Experiencing Posthuman Technoculture in Virtual Reality: A Theatrical Exploration of Kuro Tanino’s Emergency Rework

Virtual reality technologies have given rise to a new breed of space travel, enabling touring of cosmic environments without leaving the Earth. These tours democratize participation in space tourism and expand its itineraries – reproducing while also altering the practices of tourism itself. The chapter explores the ways in which they alter modes of establishing "authentic" tourism destinations and experiences, rendering outer space into a stage for the performance of space travel, while themselves facilitating novel avenues for its social organization and technological assertion. Virtual space tourism not only reflects the progression and metamorphoses in tourist practice and production but also has the potential to influence both the aspirations and prospects of our space futures. Keywords Virtual reality Experience Media technologies Touring Simulation Citation Damjanov, K. and Crouch, D. (2019), "Virtual Reality and Space Tourism", Space Tourism (Tourism Social Science Series, Vol. 25), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 117-137. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1571-504320190000025007 Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited Copyright © 2019 Emerald Publishing Limited Introduction During 2016, NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida offered the public exclusive tours of Mars. Rather than launching its visitors into orbit and space-shipping them to the neighboring planet, its exhibition space was transformed into a Martian landscape. However, there was no rusty red dust covering the ground, the hazy pink skies did not appear overhead, and there was no sudden drop in temperature or atmospheric pressure. Instead, the room became part of the virtual reality (VR) installation Destination: Mars (2016). Visitors were individually fitted with a headset which enabled them to "walk into" a realistic 3D simulation of the red planet. Wearing the Microsoft HoloLens, they were able to experience an augmented or mixed reality in which a virtual rendition of imagery collected by the sensory apparatus of the Curiosity rover was overlaid upon the layout of the exhibition space, allowing them to experience the sensation of moving through an alien environment. This was enabled by the adaptation of software called OnSight, originally co-developed by Microsoft and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to support Curiosity's operations by aiding the rover's command in analyzing terrain and determining pathways. The sightseers followed Curiosity's tracks and were led through several Martian sites by a digital holographic projection of astronaut Buzz Aldrin and rover driver Erisa Hines from Jet Propulsion Laboratory; they toured the key scientific activities and discoveries that make it possible for the visitors to "be there." Through Destination: Mars terrestrial space tourists shared an "immersive" interaction with the landscape of another planet (see Chapter 2 for discussion of terrestrial space tourism). While unique, this experience of touring places in outer space from the Earth is becoming increasingly common; this VR attraction set on Mars signposts far wider developments in VR technologies, in the practice and production of tourism and in the nature of space travel. Destination: Mars is just one of the many virtual tours that feature outer space in their itineraries. There is an increasing host of VR packages that offer forms of tourism set beyond the globe. They span a range of destinations, proposing journeys across our solar system and beyond – from a 3D Virtual Tour of the International Space Station to StarTracker VR – Mobile Sky Map (2016), which enables its user to "dive into a 3D star field" (2016, n.p.). Generated from the imagery and data gathered through the enterprise of space exploration, these tours combine diverse virtual interfaces with equipment such as goggles and headsets, wands, data gloves, and head-mounted displays to provide immersive simulations of environments in which to move, see, and interact with virtual artefacts. A range of them can be accessed through desktop computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and gaming consoles at home or while on move. Others are presented at public forums for group experiences such as Destination: Mars, or Lockheed Martin's Mars Experience (2017), which transformed a school bus into a setting for a trip to Mars, its windows acting as the screens through which to experience a virtual journey on the red planet. Increasingly "out there" in their varied forms, these virtual tours not only register a popular interest in outer space, but also suggest the emergence of a distinct form of space tourism – one which harnesses the intermediation of technologies, the synthesizing possibilities of VR, and our collective aspiration toward outer space. The proliferation of these remote space tours emerges from ongoing developments in VR technologies. Since hesitant beginnings in the late twentieth century, VR technology has grown significantly in scale. Advances in hardware and software – in particular the rise of affordable domestic headsets such as Google Cardboard, Microsoft HoloLens, HTC Vive, Samsung Gear VR, and Oculus Rift – have brought VR to the masses, providing what they describe as "fully immersive" experiences "with realistic graphics, directional audio and HD haptic feedback" (HTC Vive, n.d., n.p.). Propelled by ever-present market forces, the consumption of virtual realities has become an everyday activity for many, with "reaches far beyond gaming and entertainment" (Scolaro, 2016, n.p.), and it is anticipated that consumer spending on VR will grow from "$108.8 million in 2014 to $21.8 billion worldwide by 2020" (Ewalt, 2015, n.p.). The virtual tour has thus far emerged as one of the most noteworthy and popular forms of VR application; tourism industries themselves increasingly incorporate them in order to market their products, to inspire consumers, and to enhance their experience of certain destinations. However, VR is used not only as a means of attracting visitors to museums, galleries, noteworthy places and panoramas, or particular hotels and resorts, but also as a form of tourism itself. Its purview is to give a preview of a