Todd Maddox delves into the Neuroscience behind immersive technologies’ unique ability to make us experience things from another person’s perspective.

Merriam-Webster defines empathy as “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another…without having these fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner.”

Any profession that requires interpersonal interaction, such as education, retail, food service, and call centers, is better served with strong empathy
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That is a lot to unpack, but it is clear that empathy is about much more than an explicit cognitive understanding of someone’s situation. It is more about an emotional, experiential and visceral understanding as if you have “walked a mile in someone else’s shoes” and have shared their experiences. Empathy also shows in one’s behavior. An empathetic individual uses open body language and a verbal tone that shows genuine behavioral intent. Empathy is something that you can see in another’s action.

An empathetic individual uses open body language and a verbal tone that shows genuine behavioral intent
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In this report, I review the psychology and neuroscience of learning and show that virtual reality (VR) has the potential to build empathy in individuals. As outlined above, this requires training at an emotional, experiential and behavioral level, not just at a cognitive level. Empathy building is facilitated by immersive experiences that are rich in context and emotion and allow one to “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes”. As I show below, VR meets these challenges.

Empathy is something that you can see in another’s action
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Empathy is important in life and in many professions, and it is especially important in professions that help people in need or people under duress. For example, empathy is critical in healthcare, social work, senior care, and law enforcement, to name a few. In fact, any profession that requires interpersonal interaction, such as education, retail, food service, and call centers, is better served with individuals having strong empathy. Anytime someone could “use a friend”, “someone to listen”, or “someone to care and connect with”, empathy is a must.

Although there is likely some genetic component to empathy, as there is with so many things, many believe that it can be trained
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Some people seem to naturally have empathy, and others seem not to. Although there is likely some genetic component to empathy, as there is with so many things, many believe that empathy can be trained. Empathy training is clearly challenging though because this is not a skill that requires a simple cognitive understanding. Rather, empathy is an emotional skill that requires shared experience in the sense that one can “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes, and can behave accordingly.

Empathy training is about training a person, and every person’s actions are directed by their brain. Thus, to understand how to effectively train empathy, one must understand the psychology and neuroscience of learning.

“Learning is an experience. Everything else is just information”

Albert Einstein

This is an insightful quote from Albert Einstein that is supported by the neuroscience of learning and is especially relevant to empathy training.

As outlined in the figure below, the human brain is comprised of at least four distinct learning systems. As Einstein so eloquently stated, experience is at the heart of learning. The experiential system has evolved to represent the sensory aspects of an experience, whether visual, auditory, tactile or olfactory. Every experience is unique, adds rich context to the learning and is immersive. The critical brain regions associated with experiential learning are the occipital lobes (sight), temporal lobes (sound), and parietal lobes (touch/smell). Experiential learning is especially important when it comes to empathy. The more one can vicariously experience the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of another, the more empathetic they will become. If one can literally “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes” they get this vicarious experience.

Empathy building is facilitated by immersive experiences rich in context and emotion that allow one to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes
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One can experience a situation from any vantage point; Providing empathy, watching another provide empathy or receiving empathy
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The cognitive system is the information system. It processes and stores knowledge and facts using working memory and attention. Critically, these are limited resources and form a bottleneck that slows learning with more information coming in and available to the learner (the green arrows) than can be processed (the red arrow). This system encompasses the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. This is the “everything else” aspect of learning that Einstein alluded to. With respect to empathy, this might involve memorizing the Merriam-Webster definition, knowing explicitly that eye contact is important, or that it is important to be understanding.

The behavioral system in the brain has evolved to learn motor skills. This is an amazing system and one that builds the “muscle memory” that drives empathetic behaviors. The detailed processing characteristics of this system are fascinating but are beyond the scope of this report. Suffice it to say that the critical brain structure for behavioral learning is the striatum, and processing in the striatum is optimized when behavior is interactive and is followed in real-time (literally within milliseconds) by corrective feedback. Behaviors that are rewarded lead to dopamine release into the striatum that incrementally increases the likelihood of eliciting that behavior again in the same context.

emotional learning, when combined with context-rich experiences, builds rich repertoires of empathetic understanding and behavior
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Behaviors that are punished do not lead to dopamine release into the striatum thus incrementally decreasing the likelihood of eliciting that behavior again in the same context. This system links rich experiential contexts (represented by the experiential learning system) and emotions with the appropriate behavioral responses. It is one thing to know the definition of empathy, to know that eye contact is important, and to know that you need to show understanding, but it is completely different (and mediated by different systems in the brain) to know how to show empathy with eye contact and behaviors that demonstrate true understanding.

