White Sands National Park Beyond the Dunes VR

Accessibility

Content of website

White Sands National Park: Beyond the Dunes VR is a virtual reality application that uses 3D rendered scenes and 360 video to transport the player to exclusive locations and its microbiomes to illustrate their importance to the unique ecology of the gypsum dunes.

Approach

Educational content is provided through 360 and 2D video presentations and interactive 3D renderings.

A ear with sound waves coming towards it

Audio

Recorded audio is present throughout the VR application

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Color Blindness

All graphics were tested using the Sim Daltonism app and other browser-based color blindness and color contrast checkers.

Icon of an eye with stripes going across it

Visual Aspects

Limited movement within the virtual environment allows players to get close to text and interface.

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Cognitive Aspects

Information is displayed in text as well as with audio. Video controls enable the player to pause or replay videos.

A finger pointing to icons

Interface

The interface in this tool is displayed on a virtual tablet, and interaction is through hand-held controllers.

Speech bubble with a world inside of it

Language

This game is available in English.

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Fine Motor Skills

This tool uses hand-tracking technology that requires physical use of hand-held controllers.

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Text

Information is presented through on-screen text and audio.

The research presented was conducted under Permit WHSA-2018-SCI-0012. This work was financially supported by White Sands National Park Service Grant no. P21AC11241-01 awarded to Nicole Pietrasiak.

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