destination, and also to enable an intrinsic kind of "armchair" travel. VR tours have increased not only the overall numbers of those who can be considered "tourists", but also the display of destinations exponentially – their synthetic worlds now even take the users to locations that they would otherwise be unable to visit, places which are expensive, dangerous, or impossible to reach. It is no surprise, then, that outer space is one of the key directions being taken by the evolving courses of virtual tourism. It is an inhuman environment, financially and logistically inaccessible to most, and thus far very few have toured it. Set in outer space, the VR tour promises the experience of traveling its expanses while never leaving the Earth. As a means of exploring the cosmos, it might thus also indicate the evolution of space travel, in general, and of space tourism in particular. The design of these armchair tours emerges from transactions between the hard-science and creative industries which gather around the exotica of outer space to provide novel, virtual modes of its exploration. VR technologies are prominently used for astronaut-training simulations and a range of space activities such as scientific research, planning, and aerospace engineering. For example, a HoloLens aboard the ISS is used to "provide virtual aid to astronauts" (NASA, 2015, n.p.), augmenting procedures with holographic images superimposed onto objects the astronaut is interacting with and allowing those on the Earth to "see from an astronaut's point-of-view and send them drawings and other visual instructions on how to complete tasks" (Franzen, 2016, n.p.). NASA has developed various VR applications designed to advance and bolster space endeavors, such as systems that assist "scientists in planning rover drives and even holding meetings on Mars" and make "studying Martian geology as intuitive as turning your head and walking around" (NASA, 2017a, 2017b, n.p.). These virtual advances in outer space are increasingly finding their way into public culture. Destination: Mars (2016), for instance, was not only adapted from the VR set-up used in Mars operations, but after its time as an attraction in Florida, it was further re-developed into a freely available application – Access Mars: A WebVR Experiment (2017), which now allows "anyone with an Internet connection [to] take a guided tour of what […] scientists experience" (NASA, 2017a, 2017b, n.p.). Part of an interest in outer space and its exploration more broadly – transposed from the fields of science to the marketplace – such products have, in other words, opened up the cosmos as a public tourist domain. Combining educational and entertainment content with the novelty of virtual environments, they contribute to the gradual domestication of outer space and the socialization of its exploration – moving space tourism from the province of the very few, into the realm of the masses. VR tours set in outer space are the outcome of ongoing innovations in informatics, media, and communication technologies that have been profoundly altering the domain of tourism. Facilitating the production, circulation, and consumption of tourist sights and experiences, these developments have not only complemented, but also increasingly constituted, the registers of travel. These technologic conditions have created a situation in which tourist experiences are no longer only contained within classic modes of travel but also exist as an experience of "simulated mobility through the incredible fluidity of multiple signs and electronic images" (Urry, 1995, p. 148). As part of this, VR augments tourism. The VR experience is equated with tourist experiences, contributing to a more general movement which conflates real and representational spaces, meaning places are not "fixed or given", but "emerge as 'tourist places'" when they are "assembled" or "produced through networked mobilities of capital, persons, objects, signs and information" – as "places to play" (Urry & Larsen, 2011, p. 119). At the same time, VR tours of space extend the arena of tourism beyond the confines of the globe, affording the experience of space travel for all. As part of the new socio-spatial interface that complicates distinctions between home and away, the presence and the absence, authentic and staged (Hannam, Butler, & Paris, 2014), they amplify the metamorphoses that technologic advances have conferred upon tourist modes and suggest the prospective forms they may take. The effects of VR space tourism are many and varied, and their repercussions are yet to be established. VR itself is still an emerging medium, and extraterrestrial tours still an undeveloped manner of travel. However, our primary aim in this chapter is to review the recent and current forms of virtual space tours in their nascent stages, to chart their proliferation and growing sophistication by providing examples of their different manifestations, emphases, and the range of locations they include in their itineraries. We consider how these synthetic spaces transpose the practice of touring into outer space, explore how virtual space travel might influence the constitution of our "touristic" disposition, and suggest some of the changes that VR space tours appear to introduce into the broad motivations undergirding our desire to "go beyond." Outlining the range of "immersive" experiences offered to VR space tourists, we suggest that this medium not only appears to widen the stage upon which we are able to perform the role of tourist – elongating its acquisitive gaze and complicating its prerequisites of physical presence – but also contributes to the greater mapping of outer space as a tourist site. We close with a brief consideration of the potential limitations and future possibilities of virtual tourism in outer space, reflecting upon the ways in which these tours technologically extend the tourist into the spectacle of space exploration as well as reveal a social and organizational capacity to influence the direction of space tourism and also our collective aspirations in outer space – to determine, in other words, the very conditions of how we approach, arrange, conquer, or acquire, new places to travel. Virtual Reality Experiences of Space Tourism Accelerations of interest and investment in progressing the itineraries of space tourism and the capacity and applications