The more one can vicariously experience the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of another, the more empathetic they will become
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More than anything, it is the emotional learning system in the brain that builds the interpersonal understanding, awareness, and sensitivity that are at the heart of empathy and an understanding of our and others’ behaviors. The critical brain regions are the amygdala and other limbic structures. The detailed processing characteristics of this system are less well understood than the cognitive and behavioral skills learning systems, but emotional learning, when combined with context-rich experiences, builds rich repertoires of empathetic understanding and behavior.

The emotional learning system in the brain builds the interpersonal understanding, awareness, and sensitivity that are at the heart of empathy and an understanding of our and others’ behaviors
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It should be clear from this brief review of the psychology and neuroscience of learning, that training empathy is a challenge. Memorizing definitions, and an explicit cognitive understanding of empathy is not sufficient. Watching video of examples of empathetic and non-empathetic behavior is better, but even these do not represent immersive, context-rich experiences that elicit strong emotions. Empathy simulation and role-play training offer a step in the right direction because they are interactive, involve emotion-laden situations and behavior, but even here it is often difficult to suspend the reality of who you are and who your role-playing partner might be. In addition, people differ in their willingness and ability to role play. Finally, simulation and role play are time-consuming, costly, and not scalable.

This is where VR comes in. VR is time- and cost-effective, and is scalable. One can experience numerous VR scenarios and can repeat them as many times as one likes. VR has the potential to build the empathy that is so desperately needed.

VR is time- and cost-effective, and is scalable
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One can experience numerous VR scenarios and can repeat them as many times as one likes
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Consider a healthcare setting and a nurse-in-training. As any seasoned nurse will tell you, the classroom does a good job of training the technical aspects of the job, but not the interpersonal. However, suppose this nurse-in-training was given empathy training in VR, along with their traditional classroom training. Using VR, this nurse-in-training might be transported into the middle of a busy emergency room and shadow a seasoned nurse explaining a patient’s condition to their distraught spouse. Using voice-over, the seasoned nurse might explain how they are showing empathy to soothe the concerns of the spouse. The nurse-in-training is in the situation and can feel the emotions. They can combine the information provided by the seasoned nurse with the behaviors they are observing, all within an emotion-laden, realistic experience.

A nurse-in-training might be transported into the body of a patient just coming out of anesthesia following surgery
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This engages multiple learning systems in synchrony and will build empathy quickly and effectively. Analogously, the nurse-in-training might be transported into the body of a patient just coming out of anesthesia following surgery. They might experience one situation in which their nurse shows strong empathy and another situation in which their nurse does not. These behaviors are being directed at the nurse-in-training, while they embody a patient. This “walk a mile in my shoes” experience offers the first-person perspective that one needs to build empathy.

VR has the potential to build the empathy that is so desperately needed
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One can imagine similar VR empathy building scenarios for social workers, senior care professionals, law enforcement, retail, food service, and education to name just a few.

VR is immersive, and with high-quality content, one can experience almost any empathy-building situation. The experiential learning systems will be highly engaged and the learner will have a sense of presence. One can experience a situation from any vantage point, whether the one providing empathy, one watching another provide empathy or the receiver of empathy. Thus, one can obtain an emotional understanding from multiple perspectives. A cognitive understanding can emerge, but it is a byproduct and not the primary avenue of training. Emotion-laden experiential learning builds a deep emotional understanding of empathy, while simultaneously building a strong repertoire of empathy-related behaviors.

VR is immersive, and with high-quality content, one can experience almost any empathy-building situation
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For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance and support on how best to incorporate these into your brand strategy.

Todd Maddox is Science, Sports and Training Correspondent at Tech Trends, and the CEO of Cognitive Design and Statistical Consulting. Follow him on Twitter @wtoddmaddox

The post Report: VR as an Empathy Builder appeared first on Tech Trends.

