceived realism.

No description available.

No description available.

Propolis – Creating and using an immersive 2D honey bee environment to educate children between the ages of 3-10, about the importance of honey bees. This capstone project will showcase this researcher's skills in graphic design, spatial sound, architecture, exhibition design, and character illustration. Within this structure, individuals will be able to observe, determine, and make comparisons between a healthy bee colony and one that is fragile and dying. / Master of Fine Arts / "Honey bees have been on the decline. As of 2016, eight species of bees made it on the United States (U.S.) endangered species list. It reported that the decline of pollinators is due to industrial agriculture, parasites, pathogens, and climate change" (Contributors 2020). The loss of habitat and lack of nectar is due to monocultures and bee-killing pesticides. These are significant threats to honey bees and wild pollinators. There is a need for good, clean food providing for a healthy existence for the honey bee. When bees have proper nutrients, the result is a healthy hive that gives mature bees a better chance to fight off diseases. To showcase the life of a honey bee, this researcher created an immersive environment that simulates a hive structure. The structure, along with the motion graphics and critical takeaway printed pieces, is to help children between the ages of 3-10 understand the importance of honey bees. By comparing healthy and unhealthy bees in their natural habitat in an illustration format, the children could empathize with the honey bees. Hopefully, they will one day change the fate of these amazing creatures. The immersive environment will emulate a spatial audio, 2D character illustration, and animation projected onto a honeycomb structure. Custom seed packets and a brochure will accompany the immersive environment to allow the children to plant a bee-friendly garden and to learn more about the honey bees. This capstone project will showcase the researcher's skills in graphic design, spatial sound, architecture, exhibition design, and character illustration. This structure will allow individuals to observe, determine, and make comparisons between a healthy colony and one that is fragile and dying.

Stories of the Wind is an audiovisual performance exploring various media to tell a story, integrating media at the intersection of visual arts and music, leveraged by technology. Different materials and technologies coexist as pieces of an audiovisual performance, with images, sound objects and interactive works. The production of this work was informed by artistic-scholarship, which involved the combination of aesthetic education and aesthetic experience with research and analysis in the process of artistic and academic creation. This project was meant to be exhibited in the Cube, at the Moss Arts Center, at Virginia Tech. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was not possible to present the project in the space that it was created for, so a video adaptation was made to be submitted for the thesis defense. The video submitted as the thesis project pandemic adaptation can be seen through the following link: https://youtu.be/dH8ce9KO41w / M.F.A. / Stories of the Wind is an audiovisual performance telling a story using visual arts and music. It was created to be performed in the Cube, at the Moss Arts Center, at Virginia Tech. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was not possible to perform the project. A video adaptation was made instead, which can be seen through the following link: https://youtu.be/dH8ce9KO41w

Immunology Virtual Reality (VR) project is an immersive educational virtual reality experience that intends to provide an informal learning experience of specific immunology concepts to college freshmen in the Department of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech (VT). The project is an interdisciplinary endeavor between my collaboration between people from different domain areas at VT: Creative Technologies, Education, Biological Sciences, and Computer Sciences. This thesis elaborates on the whole design process of how I created a working prototype of the project demo and shares insights from my design experience. / Master of Fine Arts / Immunology Virtual Reality is an immersive educational virtual reality experience in which a user takes on the role of an immune cell and migrates to fight off pathogen invasions at an infection site in the human body. It explores levels of interactivity and storytelling in educational VR and their impact on learning.