of VR technologies have rendered outer space into an infinitively travelable site. While the journeys of the very few tourists who have ventured beyond the globe have consisted mostly of visits to the ISS, the affordances of VR are permitting space travel into myriad other destinations, supplying tours of popular celestial bodies such as the Moon and Mars or more exotic locations such as the planet "40 light years away" featured in NASA VR: On the Surface of Planet TRAPPIST-1d (2017, n.p.). VR technologies have the potential to change not only the entertainment industries, information consumption, and the mobility of the masses, but also the way we interact with the world. If on the Earth, virtual travel enables "transcending geographical and often social distance through information and communications technology" (Szerszynski & Urry, 2006, p. 116), set in outer space, it "transcends" the terrestrial geographies of this world, redefining the ambits of tourism and our relationship with outer space. VR space tours compound the novelties of a virtual environment and space travel; this amalgam, in which both form and content appear new and different, gives birth to a tourist who is part of a "culture of flows" and the hybrid "spaces of 'in-betweenness'" (Rojek & Urry, 1997, p. 11). However, the question that continues to undergird "virtual tourism" (and the idea of simulated travel and movement more generally) concerns the authenticity of the experience itself; as a setting, outer space only further complicates this uncertain and undecided purview. What we know of the experience of space travel can only be garnered from the limited records of people who can claim first-hand experience, but what we do know of outer space is that it is essentially an inhuman environment, a place in which our presence is both restricted to temporary sojourns and necessarily sustained by technology, where all humans are in effect tourists. By crafting an interpretation of outer space based upon the wealth of techno-scientific data generated through its observation and exploration, VR tours strive to simulate a realistic sense of presence "out there", attempting to bring their audiences as closely as possible to the cosmos without having to leave the Earth. But there are limits to this, and there are as yet no "genuine" replications of inhuman space environments as VR experiences. While a VR gaming simulation like Adr1ft (2016) might realistically recreate the "nauseating" and enclosed sensation of floating in zero gravity in a spacesuit, it disregards most of the physics and atmospheric effects of outer space – which ultimately undercuts the illusion of real presence that it sets out to establish. Similarly, Destination: Mars (2016) makes it possible to "walk on Mars" in the steps of rovers without the need for oxygen or any thought given to the effects of radiation or a different surface gravity; the authenticity of the experience wavers at the realization that Mars is a place where we cannot be without technological artifice. Yet, it is perhaps also the realization of this utter reliance upon technologies that returns a certain authenticity to the prosthetic VR experience. While travel in outer space means surrounding yourself in a "bubble" of mediating technologies, touring in VR is an immersion in a technologically created digital environment. In this sense, VR technology could be a suitable substitute for real space travel; technological necessity makes the experience of one continuous with the other. That said, VR space tours are nonetheless consistently concerned with their own presentation or performance of a "real" experience. What the VR industry categorizes under the de facto term experiences are packaged and presented as interactive real-time simulations. For example, a variety of space apps offered through Oculus like Hello Mars (2017) and its rendition of the "7 minutes of terror" landing sequence "created strictly based on NASA's public data & research" (Oculus, 2018a), Solar System (2015) in which one "can almost feel the structure of distant planets and moons under the feet" (Oculus, 2018b, n.p.), or Discovering Space 2 (2017), which lets one "[e]xperience the mood and atmosphere of worlds far away from home" (Oculus, 2018c, n.p.) – are all (among many others) marketed as in some way "realistic" experiences. This authenticity is, however, produced through their design – the hardware and software that they rely upon becoming a necessary part of the equation, influencing questions of perception, imitation, and reality. These mimetic environments are increasing in sophistication, becoming more precise, more accurate, but also more able to trick the eyes and mind, and at the same time, they are becoming more accepted as legitimate sites of social practice and authentic interaction. If the "touristic consciousness is motivated by its desire for authentic experiences" (MacCannell, 2013, p. 101), then the consciousness of the VR tourist complicates our conceptions of what is authentic and reopens questions of what is "real" experience. It is an experience of travel that occurs only through the simulation of presence and interaction with a synthetic environment, and while tourists might these their experiences there will for be they perhaps for authentic experiences, and (MacCannell, 2013, p. While their authenticity might be (MacCannell, 2013, p. VR tours nonetheless a distinct form of what as the of p. with and physical – but also not the of the – the forms of authenticity that VR tourism are to both activity and than the or the of certain p. The authenticity in the VR experience of space itself – and the of a experience, our sense of presence is through As the experience of as authentic is not an that or from the experience of a out there" pp. the experience with particular ways of to and VR tourists in space do not as they were in a by the experience of being in the presence of authentic do they feel the of places or as than questions of and how the toured objects are the experience" of this of tourism or by the of tourist p. 