More businesses across every industry have come to realize that soft skills are far from a “nice to have” and actually essential in order to ensure they have a well-rounded and creative workforce capable of tackling the complex challenges that some with doing business in the digital age. “For organisations, the ability to turn employees into smart, collaborative and self-directed leaders is often the difference between thriving and surviving,” says Christophe Mallet, co-founder of Somewhere Else, a London-based innovation agency specialised in immersive technologies.

The ability to turn employees into smart, collaborative and self-directed leaders is often the difference between thriving and surviving
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Jamie Duncan, Chief Revenue Officer at CorporateDNA, adds that in training there has traditionally been a focus on knowledge, but that where it comes to soft skills, knowledge isn’t necessarily power. “It’s what you can actually do with that knowledge. Your mindset is greater than your skill set, your attitude is far more important than what you learned.”

In Virtual reality, you can take part in any imaginable simulated social interaction. This is called virtual embodiment. Virtual embodiment promotes implicit learning, which is not only more easily assimilated, but tends to be retained for longer, engendering longer-lasting and more fundamental behavioural change. Studies by the likes of the University of Barcelona or Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab have shown how embodied VR experiences can affect meaningful behavioural change from reducing implicit racism bias, to priming altruistic behavior to making domestic abusers less likely to recidivate.

In Virtual reality, you can take part in any imaginable simulated social interaction - this is called virtual embodiment.
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Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. You can follow @alicebonasio on Twitter, connect with her on LinkedIn or subscribe to her Inside VR/AR Newletter for all the latest curated immersive news.

More businesses across every industry have come to realize that training their workforce in soft skills is actually essential
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From a Learning & Development perspective, VR combines the scaling potential of e-learning with the experiential impact of face-to-face training. In other words, VR-based soft skills training effectively enables organisations to deliver workforce behavioural change at scale.

Developed by Somewhere Else, BODYSWAPS is a soft skills training platform powered by AI and Virtual Reality which claims to do just that. The first BODYSWAPS scenario deployed was the ‘David’ Project – a performance management scenario developed with Corporate DNA Consulting, a global leadership firm.

BODYSWAPS works by letting employees practice those skills through acting out a range of high-pressure workplace scenarios with AI-powered virtual humans. You can be a manager giving an employee negative feedback, a CEO pitching an idea to the Board, a young woman in a male-dominated group meeting, etc.

From a Learning & Development perspective, VR combines the scaling potential of e-learning with the experiential impact of face-to-face training
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BODYSWAPS works by letting employees practice those skills through acting out a range of high-pressure workplace scenarios
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In each scenario, you get to effectively step into a virtual body, which then takes on your own voice and natural body language during the next phase, which involves interaction with virtual characters.

The interesting thing about this format is that it’s not based on binary choice, there are many nuances that force you to think on your feet, says Mallet. The pressure to perform feels very real.

There’s a lot of talk about the experiential value of immersive technologies, but this is something that really brings it home in a very real sense
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At the end of the experience, you are given – as the name suggests – the chance to experience the whole scenario from the perspective of the person you were just interacting with.

“This approach creates empathy and self-awareness,” and those, Mallet explains, are two of the most powerful drivers of effective behavioral change. For Tom Cross, a Performance Psychologist who tested the platform, “The emotional impact of VR speeds up the cycle of behavioral change and will make people more effective as leaders moving forward”.

There’s a lot of talk about the experiential value of immersive technologies, but this is something that really brings it home in a very real sense. Swapping bodies with the character you were just having a go at gives managers the chance – in fact forces them to – empathise with their point of view in a way that would have been quite impossible under normal circumstances. The result, believes Mallet, is that it forcefully prompts those in charge to reflect upon how they act and what small adjustments and nuances can make a difference in how the same message is delivered. In other words: the true impact and importance of so-called “soft skills”.

This article was originally published on VRScout

How Changing Places In VR Can Teach Employees Soft Skills via @alicebonasio https://t.co/pzsJOhbyb0 pic.twitter.com/dPIo6u83L8

— VRScout (@VRScout) April 27, 2019

Tech Trends’  Virtual Reality Consultancy services offers support for companies looking to enhance brand strategy with immersive technologies such as Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. You can follow @alicebonasio on Twitter, connect with her on LinkedIn or subscribe to her Inside VR/AR Newletter for all the latest curated immersive news.

