Twilight Rohingya: The Design and Evaluation of Different Navigation Controls in a Refugee VR Environment

Hongni Ye, Chaoyu Zhang, Hongsheng Xu, LC Ray, Xin Tong

Abstract

In this research, we designed a 360 VR video-based system to depict real-life scenarios from a refugee camp with active(selecting thematic video clips freely) and passive (watching sequence-determined clips passively) navigation. We recruited 36 participants to investigate the effects of our system on people’s implicit bias against refugees and compared how active and passive navigation may differ in reducing those biases. This project ranked the 2022 Unity Humanity Award Top 20 Finalist!
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The Context

The immersive storytelling is achieved through the established virtual environment, consisting of 360-degree videos about the Rohingya refugees living in a refugee campus in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Those videos depict the daily life of the refugee, and all footage is shot in first-person perspective, allowing viewers to follow their activities, such as climbing mountains and playing football, by watching the video.

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System Design

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01 Onboarding

The user starts with reading an introduction to the navigation scheme. When the user finishes reading the message, a button on the bottom of the prompt box is supposed to be pressed by gaze to continue.
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02 Navigation In Landscape

A landscape reflects the spatial features of the refugee camps. It helps the user perceive the living condition of the refugees. Several indicators highlight the spots, once an indicator of a spot is triggered, the user will enter the scene of the selected spot.
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03 Spot Exploration

When the user enters the scene of the selected spot, a 360-degree video will play automatically. The user can turn around the head to watch it from multiple perspectives. There is a panel that allows users to change the scene quickly. It consists of 3 spots depicting indoor activities: Family1, Family2 and Kitchen.
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04 Join The Dynamic Activities

The demo provides two outdoor activities: Playground and Bridge. It’s about the story that happened in these two spots. Through the VR environment, the user can experience playing football with refugees and walking together with them on the trail.

User Study

From August to October in 2021, 36 participants(20 female and 16 male) with ages around 25.41±5.01 years old were asked to experience the living condition of refugees with active navigation in VR. Results show that active navigation mode significantly affects one dimension of attitudes towards refugees than passive viewing.

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Contact

No.1 Du Xue Rd, Nansha District, Guangzhou

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