An iconic red shuttle bus ferries commuters and visitors along the winding streets of New York City’s Roosevelt Island. Passengers wear virtual reality headsets for an eye-opening experience – a cutting-edge blend of the physical and digital worlds, designed to engage communities in new ways through the Communal eXtended-Reality (CXR) system. Passengers were transported into a realm where virtual environments seamlessly merged with their real surroundings. Guided by audio narration, they encountered nine striking scenes depicting the escalating impacts of climate change, with a particular focus on rising floodwaters. Projections suggest that a 100-year flood could submerge most of Roosevelt Island. Despite these alarming forecasts, research indicates that such a catastrophe doesn’t feel real to many in the public.
This disconnect between knowledge and urgency is precisely what the CXR system aims to address. The technology provides a fully immersive, shared extended reality (XR) experience designed to foster a unified understanding of pressing challenges, such as climate change. This integration allows participants to experience a shared reality while physically traveling through their environment, making the experience both communal and deeply rooted in place. The deployment of the CXR system on Roosevelt Island proved to be more than just an educational exercise. After seeing “worst-case” flooding scenarios, scenes of Superstorm Sandy, and future sea-level rise forecasts, participants reported strong emotional responses, with many expressing increased concern about climate change and a desire to act.
More information:
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2024/09/mixing-physical-virtual-worlds-drive-home-climate-urgency