The post Swapping Bodies in VR appeared first on Tech Trends.

Calling all conscious content makers who want to make the real world a better place through Virtual Reality

VRTogether is a recently launched non-profit initiative hoping to make a difference by bringing together a community of people to leverage Virtual Reality technology to effect change. Rather than financing projects, the platform encourages people to connect and engage with each other around VR projects that aim for the greater good.

VRTogether wants to bring producers of immersive content together for good causes
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Organisations and individuals looking for production studios, research partners, ideas or advice will be able to post their work and those with the expertise needed can offer help. By working together, these important projects can become a reality.

“The infrastructure has been built, now it needs to be populated,” explains VRTogether Founder Daryl Atkins from creative agency REWIND. “We’re asking people to invest a little time to create content which has the power to make a difference. Virtual Reality technology provides a compelling new way of telling stories and engaging people. The stories that need telling the most are often the most difficult to get off the ground, and we felt that amongst the day-to-day commercial projects that helped create the industry, we had a social responsibility to give something back to the wider community.”

The platform launched with a project from Whales.org to create an immersive experience showing the reality for whales and dolphins held in captivity to inspire positive action.

One of the first projects on the platform is a partnership with Whale and Dolphin Conservation
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“By using virtual reality, we can create an experience that enables people to see life from a whale or dolphin’s eyes, and can educate them about the sad contrast between life in a concrete tank and life in the ocean. VR is a great tool to get the public involved with the issue and brings us a step closer to stopping whale and dolphin captivity for good. By signing up to VRTogether you can help us to make a real change through technology,” says Chris Butler-Stroud, Chief Executive at Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC).

Virtual reality can change what a person sees, how they think, what they feel and even how someone behaves, in part because we believe it to be ‘reality’. This is why VR has already been used to treat conditions including autism, PTSD, depression, anxiety and even promote recovery in paraplegics and even tackle phobias.

“The way VR Together is wedding the inspired community of conscious VR makers together is unparalleled,” believes Catherine Day, Head of AR/VR at Missing Pieces and board advisor to VRTogether. “We all recognize VR has the potential to do what many hoped the first film camera would do – make it impossible to turn a blind eye to suffering, injustice, and ignorance.  There’s no way to turn a blind eye in VR, and because it is consumed digitally, and mostly via mobile, we can immediately take action before the transient moment of inspiration to do so has expired. Cause-based VR was the first genre to prove the power of the medium to the masses, the first to win awards, and if we continue to believe in one another’s dreams and help each other to realize them… pro-social and environmental VR will continue to sustain and advance immersive storytelling.”

VRTogether’s Board of Advisors also includes the “Godmother of VR” Nonny de la Peña, CEO of the Emblematic Group which has produced many experiences exploring the power of VR to create empathy as well as the Director of VR and New Media at the Raindance Film Festival Mária Rakušanová. Find out more about it at vrtogether.org

Tech Trends’  Virtual Reality Consultancy services offers support for companies looking to get a foothold in the growing Mixed Reality spectrum and enhance their brand strategy with these exciting new technologies. 

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedInand follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

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Virtual Reality’s immersive nature has the power to make us care. And we badly need that right now. 

It’s fair to say that 2016 has been an extremely divisive year – events like Brexit and Donald Trump’s election expose just how it is possible for people to experience the same reality in entirely different ways. But to me, President Obama’s hopeful message is the one that actually resonates:

“What unites us is far greater than that which divides us.”

But in order for that to work, we need to be able to step into someone else’s shoes and see the world through their eyes. A tall ask – until now. Because Virtual Reality experiences are letting us do just that. In this article for UploadVR I talk to Nonny de La Pena (nicknamed “The Godmother of VR)   about her latest project which highlights the plight of women seeking to terminate their pregnancy in America.

The project, which was featured in this year’s Raindance festival was a partnership between her Emblematic studio and Planned Parenthood  – the very same organisation that has received over 50,000 donations in Vice President-Elect Mike Pence’s name since the US Election result was announced.

