This project was a collaboration with www.immersiveVReducation.com (creators of the excellent VR experience 'Apollo 11 VR') - I, on behalf of The University of New Haven Cyber Forensics and Education Group, designed the progression path of the experience, which ImmersiveVReducation then developed.
Task
Simulate real world tasks in VR, while creating a fictional story to make it fun. We decided to make a training simulation because it’s been proven that people receive significantly higher cognitive gains and better attitudes toward learning when utilizing interactive games or simulations compared to traditional teaching methods for instruction. The purpose of a simulation is to recreate a real world task. VR can be defined as an immersive simulation of a 3d environment, created using software and hardware, and experienced by movement of the body. We used a Vive, a modern day head mount display with room scale tracking, and the Unity game engine to develop the VR simulation.
The Why
Games have the ability to improve student problem solving abilities, prevent fear of failure, give rapid feedback, all while weaving a story that engages and excites students. For CF, games are especially crucial. Learners can be in "high risk" situations without the danger of destroying evidence or encounter offensive material that a seasoned digital investigator would handle. Creating a VR CF training simulation educates students on what it is like to be
a digital investigator out in the field. Lectures and online classes do not address learning by doing, situational problem solving, or simulate real world experiences. This project aims to cover these areas that are rarely covered in classes, in a format that can be shared across many universities. The long term goal of this project is to encourage young people to pursue careers in CF and encourage teachers of all fields to create VR educational content.
a digital investigator out in the field. Lectures and online classes do not address learning by doing, situational problem solving, or simulate real world experiences. This project aims to cover these areas that are rarely covered in classes, in a format that can be shared across many universities. The long term goal of this project is to encourage young people to pursue careers in CF and encourage teachers of all fields to create VR educational content.
Experience Details
Players have a Vive controller with laser pointer. When a player uses their Vive controller to point at a potential evidence device, the device glows yellow to identify that it is intractable. When a user pulls the trigger button while a device is glowing, the crime scene procedure ranking game appears on screen. In the crime scene procedure game there is a list of possible procedure items in a left window. The player needs to move the correct items to the right window and put them in the correct order. This experience can be seen in figure 3 and figure 4. This ranking game structure is ideal for VR interaction and can be re-purposed for any type of content. Players will use the vive controller pointer and trigger to select an item and the directional pad to move the item left, right, up, and down. The answer will vary depending on the device in question. If the player answers incorrectly, the questions will be repeated until the correct answer is chosen. However, points will be deducted for wrong answers. When the crime scene procedure game is completed for a device, the device is no longer in the environment and a bag zipping sound plays to identify that the evidence was bagged and tagged. Once all evidence is collected the player will be teleported to the forensics lab.
