GuestXR USE CASE
VR scenarios to study historical protests
Overview
This use case recreates three recent historical protests in virtual reality. The scenarios developed include a demonstration for the women’s abortion rights in Warsaw, the pro-democracy “Be Water” protests in Hong Kong, and climate demonstrations.
Using GuestXR solution, users can participate in these protests as full-body avatars alongside others. The use case explores both individual and group responses during protests. It also investigates the extent to which the Guest – an AI agent that monitors interactions and dynamically adjusts the virtual environment – can influence participants to engage in the virtual protests. This influence is studied through the proxemics of humanoid agents and actions that dynamically alter the experience in response to the physiological states of participants.
This use case was the winner application of GuestXR Open Call, considering proposals for the facilitators of new VR experiences, inclusivity, and promoting learning and creativity.
USE CASE SCENARIO
Warsaw protest for abortion rights
The Warsaw protest for abortion rights is a VR experience allowing users to experience the protest firsthand using standalone VR headsets, either individually or collaboratively from various locations. It has been developed by the UiT The Arctic University of Norway, in collaboration with Virtual Bodyworks. Is currently accessible via Virtual Bodyworks’ GuestXR app on the Meta Horizon Store.
Within the experience, an AI agent—referred to as “the Guest”— can join the experience through a Python client and can monitor participants’ interactions and dynamically adjusts elements of the virtual environment. For example, it can increase the number of humanoid agents representing protesters to create a more complex crowd scene and further involve participants.
The GuestXR app continuously tracks participants’ physical and emotional responses, capturing movement, head orientation, eye activity, and facial expressions. When paired with a heart rate fitness strap, the app can also monitor ECG and physiological responses, linking these signals to specific events within the protest scene.
Built in Unity, the experience includes detailed visual and auditory components along with crowd simulations and animations. We are preparing user studies to explore how the AI-driven Guest can enhance participant engagement by selecting actions from a predefined set, such as adjusting the proximity of virtual agents. This interaction is managed through a Reinforcement Learning (RL) framework, allowing the Guest to respond to participants’ behaviors in real time.