The immersive nature of VR makes it particularly powerful in eliciting empathy, as you can experience something from a different person’s point of view. And the one thing seems certain in these most uncertain times is that we are going to need such tools if the world is to heal its deep-seated divisions, and if we are ever to realise that what unites us is indeed greater than that which divides us.

In this age of division, anything that helps us empathise with our fellow humans is a good thing. #VR
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There’s an iconic scene in Blade Runner where Harrison Ford’s character Deckard meets the replicant Rachel for the first time, but he doesn’t know she’s not human. He then uses a test called Voight-Kampff  to determine whether or not she’s a real person. The test consists of a series of questions designed to elicit emotion. The idea – which is beautifully challenged later on in the film – is that machines are incapable of such empathetic responses.

Empathy, in other words, is what makes us human
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With an emerging consensus that the immersive nature of VR is particularly effective in triggering those empathetic responses, we’re seeing artists throughout the creative industries exploring new possibilities for storytelling – with a purpose. Chris Milk’s UN-Commissioned Clouds Over Sidra showed the plight of refugees through the eyes of a 12-year old Syrian girl, while the National Theatre’s Immersive Storytelling Studio production HOME/AAMIR transported viewers to the infamous Calais ‘Jungle’ camp.

With an emerging consensus that VR is particularly effective in triggering empathetic responses, we’re seeing artists throughout the creative industries exploring new possibilities for storytelling – with a purpose
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VR can even make people feel more empathetic toward more abstract things like the environment, as was recently shown with the Crystal Reef project – showcased this year at the Tribeca Film Festival by researchers from the Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL) at Stanford. The simulation, where you watched the devastating effects of ocean acidification caused by man, served to connect people to the consequences of their own actions in a much more tangible way.

Journalist and Filmmaker Nonny de la Peña – Co-Founder of the Emblematic Group and affectionately known as the “Godmother of VR” – has long explored the power of Virtual Reality experiences to break through viewer apathy. Her pioneering work often transports viewers into uncomfortable situations – such as a line for food handouts outside a shelter in LA, where you see a man collapsing from hunger next to you – and makes them re-think their outlook on often controversial issues.

The latest of those projects is Across The Line, an experience which tells the story of a young woman going to an abortion clinic. I viewed it recently at London’s Raindance Film Festival – where it was selected for this year’s VR showcase Arcade – and spoke to la Peña and their partners at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) to find out more about how the project developed and what the reaction to it has been like so far.

Across the Line starts off with a 360 video of an examination room where you see a patient of the clinic being comforted by a clinician. The young woman sits quietly in the corner, but is visibly upset. After some coaxing from the doctor she tells her it’s because of what the protesters had been shouting at her as she made her way into the clinic. At that point, the doctor asks for permission to give her a hug, and you get a real sense of how helpless and vulnerable that person is feeling. As with most 360-degree video, your eyes tend to wander around the room sometimes, but mine is constantly drawn back to the lonely figure of this girl sitting on the examination table. Then as the she fidgets nervously my gaze is drawn to the two long red scars on the inside of her wrists. The unspoken story they tell is poignant. This being VR, I feel like I can almost reach out and touch those scars before the scene fades to black.

Journalist and Filmmaker Nonny de la Peña – known as the Godmother of VR – has long explored the power of Virtual Reality experiences to break through viewer apathy
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VR can even make people feel more empathetic toward more abstract things like the environment
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The experience then takes me back in time a few minutes, to the clinic entrance at the time when that patient is arriving for her appointment. You’re inside the car with her and the friend who’s driving her in, and they’re both nervously trying to find out where to go. There are protesters with placards lining the side of the road, and a man in an official-looking high visibility jacket approaches the car window. They ask him for directions, only to have him forcefully plead with the girl not to go in. They finally drive away with the angry shouts of the crowd echoing all around them.

In the final scene, I land on a computer-generated street, and am suddenly surrounded by angry avatars. They take turns hurling insults and accusations at me, calling me things like “whore” and “jezebel” and pontificating about how abortion amounts to murder. It certainly didn’t leave me with a warm fuzzy feeling as I took off the VR headset. The whole thing only lasted about seven minutes, but at the end of it I was glad to get back to my own reality.

