Learning through empathy.
OVERVIEW / Anivision is a virtual reality (VR) project that allows students and budding young scientists alike to truly experience how different animals see. Anivision lets users experience the world from the perspective of a tarsier, a small primate native to Southeast Asia, as well as your everyday honeybee. The experience highlights different visual adaptations and behaviors of these unique animals to create an immersive educational environment.
PROJECT DETAILS / 2020-2021 Project Manager & Strategy Advisor
with Cathy Wu, Amon Ferri, Danielle Fang, Greg Macharia, and Sam Gochman
for Students and Future Scientists
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PROJECT PROGRESS
The fall of 2020 was the eighth term that this virtual reality project has been part of Dartmouth’s DALI Lab. To increase user accessibility in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, our team focused on developing a desktop version of the application. In addition to the version of Anivision available on Oculus Quest, Anivision is now an executable (.exe) file users can download on their desktops to be immersed in the Anivison world from the comfort of their living space. Developers refactored the input manager to work with the desktop version, remapped the control system to work with a keyboard and mouse, and implemented new special effects such as more accurate depth perception unique to each animal and a new tutorial system. Designers planned desktop controller mappings and redesigned the tutorial system for both the Oculus Quest headset and desktop versions of the application.
IMPROVING ACCESSIBILITY / The most substantial change was that we decided to create a desktop version of the Anivision software. We made this decision for two reasons:
The COVID-19 pandemic makes it difficult for those who do not own an Oculus Quest to access the world of Anivision
A desktop version lets us offer a sample of the product for interested clients without needing to send along an Oculus Quest
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GROWTH STRATEGY
EDUCATIONAL / Emerging technologies like virtual reality create new opportunities to both overcome mental fatigue in the classroom and learn through curiosity and exploration. Teachers can use this platform across disciplines like physiology, perceptual psychology, physics, and even philosophy. Whether learning about adaptation, eye lenses, or subjective worldviews, students appreciate classroom concepts through intuition. Throughout development, we tested the platform with students from middle school through college. With more formal testing, we published in an open access educational journal to communicate how this immersive system can improve the learning experience.
NON-PROFIT COLLABS / Beyond the classroom, Anivision shows promising collaboration potential in the non-profit sphere. Commercial businesses can use Anvision for licensing and social good initiatives.
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CURRICULUM DESIGN
To make Anivision more easy to incorporate into existing classroom lectures, the Anivision team also wrote up a curriculum guide to help lecturers and professors navigate the scientific resources guiding the project. The guide includes sample questions and suggestions for easy implementation. View it here.
Anivision is a virtual reality (VR) project that allows students and budding young scientists alike to truly experience how different animals see. Anivision lets users experience the world from the perspective of a tarsier, a small primate native to Southeast Asia, as well as your everyday honeybee. The experience highlights different visual adaptations and behaviors of these unique animals to create an immersive educational environment.
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