The Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL) at
Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
. It was founded in 2003 by Jeremy Bailenson, associate professor of communication at Stanford University. The lab conducts research for the Communication Department.
History
Its founding director was Stanford professor Jeremy Bailenson.
[Everett Cook, December 22, 201]
Now used far beyond Stanford, virtual reality keeps growing at the Farm
''San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...
'' As of April 2014, it had an advanced
virtual reality
Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...
lab and setup,
[Farhad Manjoo, April 2, 201]
If You Like Immersion, You’ll Love This Reality
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' which was used to teach visitors and students on various topics.
[Joe Rosato Jr., December 20, 201]
Stanford Takes Students on Virtual Undersea Journey
''NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
'' The company's VR software is "free to any interested organization."
[Marco della Cava, April 8, 201]
Virtual reality tested by NFL as tool to confront racism, sexism
''USA Today
''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...
'' According to the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
,'' it is at the "forefront" of the
irtual reality contentmovement" in 2015, at which point Jeremy Bailenson remained the head of the organization.
[Steven Zeitchik, April 24, 201]
Title
''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
''
VR projects
*''The Crystal Reef'' (2016) - Premiered at the 2016
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...
. It was later featured by ''
TIME
Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
''. It is a 360-degree video VR experience about
ocean acidification
Ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth's ocean. Between 1950 and 2020, the average pH of the ocean surface fell from approximately 8.15 to 8.05. Carbon dioxide emissions from human activities are the primary cause of ...
.
[Stanford Universit]
The Crystal Reef
''Stanford
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...
''[Rob Jordan of Stanford University, November 30, 201]
Virtual reality could serve as powerful environmental education tool
'' Phys.org''
*''The Stanford Ocean Acidification Experience'' (2016) - Also called ''SOAE'', the "experience" premiered at the Tribeca 2016 Film Festival (then-called ''The Crystal Reef: Interactive'') in conjunction with the 360 video. SOAE allows users to become a scientist and interact with their environment. ''SOAE has'' been exhibited at the
US Senate
The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...
and the
Palau National Congress
Palau has a bicameral legislature, the Palau National Congress (), consisting of the House of Delegates and the Senate of Palau, which both sit at the capitol complex in Ngerulmud, Melekeok State. The House of Delegates has 16 members, each s ...
.
*''Becoming Homeless: A Human Experience'' (2017) - Premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, it was originally developed for the lab's "Empathy At Scale" research project.
[Rachael Myrow, June 27, 201]
Stanford's Virtual Reality Lab Cultivates Empathy for the Homeless
'' KQED''
*''Coral Compass: Fighting Climate Change in Palau'' (2018) - world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2018. Viewers travel to Palau, looking at how the country is working with scientists to adapt to
climate change
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
.
Research
Current
*Digital anonymity - in 2010, the group was studying how digital media users who anonymize themselves via their avatars may be perceived differently from media users who use avatars that resemble their physical world selves.
[Avatar Behavior Study](_blank)
/ref>
*Mediators and mimicry - researching how online dispute resolution
Online dispute resolution (ODR) is a form of dispute resolution which uses technology to facilitate the resolution of disputes between parties. It primarily involves negotiation, mediation or arbitration, or a combination of all three. In this re ...
(ODR) may help mediators strike a delicate balance between developing rapport and maintaining impartiality.
*Out-of-body experience - studies self-presence, or an out-of-body experience.
*Augmented perspective taking - researching how immersion and interactivity can enhance the ability to understand other minds and how the virtual experience can influence our attitudes and behaviors.
*Self-endorsing - researches how using the self as the source of persuasive messages can influence attitudes and behaviors in various persuasive contexts.
*Automatic facial feature detection and analyses - this methodology uses just a small webcam and computer software to predict an individual's errors and performance quality based only on facial features that are tracked and logged automatically.
Former topics
The lab has studied topics such as:
*Proteus effect
The Proteus effect describes a phenomenon in which the behavior of an individual, within virtual worlds, is changed by the characteristics of their avatar. This change is due to the individual's knowledge about the behaviors that other users who ...
* Transformed social interaction
*Facial Identity Capture and Presidential Candidate Preference - it was found that by morphing a subject's face in a 40:60 ratio with that of John Kerry and George W. Bush, the subject was more likely to prefer the candidate that shared their features. This study has implications concerning the use of a voter's image and overall face morphing during national elections to sway a voter's decision.
*Virtual aging's effect on financial decisionsNational Science Foundation
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...
, and the Federal Judicial Center
The Federal Judicial Center is the education and research agency of the United States federal courts. It was established by in 1967, at the recommendation of the Judicial Conference of the United States.
According to , the main areas of re ...
, VHIL examined the capabilities of pointing out witnesses during a police lineup while in a virtual environment.
*Diversity simulation - allowing participants to experience another race or gender
References
[Yee, N., & Bailenson, J.N. (2006). Walk a mile in digital shoes: The impact of embodied perspective-taking on the reduction of negative stereotyping in immersive virtual environments. Proceedings of PRESENCE 2006: The 9th Annual International Workshop on Presence. August 24 – 26, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.]
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External links
Virtual Human Interaction Lab
Stanford University