Film premiered at Tribeca brings the nuclear horrors of the past to life as warnings for the future.

It was the blast heard around the world: On August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima, Japan, killing approximately 80,000 people and injuring another 35,000. Yet, society seems to have forgotten the true catastrophes of that day; Hiroshima has become a chapter in a textbook, a history lesson we pay attention to for the sake of a test, and then move on from.

Described as an “Interactive Virtual Reality Memorial,” The Day the World Changed premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City
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On August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber dropped the world's first atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima, Japan, killing approximately 80,000 people and injuring another 35,000
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Over 70 years later, this is something that filmmakers Gabo Arora, Saschka Unseld are hoping to change, by leveraging the unique immersive qualities of VR to force us to remember that day in its full horror, and ask all the difficult questions that come with it.

The Day the World Changed Trailer- Tribeca 2018 from Jennifer Tiexiera on Vimeo.

Described as an “Interactive Virtual Reality Memorial,” The Day the World Changed premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City with an unflinching experience centered on the bombing. Utilizing first-hand testimonies, data visualizations, 3-D scanning and photogrammetry, participants in the virtual experience will have exclusive access to images and artifacts they normally would not get to see in real life, including the ability to walk around the Atomic Dome, the last remaining building left standing after the devastation of Hiroshima.

Important experiences like this have the potential to open up new markets and audiences to the power of immersive storytelling around the world
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It is all part of the filmmaker’s larger mission to show how virtual reality film can be used as a vanguard that merges entertainment with education – all while examining crucial social issues and bringing people together. The project began as as an original commission by Nobel Media to showcase the work of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization ICAN, a campaign coalition that works to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons.

“We are living in a time when our Commander-in-Chief and leaders of other nations are openly calling for more nuclear weapons, taunting each other over their capabilities. Our intention with this work is to give voice to those victims of nuclear war asking the world to face this shared history and to recognize the true horror of these weapons,” says Arora, who believes that people have been desensitized to the consequences of nuclear war over the years.

Tomorrow Never Knows is a start-up XR research, content and technology studio which worked in partnership with ICAN, Nobel Media and the Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund in Film and Media Studies at Johns Hopkins University to put together a powerful historical record reimagined through new technology. Its CEO and Executive Producer on the project, Nathan Brown, hopes the film will help in bridging the gap between art, education and location-based distribution. “This project goes far beyond mere technology or storytelling,” he says. “It is important experiences like this that have the potential to open up new markets and audiences to the power of immersive storytelling around the world.”

The Day the World Changed isn’t just a story about the past, it is also about our future—it reminds us that these weapons are still here, threatening us, but we can do something about it
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The story is told in three interactive chapters:

• The first explores what led the United States government to develop and drop the world’s first atom bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945, a catastrophic event that ultimately killed more than 90,000 people.
• The second chapter examines the aftermath of the bombing as users walk through the ruins of Hiroshima’s only remaining building, and view authentic artifacts left over from that day.
• The third chapter advances to the present day as viewers delve into the madness that ensued as the world raced to develop ever-more nuclear weapons.

“We find ourselves at one of the most dangerous moments since the dawn of the Atomic Age. It’s at moments like this that we must collectively look back and understand that nuclear weapons are quite simply indiscriminate weapons of mass murder,” said ICAN executive director, Beatrice Fihn. “The Day the World Changed isn’t just a story about the past, it is also about our future—it reminds us that these weapons are still here, threatening us, but we can do something about it.”

“We want this to be an unwavering, uncomfortable experience for people. We want to turn on its head our obsessions and fetishizing of nuclear superiority as a symbol of pride in one’s country, but also to recognize the power of the virtual reality medium,” adds Unseld. “By placing  the general  public inside the ruins of a tragic event like Hiroshima, we hope to activate a groundswell of support for the abolition of nuclear weapons, and to help ICAN generate momentum in their mission towards elimination.”

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.

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 Virtual Reality With a Social Mission appeared first on Tech Trends.

“It all started with a Hackathon,” Jennifer Holland, Google Apps for Education Program Manager tells me. In typical tech fashion, a bunch of Googlers thought it would be great to combine the Virtual Reality technology being rolled out with Google Cardboard with their education offering already embraced by teachers from all over the world. Throw in Google Maps/Earth/Streetview into the mix, and the idea for Google Expeditions was born.

Google Expeditions was born out of a Hackathon project
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They started testing out these virtual field trips in classrooms a year ago, and since then have worked with content partners to create more than 200 immersive experiences that take students to places like Versailles, Machu Pichu, Buckingham Palace and the Burj Khalifa building in Dubai.

In one year, Google's Virtual Reality made over 200 immersive experiences available to a million students
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Since then VR has taken off in a big way, and many companies realized the great potential of the technology to engage students in the classroom. I recently talked to San Francisco-based start-up Nearpod about how their VR lesson plans have been a huge hit with both teachers and students in the 6 months since they started incorporating the technology into their platform:

“kids go from looking at 2×4 pictures of corals to literally being immersed into a coral reef that reacts to their movements, but it goes beyond just visual immersion. The fact that students can control what they look at gives a personalized feel of exploration to their experience,” their CEO Guido Kovalskys told me.

Google also took their users underwater when it worked with Sir David Attenborough and Alchemy VR to create a virtual expedition to the Great Barrier Reef:

“Through virtual reality, I’m lucky enough to be able to share my experiences with audiences of all ages to allow them to explore and learn about these diverse ecosystems in a more immersive way,” said Sir David, who has always been a pioneer in using technology to educate the public about the wonders of the natural world.

Google worked with Sir David Attenborough to let users experience the Great Barrier Reef in Virtual Reality
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Cody Karutz from Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab also agrees that virtual reality has definite advantages in creating empathy for the environment and thus aiding conservation. His own coral-related project Crystal Reef was showcased in this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, and the VHIL created a version of it for Expeditions that Google has been using for many months now, says the lab’s Director Jeremy Bailenson.

Google says they’re “thrilled by the potential” of VR technology, and announced new partnerships with the Associated Press and Getty Images to incorporate current affairs content into the platform and give teachers more options to work Virtual Reality into lesson plans.

With companies like Facebook investing heavily VR, Google is also making larger moves towards staking its claim in that space. At their annual developer conference this week they also unveiled Daydream, their new mobile Virtual Reality platform to enable high quality VR on Android smartphones. Also significant is the announcement that they will be building an intuitive controller that works in tandem with the headset to produce richer and more immersive experiences.

Google will launch its own Mobile VR platform and build intuitive controller to create better experiences
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Next month EdTech Trends will be visiting Google’s New York office to talk to their VR and Education teams about how new products and developments will mean for students and teachers around the world, and what we can expect next in these exciting times for virtual reality, and for education. Watch this space.

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 Taking a Million Kids on Virtual Reality Field Trips appeared first on Tech Trends.