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This is not to that VR the need for physical space or experience with that is forms of VR space tours some the bodies of tourists and and in certain physical spaces, but this terrestrial is only a stage set to be overlaid with of data and images designed to with and the VR space tours incorporate various to simulate environments and enhance a sense of For example, Lockheed Martin's Mars Experience (2017) a Martian dust with atmospheric effects to the HD displays that the windows of the moving school While VR presence is still through such experiences also haptic and while provide presence in VR – the that your virtual are your n.p.), a set of and the movement of the into VR equipment is and of into the activity and experience of There have been many other examples in which sensation is with virtual the experience of space travel, for instance, the (2017) which used HTC in with visual and effects to simulate the experience of VR are increasingly toward different forms of the and indicate the potential to become However, their between the and technology a new kind of a new medium of sensory experience that a place of and an of the tourist and technology, virtual travel in space of tourism as and & p. while possible and that would otherwise be beyond experience" & Larsen, 2006, p. in what as an of these of outer space the of reality to a – and as a of new of and the of a market in synthetic p. 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Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are innovative technologies that can serve as effective tools for creating health interventions by altering psychological distance. Based on construal level theory and the reality-virtuality continuum, we designed, tested, and compared VR and AR campaigns to encourage proactive measures against COVID-19. 143 participants were randomly assigned to one of three messages: VR, AR, and a CDC video, and completed surveys before, immediately, and one week following message exposure. VR and AR increased preventive intentions and behaviors against COVID-19 both in the short and long run. VR was particularly effective as it also increased risk perceptions, more preventive intentions in the short term, and more preventive behaviors, including social distancing and mask wearing, in the long term. VR was more efficient than AR in enhancing risk perceptions and preventive intentions right after being exposed to the messages as well as promoting behaviors such as avoiding crowds, maintaining social distance from others, and wearing a mask in indoor public areas one week later. Moreover, among the three conditions, VR was the only intervention that generated actual behavior change after one week, which indicated potential long-term advantages of VR compared to other mediums. VR decreased social, spatial, and hypothetical distances to a greater degree than AR. VR was more effective than video. However, AR was not more persuasive than video. Insights gained from the findings extend beyond the pandemic phase, offering practical applications for employing VR and AR technologies in health campaigns.

Virtual reality technologies are considered to be a basis and a promising development trend of telecommunication systems and services. New opportunities and sci-tech problems that need to be solved are currently undergoing analysis. In the nearest future, the possibility of creating a new segment in the international telecommunication services market that is oriented toward providing communication services to the mass consumer and the entertainment industry, new tools for goods promotion and education content delivery, as well as toward solving experimental problems in managing state structures and social economical systems, is being justified. An approach to creating and charging for according telecommunication services is being given, opportunities for using the existing national and international cellular connection infrastructure is researched. A lot of attention is paid to analyzing the prospects of shifting toward new cellular network standards of the fifth generation, employing new ways of connecting to the Internet, as well as new formats of transmitting and processing multimedia, including the provision of immersion in the virtual reality environment. Working on building grounds for the rapid development in this direction of telecommunication services and options provided by the Russian national and transnational cellular network operators, while using the Digital Economy of the Russian program and the Strategy for Developing the Information Community of the Russian Federation in 2017-2030 as the regulatory basis. Attention is paid to research agendas, research in the area of equipment and telecommunication services exploitation based on virtual reality equipment safety in terms of consumer health.

Virtual reality technologies are considered to be a basis and a promising development trend of telecommunication systems’ and services. New opportunities and sci-tech problems that need to be solved are currently undergoing analysis. In the nearest future, the possibility of creating a new segment in the international telecommunication services market that is oriented towards providing communication services to the mass consumer and the entertainment industry, new tools for goods promotion and education content delivery, as well as toward solving experimental problems in managing state structures and social economical systems, is being justified. Within the context of studying the necessary prerequisites to implementing this opportunity the following is being done: an approach to creating and charging for according telecommunication services is being given, opportunities for using the existing national and international cellular connection infrastructure is researched; the prospects of shifting towards new cellular network standards of the fifth generation are being analyzed, employing new ways of connecting to the Internet, as well as new formats of transmitting and processing multimedia, including the provision of immersion in the virtual reality environment; safety aspects of end-user equipment and VR-based telecommunication service exploitation are being updated. As a result of consolidating the given material, the authors are working on building grounds for the rapid development in this direction of telecommunication services and options provided by the Russian national and transnational cellular network operators. The paper was created as part of the project 2.7178.2017/БЧ “Researching Cognitive Semiotics in the Multimedia Virtual Reality Environment”.

