Most of us are lucky enough not to have experienced urban conflict first-hand, but VR can give us a sense of what that looks – and feels – like for people on the ground who have to actually live that reality.

Virtual Reality has been used many times to show the dreadful consequences of the Syrian conflict. As early as 2015, Chris Milk brought us Clouds Over Sidra and showed how VR was indeed a powerful “empathy machine” as he described the medium in a TED talk that gathered over 1.5 million views since then. The theme was also explored from different angles through BBC animation We Wait and Enter the Room which was the first project produced by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Most of us are lucky enough not to have experienced urban conflict first-hand, but VR can give us a sense of what that looks – and feels – like
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Virtual Reality has been used many times to show the dreadful consequences of the Syrian conflict
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Yet The Right Choice is the first use of interactive VR by the humanitarian sector that gives the viewer an active role in shaping the story of civilians trapped in a war zone. The film is a product of the Google Daydream Impact Project which aims to make a positive difference in society through the application of immersive technologies such as VR and AR.

“New technology, including virtual reality, can be a powerful tool to help a large audience understand the human cost of war,” believes Jennifer Hauseman, director of communications and information management at the ICRC.

In the experience, you’re placed next to a Syrian family trapped in urban warfare, and the title reflects on their terrible reality, where the decisions you’re asked to make represent the difference between them living or dying. In the face of attack, you have a choice as to what you do, yet none of those choices lead to a truly positive outcome. You’re stuck with a list of bad options.

The Right Choice is the first use of interactive VR by the humanitarian sector that gives the viewer an active role in shaping the story of civilians trapped in a war zone
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By polling users of the experience, the ICRC wants to understand more about people’s perception of urban warfare
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The Right Choice was filmed in Lebanon with guidance from ICRC workers who had direct experience of the Syrian conflict. It was produced in collaboration with several creative agencies such as Don’t Panic London, Visualise and Stoked Films.

By polling users of the experience, the ICRC wants to understand more about people’s perception of urban warfare and see how VR can influence behaviour and build empathy for those affected by war.

“This film asks: What would you do if you came under attack?” explains Christopher Nicholas, ICRC’s project lead for the film. “Virtual reality transports viewers from the comfort of their homes to the horrors of the battlefield in a visceral and powerful way,” he adds.

This work follows from I Saw My City Die, a report published by the ICRC in 2017 that highlights the impact on civilians of fighting in cities and towns in Syria and Iraq, revealing that urban offensives accounted for eight times more conflict-related civilian fatalities than on-going fighting or fighting in other areas. This means that urban conflict accounted for 70% of all civilian deaths in Iraq and Syria.

The Right Choice was filmed in Lebanon with guidance from ICRC workers who had direct experience of the Syrian conflict
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Audience insights from this experience will inform future investment in VR as a critical tool to educate people and raise awareness and action for humanitarian issues
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The main purpose of The Right Choice is to test VR’s potential to build empathy for these people who are still trapped in war zones every day. By surveying people in major global cities once devastated by war, the ICRC wants to find out if it is possible to change someone’s perception and incite behavioral change. Audience insights from this experience will inform future investment in VR as a critical tool to educate people and raise awareness and action for humanitarian issues.

”It can be hard to raise awareness around some situations – especially when they are distant. We are thankful to have partnered with ICRC to leverage VR to give insight into a complex situation, and helping give a voice to those left behind,” concludes Sarah Steele, VR Program Lead at Google.

The experience can be downloaded now from the Google Playstore and the iOS Apple Store.

The main purpose of The Right Choice is to test VR’s potential to build empathy for these people who are still trapped in war zones every day
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This article originally appeared on VRScout

Every Choice You Make Is Life Or Death In This Daydream Impact VR Experience via @alicebonasio https://t.co/g4CarRErnV pic.twitter.com/7ahqg2Otd9

— VRScout (@VRScout) October 31, 2018

For companies looking to leverage Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR Tech Trends offers a comprehensive range of Virtual Reality Consultancy Services.

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 LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Bringing War Home appeared first on Tech Trends.

This iOS Augmented Reality app by the Red Cross shows people what the effects of war would feel like in their home.

VR is often called the “empathy machine” referring to the medium’s unique ability to make you see things from the perspective of another through sheer power of immersion. This makes it ideally suited for telling the story of conflict situations where people might get desensitized towards regular news content, no matter how impacting the imagery might be.

The app provides a visceral experience of war at a family’s doorstep
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Which is what the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) hopes to achieve with “Enter the room” – an augmented reality experience for iOS app users:

“We want to humanize war, we want people to look at war not from their comfort zones or through the distance of a news article. We want to generate empathy towards the millions of people who face war every day, a reality which we, at ICRC, bear witness to far too often. Immersive tech like mobile AR can really remove those barriers to understanding and empathizing in a really powerful and immediate way,” says Ariel Rubin, head of digital content at the ICRC.

In a narrative told through the eyes of a child the app provides a visceral, first-person experience of war at a family’s doorstep. Entering through a portal on the screen of their device, the viewer sees what the impact of years of fighting would do to a regular child’s bedroom.

Entering through a portal on the screen of their device, the viewer sees what the impact of years of fighting would do to a regular child’s bedroom
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Around 65 million people are fleeing conflict today, and 75 percent of those affected by these conflicts live in cities, so this is actually very close to the reality experienced by many people around the world every day.

“Using ARKit allows us to literally brings the conflict home to you, it makes it real in a powerful and new way and makes the audience really think about this question: What if this happened to your childhood bedroom, or your son or daughter’s?” asks Rubin. “We spend our lives on our smartphones, walking around with our eyes glued to them, by mapping this virtual reality onto our actual reality – and within that creating a narrative that tells a real story – there’s something incredibly moving about that. I remember seeing all the first case uses of ARKit last September and being inspired by the examples of the different portals people were creating. The idea of building a portal not to a fictional place but to something that’s happening now to families in war-torn cities all over the world really stuck with me,” he adds.

According to Charlotte Lindsey-Curtet, director of communications and information management at the ICRC, this is the first time AR has been used to tell the story of the impact of urban conflict in such a way: “With augmented reality, we can create immersive experiences that showcase the humanitarian situation in a new and deeply moving way.”

“Conflict has devastating impacts on communities, and especially on children. We hope the story told through this immersive app will give people new insights into the realities of war,” says Peter Maurer, President of the ICRC. “It is a vivid reminder of how urban warfare destroys children’s bedrooms, their homes, and – tragically – their lives.”

Enter the room was designed by the digital innovation agency Nedd using Apple ARKit and can be downloaded for free in the Apple store.

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 on Twitter.

The post Seeing the Realities of War Through AR appeared first on Tech Trends.