In the final scene, I land on a computer-generated street, and am suddenly surrounded by angry avatars
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The objective here was to drive home just how distressing those protests can be: “Once we began to research and compile nonfiction footage and audio for this piece, we saw a consistent pattern of intimidation and provocation by protesters,” explains la Peña.

The difficulty they had with portraying that intimidation was that protesters often tended to tone things down and behave better if they knew they were being filmed, and a 360-degree rig is pretty conspicuous to say the least.

The solution Emblematic found was to get their partners at 271 Productions to personally capture audio from protests around the country, and then computer-generate the visuals to match. The result is a blend of factual content and artistry, and gives us a glimpse of the kind of direction VR journalism and documentary filmmaking could take in the future.

“This was the first time we combined 360-degree video with walk-around CG, so it was a challenge at first to create a storyline that tied both elements together. But we had great partners in 371 Productions, and they actually came and embedded in our lab in Santa Monica so we could work really closely with them to ensure the two pieces would fit seamlessly,” says la Peña.

The concept for Across the Line was born from a serendipitous meeting between la Peña and Molly Eagan – Vice President of the PPFA –  at the Sundance film festival last year. The PPFA had done awareness films in the past and were interested to find out whether VR would have a greater impact in raising public awareness than previous initiatives. Eagan later came on board as Executive Producer for the film, working with la Peña and their partners to ensure that the stories accurately portrayed the experiences of staff and patients on the ground.

They also consulted with Professor Jeremy Bailenson at Stanford’s VHIL on the development of the project, as the goal was also to eventually gather data – both qualitative and quantitative – to give further insight into understanding how VR elicits emotional responses through these experiences.

“Based on initial feedback and interviews with people who experienced Across The Line, we know that people are often inspired to take action immediately after watching the film,” says Eagan.

Those people often wanted to take some concrete step to help, so she tells me that they now have a set of information prepared to share with those who ask, telling them about the various ways in which they can make a difference, such as volunteering as a patient escort, supporting policy initiatives, or making a financial contribution to one of the foundations which provides these services.

Eagan talks of compassion being a key part of the care provided to patients at the clinic where she works, and wants the public to feel a measure of that same compassion toward those women after being immersed in the VR experience. One user told her that the film made her not only understand the patient’s perspective better but even to gain insight into the mindset of the protesters.

“We’ve seen an incredible range of responses,” says la Peña. “From people who have had no experience of a particular situation feeling like they could finally understand it, to people who have been through the ‘real thing’ and are still moved to tears to see it again in VR. We’ve seen strong reactions from men in particular who expressed anger that this sort of thing is happening. It’s amazing how much support we’ve had from people of all walks of life.”

la Peña says it has been sobering to see all the safety precautions that staff at the clinic have to take on a daily basis. But while the risk of backlash and even the threat of violence was something they had to be conscious of in tackling such a controversial subject, she believes this is an important story that needs to be told:“In the past five years, states have enacted 282 abortion restrictions. Last year, Congress voted 18 times for even more restrictions. We knew we had to figure out a way to get people to empathize with the women who endure the harassment that comes with seeking abortion services.”

Initially, Across The Line was only being shown at film festivals, but the experience got such a great response that the PPFA wanted to make it more widely available, so Emblematic worked to render out a version where the whole experience could be seen in 360. They then distributed a number of cardboard headsets at events around the country, to help spread the message even further.

Journalists and artists are only going to get better at using this medium to tell stories in a whole new way
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la Peña thinks it’s about time we stopped thinking of VR just in terms of novelty. The power of presence in these virtual environments is a real phenomenon, one that scientists can measure and track. How you leverage that power, however, is something we’re very much still getting our heads around. She’s excited about the possibilities though, and says the empathy vein is something she’ll definitely continue to explore in her work.

Journalists and artists are only going to get better at using this medium to tell stories in a whole new way. And the tools will get cheaper and easier to use, opening up the doors for more and more people to use it.

“We’re still in the very early days of a truly transformative medium,” la Peña said.

Crossing the line: How VR has the power to make you care.
via @alicebonasio #VR https://t.co/KYJXNnbdHP pic.twitter.com/Rv1hrv9fSl

— Upload (@UploadVR) November 25, 2016

For companies looking to get into VR/AR/MR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance on how these technologies can enhance and support your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

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