Tourism value of a modern tourist destination depends on managing and organizing social, historical, cultural and natural resources into a unique tourist attraction. Changing trends in cultural tourism and technological development affect the creation of new cultural tourism products and channels of their promotion. Virtual and augmented reality offer new ways of promotion and consumption of cultural tourism services. Destinations adapt to these changes by creating a tourism offer in accordance with sustainable development. Furthermore, tourist destinations needed to adapt to Covid-19 pandemic conditions and therefore started using new trends in virtual and augmented reality. Virtual reality and digital technologies are beneficial in creating and implementing new forms of cultural tourism, especially in the given circumstances of new travel rules and changed tourist expectations, with an emphasis on social distance, preserving the health of tourists and local population and protecting the environment. The aims of this paper are to define the changes in cultural tourism caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and explore the effect of new technologies such as virtual and augmented reality on cultural tourism development. The paper also aims to determine the possibilities for cultural tourism development regarding new trends. Historical method, desk research, analysis and synthesis have been used for the purpose of this paper. Paper contribution is reflected in applying new trends which resulted in changes in tourist behaviour in pandemic conditions, as well as insights into the possibilities of developing different models of cultural tourism consumption in accordance with new technological achievements.

Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social NetworkingVol. 23, No. 7 EditorialConnecting Through Technology During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: Avoiding “Zoom Fatigue”Brenda K. WiederholdBrenda K. WiederholdBrenda K. Wiederhold, Editor-in-Chief Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:10 Jul 2020https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2020.29188.bkwAboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookXLinked InRedditEmail View article"Connecting Through Technology During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: Avoiding “Zoom Fatigue”." 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AN EXPLORATORY EXAMINATION OF DIGITAL EXHAUSTION OF EDUCATORS IN TURKIYE1 January 2023 | Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, Vol. 24, No. 1Moving Beyond Web Conferencing Tools: ESL Professional Development Workshops in Virtual Reality Platforms30 June 2023The Tribrid-Meeting-Setup – Improving Hybrid Meetings Using a Telepresence Robot9 July 2023Videoconferencing: Miracle Tool or Policy Trap in the Governance of Smart and Sustainable Mobility?18 July 2023“A Terrible Beauty Is Born”: Opportunities and New Perspectives for Online Teaching and AssessmentLingue Culture Mediazioni - Languages Cultures Mediation (LCM Journal), Vol. 10, No. 1HoloLearn: Towards a Hologram Mediated Hybrid Education27 September 2023Hardiness and Zoom Fatigue on Nursing Students: A Cross-Sectional Study in Indonesia During Online Learning1 October 2023 | Advances in Medical Education and Practice, Vol. Volume 14“Am I Ready for This Change?”: Challenges in Optimizing the Use of Online Learning in Medical and Health Professions Education During the Pandemic and Beyond7 November 2023Atuação da Psicologia em Unidade Neonatal no Contexto da Pandemia da Covid-191 January 2023 | Psicologia: Ciência e Profissão, Vol. 43Efficacy of PEERS® for Adolescents via Telehealth Delivery27 May 2022 | Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Vol. 52, No. 12Proactive strategies for an inclusive faculty search process16 June 2022 | Communications Biology, Vol. 5, No. 1The impact of COVID-19 on digital communication patterns23 May 2022 | Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Vol. 9, No. 1Medical student’s perception of the COVID-19 pandemic effect on their education and well-being: a cross-sectional survey in the United States5 March 2022 | BMC Medical Education, Vol. 22, No. 1Lessons learned from a pandemic: implications for a combined exercise and educational programme for medical students8 April 2022 | BMC Medical Education, Vol. 22, No. 1Conducting a randomised controlled trial of a psychosocial intervention for adolescents with type 1 diabetes during COVID-19: recommendations to overcome the challenges complicated by inconsistent public health guidelines on research27 April 2022 | Trials, Vol. 23, No. 1Digital temperance: adapting an ancient virtue for a technological age22 November 2022 | Ethics and Information Technology, Vol. 24, No. 4Online-Supervision14 July 2022 | Zeitschrift für Psychodrama und Soziometrie, Vol. 21, No. S2Navigating learners towards technology-enhanced learning during post COVID-19 semestersTrends in Neuroscience and Education, Vol. 29An Educational Perspective on Online Learning PlatformsTechnologically-assisted communication attenuates inter-brain synchronyNeuroImage, Vol. 264Virtual recruitment - should this be the future for dental core training?25 November 2022 | British Dental Journal, Vol. 233, No. 10Zoom fatigue under covid-19-pandemien: Hva innebærer fenomenet, og hvordan kan det forebygges?Uniped, Vol. 45, No. 4Early Field Experiences Through Telepresence RobotsWhere to Look? Alcohol, Affect, and Gaze Behavior