At Lincoln Center from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, March 28, Shenandoah University will present an event which pushes the boundaries of new technology and delves into how Director of Acting and Associate Professor of Theatre J.J. Ruscella is using virtual reality and augmented reality/mixed reality to create the ARC (Augmented Reality Chamber).
What is the ARC? It creates real-world scenarios that build better veterans out of novices.
Let’s say you’re an EMT who routinely responds to active shooter situations. Right now, you wait for the tactical unit to complete their work and give the all-clear, so you can go into action. Those precious minutes waiting mean lives are on the line and you’re not there to help. But if you could retrain as a tactical medic, using the ARC to practice aggressive situations in which you learn to protect yourself and fight while saving lives, you can enter into the situation WITH the tactical unit, and the scenario could turn out a lot differently.
Having virtual, augmented and mixed reality is great, but it’s going to require a whole new set of teaching and learning tools in order to make the technology function in human-to-human connectivity. The stories experienced within the technology are the key to everything.
If you’re at Lincoln Center on March 28, you’ll be able to see in live action the tools being developed to implement this in our growing technology, even before the technology can get there. As a member of the audience, you’ll be able to witness, first-hand, someone utilizing an early form of the ARC, called Story Box. The story you’ll see is completely unscripted – we want to show you what the future of story looks like inside of an immersive universe.
Everyone is imagining where virtual reality can take us, and we’re leaping into full-scale, immersive universes in our imagination. But before we get there, we must develop the human-to-human tools inside of this technology. That’s where ARC comes in.
Want to discuss this more? Feel free to contact Shenandoah University Director of Acting and Associate Professor of Theatre J.J. Ruscella, who was integral in developing Story Box and is the mastermind behind the ARC. J.J. can be reached via email at jruscell@su.edu or via phone at 407-718-0822. J.J. and others involved in this initiative will also be available to chat after the event at Indie Wine and Cheese.
