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
Share on X

Virtual Reality has been used many times to show the dreadful consequences of the Syrian conflict
Share on X

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
Share on X

By polling users of the experience, the ICRC wants to understand more about people’s perception of urban warfare
Share on X

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
Share on X

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
Share on X

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
Share on X

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.

EdTech startup Funzi and UNDP Syria have partnered to deliver mobile learning to vulnerable populations in conflict areas.

In a war zone, the sad truth is that education often becomes one of the first casualties, as it is – understandably – pushed back in favour of more urgent and immediate needs such as food and healthcare. The tragedy of it is, however, that this not only affects people’s ability to cope with their immediate situation, but also hampers their post-conflict chances of building a long-term future.

Education often becomes one of the casualties in a conflict situation
Share on X

Funzi and UNDP Syria are collaborating to deliver mobile learning to vulnerable populations
Share on X

Conflicts in Syria have resulted in shortage of jobs and infrastructure, as well as lack of security in certain parts of the country. This erodes livelihood prospects of Syrians and makes access to relevant information and quality learning evermore essential. Yet UNESCO policy guidelines for mobile learning affirm that mobile devices can help ensure the continuity of education during times of crisis.

Conflicts in Syria have resulted in shortage of jobs and infrastructure
Share on X

To help address this, and strengthen the resilience and socio-economic stability of individuals and communities in Syria, Funzi and UNDP Syria have started collaboration to deliver mobile learning, with training modules expected to be launched later this year.

“Mobile learning leverages technology people already own,” explains Tero Salonen, Funzi’s CEO and Founder. ”The cost of mobile teaching is only a fraction compared to traditional means of teaching, making mobile an efficient and effective channel for knowledge transfer, especially in areas of crisis.”

Since essential information and training content are available via mobile phones, he says, learning can happen in areas and at times that may not have been easy to reach

 

“With our service performing well in slower networks and on feature phones, training is easily accessible to vulnerable populations in areas with poor infrastructure. It is also a major step forward towards helping mitigate educational disruptions during times of crisis through mobile learning in order to support swift recoveries of these countries.”

This is a significant milestone for Funzi, a Finnish start-up we covered previously on Tech Trends which is an active member in the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan. When I met their founder Aape Pohjarvita in Helsinki, he was keen to emphasize how he believed mobile would be the most disruptive method of delivering effective learning globally, specially in conflict areas (at the time they had already deployed courses to over 40,000 people in Iraq).

“We at Funzi are committed to supporting the world in achieving peace, meaningful livelihoods, and happiness and health for all through quality education. Thus, this project is a significant milestone that takes us closer to achieving our vision,” agrees Salonen.

Funzi’s service – which is free to end users – delivers learning specifically designed for mobile and personalizes the user experience using similar mechanisms as those leveraged to make mobile games “sticky” such as behavioural and usage patterns.

Mobile learning leverages technology people already own
Share on X

Funzi founders Chief Evangelist Aape Pohjavirta, CEO Tero Salonen and co-founder CXO Miemo Penttinen

This is also an important as a test case for exporting Finnish education and for the viability of mobile learning as a delivery mechanism for learning opportunities to vulnerable populations in conflict areas around the world.

Funzi uses mobile gaming mechanisms to personalize learning for its users
Share on X

Tailored training modules for UNDP’s local partners and their beneficiaries will be launched as mobile learning on a dedicated site starting late 2017. The goal of the partnership is to promote long-term participation, sustainability, and self-sufficiency of UNDP local partners.

The first phase of learning will equip aid workers, while the second will help vulnerable populations
Share on X

Training will be delivered in two phases, with the first one developing essential program lifecycle management skills for UNDP and NGO field staff and the second offering training to vulnerable populations like the displaced, and women- and youth-headed households to support them in achieving social cohesion and sustainable livelihoods.

“Our participation and experience in developing and implementing mobile learning services for displaced populations allow us to create learning programs that are effective in knowledge transfer and skills development, while remaining cost-efficient and scalable,” Salonen concludes.