During a Virtual Social Interaction14 November 2022 | Clinical Psychological Science, Vol. 2Vers une appropriation du télétravail en contexte de criseRevue Management & Innovation, Vol. N° 6, No. 2Zoom Face: Self-Surveillance, Performance and Display1 October 2022 | Journal of Intercultural Studies, Vol. 43, No. 6Medical Education in a Global Pandemic: A Novel Case-Based Learning Approach to Teaching Plastic Surgery Topics to Preclerkship Students25 November 2021 | Plastic Surgery, Vol. 30, No. 4Creating an Immersive XR Learning Experience: A Roadmap for Educators30 October 2022 | Electronics, Vol. 11, No. 21Beyond Zoom Fatigue: Ritual and Resilience in Remote Meetings29 December 2022 | Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference Proceedings, Vol. 2022, No. 1Introducing online training for health staff: An institutional perspective22 June 2022 | THE ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, Vol. 88, No. 6Keep It Brief: Videoconferencing Frequency and Duration as Predictors of Visual and Body Discomfort31 October 2022 | International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, Vol. 24Overcoming the liability of distance? An exploratory study of the associations between social networks, sense of community and spatial colocation28 December 2021 | Journal of Corporate Real Estate, Vol. 24, No. 4Governing in the time of Covid-19: how board meetings went online and the implications of this for considering the role of the governing board19 October 2022 | Journal of Further and Higher Education, Vol. 51The Effects of Attributes of Non-Immersive Virtual Reality on Customers’ Experience of Video Tours under Social Distancing for COVID-1914 October 2022 | International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, Vol. 6Moving intensive onsite courses online: responding to COVID-19 educational disruption15 June 2022 | International Journal of Ethics Education, Vol. 7, No. 2Webinars, podcasts, Tweetorials, oh my!Journal of Vascular Surgery, Vol. 76, No. 4Resilience and Wellbeing Strategies for Pandemic Fatigue in Times of Covid-1930 September 2022 | International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology, Vol. 78Zoom Yorgunluğu: Bir Gözden Geçirme30 September 2022 | Psikiyatride Güncel Yaklaşımlar, Vol. 14, No. 3Being Prepared and Preparing the Students for the Central Exam with Distance Education22 September 2022 | Pamukkale University Journal of EducationBridging social distance during social distancing: exploring social talk and remote collegiality in video conferencing11 November 2021 | Human–Computer Interaction, Vol. 37, No. 5Variations in consumer acceptance, sensory engagement and method practicality across three remote consumer-testing modalitiesFood Quality and Preference, Vol. 100Remote learning experiences of African Nova Scotian households in Canada during the COVID-19 temporary school closure: implications for inclusive education policy implementation7 August 2022 | International Journal of Inclusive Education, Vol. 36Individual and Situational Factors Influencing Active Behavior in Professional Video Conferences With Strangers7 August 2022 | Social Science Computer Review, Vol. 6From frequency to fatigue: Exploring the influence of videoconference use on videoconference fatigue in SingaporeComputers in Human Behavior Reports, Vol. 7“Seeing and Being Seen” or Just “Seeing” in a Smart Classroom Context When Videoconferencing: A User Experience-Based Qualitative Research on the Use of Cameras4 August 2022 | International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol. 19, No. 15Understanding patterns of internal migration during the COVID‐19 pandemic in Spain16 June 2022 | Population, Space and Place, Vol. 28, No. 6Blended (online and in‐person) Women’s Health Interprofessional Learning by Simulation (WHIPLS) for medical and midwifery students18 April 2022 | Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Vol. 62, No. 4Ten simple rules for leveraging virtual interaction to build higher-level learning into bioinformatics short courses28 July 2022 | PLOS Computational Biology, Vol. 18, No. 7AbGradCon 2021: lessons in digital meetings, international collaboration, and interdisciplinarity in astrobiology6 July 2022 | International Journal of Astrobiology, Vol. 17Recommendations for Building Telemental Health Relationships with Youth: A Systematic Review and Resource for Clinicians22 October 2021 | Evidence-Based Practice in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Vol. 7, No. 3A National Study of Zoom Fatigue and Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Implications for Future Remote Work Eric B. 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This initial stage paper focuses on the Virtual Reality (VR) experience of the [pain]Byte ballet. The live and VR experience debut October 1st 2017, as part of the Brighton digital festival. Specifically, the development of the VR environment to compliment live performance by using the same choreography to create an option capture element of the VR story telling experience. Reviewing Virtual & Alternative reality gaming & storytelling works and the use of VR for chronic pain management (Chen, Win). Does the VR experience compare to that of the live theatre for the audience? The data visualisations and VR environment will be continuations of the Network Simulator, [data]Storm 2015. We are visualising and comparing the pain pathway system to that of a social network. Linking pain signals to