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Developing a Virtual Reality Video Game to Simulate Rip Currents
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Developing a Virtual Reality Video Game to Simulate Rip Currents

Jase Bernhardt, Gregory Dusek, Arielle Hesse, William Santos, Thomas Jennings, Alexander Smiros and Antoinette Montes
Journal of Visualized Experiments, v 2020(161), pp 1-16
2020
PMID: 32744527

Abstract

Environmental Sciences
Beachgoers in the United States face many different hazards, but rip currents are annually the deadliest for ocean swimmers. Despite the risk presented by rip currents, it is apparent that the public has a limited understanding of their danger and the proper mitigating actions to take when caught in one. A virtual reality (VR) video game placing participants in a simulated rip current was developed to help ameliorate this issue. The VR game was used to survey beachgoers on the Atlantic Coast of Long Island, New York during July and August 2019. The actions participants took when confronted with the rip current were recorded, along with whether they escaped it or drowned. An interview with each player was also conducted after they partook in the game to determine the realism of the rip current simulation and its effectiveness in demonstrating proper actions to take when impacted by one. Analysis of those results indicates that VR has potential to communicate rip current risk and ways to minimize it in a unique and engaging manner. However, further work is needed to improve ease of use of the VR simulation and better understand how factors such as demographics influence perceived rip current risk and behavioral response.

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#13 Climate Action
#14 Life Below Water

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
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