During the two week seminar, participants learned about the theoretical underpinnings and the technical aspects required in building a virtual world. A synthesis of the humanities, social sciences and engineering, students from different fields of undergraduate study came together to learn how virtual worlds are made. HOW VIRTUAL WORLDS ARE MADE 1. Think about the theoretical context of your study. 2. Outline the experiment 3. Write Python Code 4. Build the environments, avatars, and animations appropriate to the study 5. Experiment. Gather Data. Run Data through Matlab. 5. Interpret. Make Conclusions.

the lab space with two people interacting in VR

TSI: Perspective Taking

One simulation enables two (or more) participants to negotiate an agreement with the ability to view their opponent's physical perspective—an ability not achievable in the real world.  These studies may be able to confirm and explain a connection between a person’s willingness to “view” an issue from someone else's point of view, and the implications on their negotiation tactics and overall success. 

 Eyewitness Testimony and Virtual Police Lineups

Investigations in collaboration with the Federal Judicial Center examine the possibility that virtual environments will aid in our understanding of how witnesses of crimes identify suspects. Current police lineup procedures rely predominantly on mug photographs when conducting lineups.

Why use VR for Studying Police lineups?

 - Witnesses can view the suspects and distracters from any angle or distance.

 - Test administrators can distance the distracters (i.e. “foils) from the actual suspects by morphing the underlying mesh model of the suspect (i.e. change the height, weight, clothing, hairstyle, tattoos, etc.)

 - The lineup can occur within the virtual “crime scene” (i.e. the suspects and foils can lineup in the sensory context of the actual crime)

 - The virtual suspects and distracters can be animated or show facial expressions.

Public Speaking

This world enables subjects to "practice" speaking in front of a crowd. This experience is especially helpful to people with stage fright. Different options allow the users to speak to an enthusiastic, bored, difficult, or engaged audience.

Sustainable Ventures in Developing Nations

The Kozmetsky Global Collaboratory (KGC) at Stanford University and its Real-time Venture Design Laboratory (ReVeL) have a vision to achieve shared global prosperity in the 21st century through the development of research and practice of real-time, interactive venture design for social ventures. Its mission is to establish a lab that rapidly creates regionally distributed sustainable ventures. Recent research in this area includes: links between personal identity and venture sustainability; information technology and development; and compression in small groups.

            Our goal is to educate Stanford students and others in order to heighten awareness of foreign cultures.  Currently, our project’s focus is on developing a virtual environment depicting a bazaar in a high density, poverty stricken Indian village.