viral/negative messaging for some of the visuals. The main purpose of the pieces links to how “we” present ourselves online, these better or veiled versions of ourselves. For chronic pain sufferers, this can be daily activity in the real world. The paper concludes by identifying some future directions for the research project. The Ballet: [pain]Byte is a data driven dance classical ballet performance and VR (virtual reality) experience. [pain]Byte, is about chronic pain and biomedical engineering, in particular the use of implanted technology - neuromodulation (Al-Kaisey et al). Using data as a medium for storytelling, what it means to be in chronic pain. The live augmented theatre and VR experience research focuses on how an audience’s exposure and understanding are impacted by the difference mediums used for [pain]byte.

The use of interactive media has been one of the most relevant trends in the last years. In this era where the stimuli from media never leave us alone, fashion customers are looking for even more than interactivity. They want to be involved, surprised. The keyword for this new trend is experience, not only as a memorable experience, but as a proper aesthetic experience that is capable to enhance even our sensory perceptions. Virtual reality and augmented reality seem to be the new solution to create experiential marketing, to differentiate one’s brand from competitors and to create immersive storytelling. Covid-19 brought the importance of the digital in fashion even more to evidence. With most of the stores closed, fashion brands had to translate its sector on social media and e-commerce platforms, and that’s when XR stepped in as a notable resource. Social distancing and lockdown highlighted how the digitization of fashion brands must be a priority, not only to recover from the Covid-19 crisis and gain back strength, but also to anticipate the needs of the modern customer. Augmented reality and virtual reality are definitely part of the answer.KeywordsFashionAugmented realityVirtual realityCovid-19Experiential marketingDigitization

Light at the end of the tunnel: Visitors' virtual reality (versus in-person) attraction site tour-related behavioral intentions during and post-COVID-19.

Previous studies have found that psychotic disorders are among the most stigmatized mental disorders. Of note, virtual reality (VR) interventions have been associated with improvements in attitudes and empathy and reduced stigma toward individuals with psychotic disorders, especially among undergraduates, but this has not been examined among mental health care professionals. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a newly developed VR intervention for mental health care professionals to improve attitudes and empathy and reduce stigma toward people with psychotic disorders. We conducted a randomized controlled trial and recruited eligible mental health care professionals from a tertiary mental health care institution. Both arms (VR intervention and VR control groups) were evaluated at baseline, postintervention, and 1-month follow up. The evaluation included outcomes related to attitudes (modified attitudes toward people with schizophrenia scale), stigma (social distance scale, personal stigma scale), and empathy (empathetic concern subscale of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index). The experience with the VR intervention was assessed using a user satisfaction questionnaire, and qualitative feedback was gathered. Overall, 180 mental health care professionals participated and completed the study. Both groups showed improvements in attitude, social distance, and stigma scores but not the empathy score following the intervention. The VR intervention group had better user satisfaction than the VR control group. In addition, certain outcome measures were positively associated with specific factors including female gender, higher education level, certain job roles, years of work, and presence of loved ones with a mental disorder. Both the intervention and control VR groups of mental health care professionals showed improvements in attitudes, stigma, and social distance toward people with psychotic disorders. Future longitudinal studies may want to evaluate the impact of VR on caregivers and the public on these same and other outcome measures to reduce stigma and improve empathy toward individuals with psychotic disorders. clinicaltrials.gov NCT05982548; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05982548.

Virtual reality (VR) induces a radical psychological reorientation. Yet descriptions of this reorientation are often steeped in theoretically misleading metaphors. We offer a more measured account, grounded in both philosophy and cognitive psychology, and use it to assess the claim that VR promotes moral learning by simulating another’s perspective. This hypothesis depends on the assumption that avatar use produces experiences sufficiently similar to those of others to enable empathic growth. We reject that assumption and offer two arguments against it. Empathy relevant to moral learning requires interpretive effort and contextual understanding, not just a shift in perspective. And VR’s open-ended, user-driven structure tends to reinforce prior assumptions rather than unsettle them. Still, avatar use may have a different effect on moral learning, which we call self-fragmentation. By loosening the boundaries of the self, VR may expand the range of people one is disposed to empathize with.

