{"id":7266,"date":"2017-09-20T06:56:05","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T06:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vr-room.ch\/?p=7266"},"modified":"2017-09-11T14:23:10","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T14:23:10","slug":"vr-unterstuetzt-nun-auch-den-schutz-der-umwelt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vr-room.ch\/en\/2017\/09\/20\/vr-unterstuetzt-nun-auch-den-schutz-der-umwelt\/","title":{"rendered":"VR now also supports environmental protection"},"content":{"rendered":"

VR is supposed to make our planet greener. A VR game should influence the thinking and behaviour of consumers in favour of the environment.<\/h3>\n

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How drastic are the effects of plastic on our world really? A study by the University of California in Santa Barbara shows it: since 1950, humans have produced 8.3 billion tonnes of it - as much as a billion elephants weigh. Spread out knee-high, the plastic would cover a surface the size of Argentina. 80 per cent of it is never recycled and ends up in landfill.<\/p>\n

Shocking figures, but most of them don't make much of a difference. Consumers continue to behave in the same way. Most of us never even see the part of the environment that is being damaged.<\/p>\n

Using VR to positively influence people's actions<\/h3>\n

Jeremy Bailenson, Professor of Communication at the Stanford University<\/a> (USA), has developed a way to make the pollution of our oceans understandable to everyone. With his Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL) team, he developed a virtual reality game last year that not only explains environmental phenomena, but also challenges those who play it to rethink their actions in real life.<\/p>\n

\"In the fight against climate change, one of the biggest challenges is to make people understand how a high-fuel-consuming car or a poorly insulated house contributes to the problem,\" says Bailenson. \"With virtual reality, everyone, no matter where they are, can experience how urgent it is to prevent environmental catastrophe.\"<\/p>\n

The VHIL has already conducted several experiments with VR - the results are astounding: someone who had seen a redwood tree being felled in virtual reality was more likely to use paper more sparingly. If the test subjects had taken a virtual shower and seen their avatar in the simulation eating coal with as much calorific value as was needed for heating, they subsequently saved water.<\/p>\n