WHY IMMERSIVE MEDIA AT AMERICAN SPACES AND HOW?

Studies have shown that immersive media such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) can elicit a stronger emotional response from the user. In addition, it can allow for a more rich and memorable educational experience. American Spaces should consider making use of this new technology to provide audiences with a more meaningful connection to the United States.

Additionally, immersive media is expanding rapidly into fields such as design, education, health, e-commerce, professional training, and entertainment. American Spaces looking to promote entrepreneurship and innovation can run programs with local partners on immersive media design.

There are now VR programs that allow people to create virtual meetings, model 3D assets while in the 3D space of VR, exercise in interactive spaces, and even help people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to name just a few.

Virtual Reality Group Tours

Some American Spaces have used virtual reality to run group or classroom tours of the United States. This can be done with very basic VR sets. This educational set, available on American Spaces eShop, includes smartphones that are pre- programmed with Google Expedition experiences. Participants can “visit” an American university, tourist site, historical monument, or national park.

Immersive Media Training

Courses on VR/AR development are gaining popularity at American Spaces. For example, American Center Cairo has run several successful courses in coordination with a local partner to teach participants how to create VR content. See this American Spaces Live webinar (forthcoming) for more.

Immersive Media Station

Several American Spaces provide access to AR/VR equipment in their Makerspaces to allow visitors to experience the technology with games, 360 videos, and other experiences.

Virtual Reality Meetups/Events

With the switch to moving all things virtual, new platforms are emerging to conduct virtual meetings and just hang out with friends. American Space Dushanbe hosted a Halloween party using the free platform Mozilla Hubs. Visitors were able to choose their avatar, walk through a haunted house, and watch videos together. This platform can be accessed by any VR headset, a mobile device, or just a computer. See this webinar from the U.S. Embassy to Italy on the possibilities of virtual reality for cultural events.

Immersive Media Platforms

Google’s Expeditions & Arts and Culture

Users can download the mobile apps for both these Google resources. As mentioned above, Google Expeditions allows for classroom tours to experience American cities, universities, national parks, and historical sites in VR. Here’s the full list of 900 Google Expeditions. Google Arts and Culture is similar but focused on museum collections. Like Expeditions, users can insert their mobile device in a VR headset.

Mozilla Hubs

In this free and accessible platform, users can create a virtual reality room where anyone with a computer, smartphone, or VR headset can hold meetings or clubs, watch videos, or present. This can serve as a place for American Spaces visitors to simply hang out, watch videos together, or even play hide and seek.

VR YouTube

One of the largest repositories of VR, 360, and 180 videos, this site has featured playlists of storytelling, travel, culture, and music. It can be accessed by any VR headset and American Spaces can upload their own 360 videos.

Virtual Museum Tours

Many American museums now have their own immersive media tours. Here are just a few examples: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, National Constitution Center, and Museum of the American Revolution.

Virtual Exhibitions

American Spaces in Bangladesh have created virtual exhibitions using Artstep and Kunstmatrix.