This study explores the role of virtual reality (VR) tours in influencing customers’ experiences and attitudes as well as their behavioral intentions toward VR tours. A research model that combines the technology acceptance model, flow theory, and social distancing is proposed to demonstrate the interrelationships among attributes of VR tours, online customer experience, customer attitude, and behavioral intention. Social distancing plays a situational role in the model. We collected 545 usable online questionnaires and used SPSS and SmartPLS to analyze the measurement model and proposed hypotheses. Attributes of the VR tour had a positive influence on the extrinsic values and intrinsic values of the customer experience. Furthermore, online customer experience was positively related to customer attitude and intention toward VR tours. In addition, social distancing influenced customer attitudes but not behavioral intention. Moreover, the results of a multigroup analysis based on country of residence suggested relevant differences between the America and Asia groups. This research extends understanding of the online customer experience of VR tours and provides empirical evidence that VR attributes enhance the extrinsic and intrinsic values of online customer experiences. It provides an integrated view of the technology acceptance model, flow theory, and social distancing and suggests that social distancing has an impact on customers’ attitude toward VR tours but no effects on their intention. The implications of these findings can help scholars and practitioners better understand consumers’ motivations and behavioral intentions to use VR tours, which will help the tourism industry boost revenue and create additional sales channels.

COVID-19 or coronavirus has changed or modified day-to-day activities. This deadly disease has influenced all the sectors of countries of the world. Cold, cough, bone pains, and problems in breathing are the common symptoms of this viral infection. The only solution to prevent this infection is social distancing and also emphasis to take precautions like regularly washing of hands with soap or using the sanitizer, using tissues during sneezing and coughing, avoiding face-to- face communication, and wearing of a mask. Virtual reality (VR) is a technology that allows the user to interact with the computer-simulated environment and it is powerful and interactive. VR creates an imaginary world by simulating the real environment by using computer technology. With the help of VR, the user can experience the scariest and toughest situation by playing safe and with a learning perspective. In VR, users are immersed and able to interact with the 3D world instead of viewing a screen. It is the way to experience and feel the past, present, and future and also the way to create our world on customized reality. VRs play an essential role to fight this pandemic with an audio-video virtual environment. VR technology designs and develops a platform to diminish the face-to-face communication between the users. COVID-19 affects all sectors like education, business, health, politics, sports, and many more. With the help of VR, all the sectors or domains can perform or implement their functions with the usage of applications like GoogleMeet, Zoom, YouTube, Portals, etc. This article highlights the main sectors overwhelmed by a coronavirus and how VR helps to reduce the extents of coronavirus. © 2021 River Publishers. All rights reserved.

Empathy is essential in design research, yet young designers often struggle to empathize with unfamiliar user groups, such as older adults with dementia. Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a tool for empathy induction, but the effectiveness of different VR formats remains unclear. This study compares 360-degree video and immersive virtual environments in fostering affective and cognitive empathy, user engagement, and problem identification. A total of 22 young designers were randomly assigned to experience one of the two VR modalities, depicting daily challenges faced by dementia patients. Results showed that 360-degree video significantly enhanced affective empathy and engagement compared to immersive VR, while no significant differences were found in cognitive empathy or problem identification. These findings suggest that realistic, context-rich experiences may evoke stronger emotional resonance, whereas fully virtual environments require further refinement. Future research should explore how interactive elements, embodiment, and perspective shifts in immersive VR can improve empathy induction. This study underscores the importance of media selection and contextual realism in empathy-driven design interventions.

This essay explores the ways that the science fictional trope of virtual reality has been appropriated by Native authors in order to confront historical trauma and rewrite problematic narratives of victimization. Grounded in the intersections of both science fiction theory and Indigenous knowledge, I place theorists like Darko Suvin in conversation with Vine Deloria and Gregory Cajete to examine Cherokee author Blake Hausman's Riding the Trail of Tears. I argue that Hausman has indigenized the genre of science fiction in order to critique not just the historical Trail of Tears, but also the ways that Euro-American culture continues to romanticize and repeat that narrative. Because the novel takes place in a virtual reality game located in both the past and the present, it can be used to demonstrate Deloria's argument that Native cultures interpret the world primarily through place rather than time. Ultimately, this shift in perspective expands the possibilities of science fiction and emphasizes the value of Cherokee culture and Indigenous worldviews in the twenty-first century.