To find out how to leverage VR/AR/MR in your enterprise, Tech Trends offers bespoke Virtual Reality Consultancy support

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.

The post Bringing Mobile Learning to Syria appeared first on Tech Trends.

Broadcasters such as the BBC are increasingly investing in Virtual Reality. We Wait tells the story of a refugee family making the perilous journey from war-torn Syria to Europe, and is the corporation’s first release for Oculus.

The production, which was a partnership with Aardman Digita, is an example of how VR experimentation is becoming a strategic concern for large-scale content producers. Read the full article on UploadVR

Broadcasters such as the BBC are increasingly investing in #VR content
Share on X

We Wait enabled us to explore how VR can deepen audiences’ understanding in a way they wouldn’t otherwise be able to experience
Share on X

2016 has been a busy year in VR for the BBC, as it started to figure out what role the medium will play in its future by releasing a range of 360 and VR projects exploring the boundaries of the new medium. These projects covered a broad spectrum of subjects and audiences, ranging from harrowing experiences like Fire Rescue – which tells the story of a Christmas Day blaze from which firefighters saved the lives of six children – and the journey of a single mother Trafficked from Nicaragua to Mexico to The Turning Forest (a folkish fairy-tale experience for Google Daydream) and a series of companion 360-degree videos that put viewers next to the documentary crews filming the Planet Earth II series and offered highlights of the Rio Olympics.

“Our VR experiments this year have enabled us to look at the role the BBC should play at this early stage, raising important questions over how storytelling, pacing, direction, subtitling, sound and picture quality are all affected,” says Zillah Watson, executive producer, BBC R&D.

But We Wait is a first for the British broadcaster which saw the BBC Connected Studio collaborate with legendary Bristol-based animation studio Aardman Digital – the makers of Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep – to produce a dramatization of the dangerous journey Syrian migrants take from Turkey to Greece on smuggler’s boats.

Like many content producers, the BBC is keen to explore the potential of VR as a Storytelling Medium, and the Syrian war and its resulting refugee crisis is a poignant subject that certainly lends itself well to powerful – if often uncomfortable – levels of immersion. Award-winning films such as Chris Milk’s Clouds Over Sidra and HOME/AAMIR –  produced in partnership with the National Theatre’s recently launched Immersive Storytelling Studio in London – are other examples of this.

Our VR experiments this year have enabled us to look at the role the BBC should play at this early stage
Share on X

We Wait – which is based on real migrant accounts gathered by BBC News – begins on a beach in Turkey and takes the viewer on board a boat crossing the Mediterranean. As the name hints, the objective here is to recreate the sense of anticipation and suspense those displaced people feel as they attempt to reach Europe.

“By putting the viewer at the heart of the story, we’re offering an immersive experience that would be impossible to reproduce through traditional reporting,” they stated in their release today.

Watson believes that VR could be a very interesting tool for telling news stories in the future beyond the confines of traditional reporting, something that people like Nonny de La Penna have also been exploring as a way to trigger empathy in audiences. Like de la Pena, Watson comes from a journalism background, working on TV, radio and web as well as documentary filmmaking before moving to BBC’s R&D department.

“We Wait has enabled us to explore how VR can deepen audiences’ understanding of a topic in a way they wouldn’t otherwise be able to experience, and with the film now going live on the Oculus store for the Rift it opens it up to a wider audience as we continue to develop the potential this emerging medium has to inform, educate and entertain.”

We Wait is now available globally and for free on the Oculus store.

The dangerous journey Syrian migrants embark on has been dramatized in @BBC‘s ‘We Wait’. via @alicebonasio #VR https://t.co/9Vd2PZrHUz pic.twitter.com/9HL9qGfTUL

— Upload (@UploadVR) December 14, 2016

To find out how to leverage VR/AR/MR in your enterprise, Tech Trends offers bespoke Virtual Reality Consultancy support

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.

The post Journey from War-Torn Syria Told in VR appeared first on Tech Trends.