Exploring Immersive Mixed Reality Simulations and Its Impact on Climate Change Awareness

Abstract

Purpose: To combat widespread climate change misconceptions that halt mitigation efforts, we investigate Mixed Reality’s applicability in helping contextualize climate change consequences.
 Design/methodology/approach: We propose an immersive Mixed Reality system that simulates personally-relevant experiences relating to climate change disasters. To evaluate our methods, we conducted a pilot study with the constructed Mixed Reality system and analyzed collected statistics.
 Findings: Participants reported heightened motivation to adopt more sustainable practices as a result of Mixed Reality system use; collected statistics display increased levels of stress and ratings of immersion from system use. Results display prominent applicability of Mixed Reality systems in climate change contextualization.
 Research limitations/implications: Due to the lack of accessible Head-Mounted Displays, the pilot study is confined to a Mixed Reality format. Future work can examine effects of more realistic and localized approaches on stress and inclination levels; these effects may include real-time scanning and geographical mapping, dynamic object placement, information prompting, and improved spatialized audio.
 Originality/value: We evaluate the relative effectiveness of current communication mediums and propose a novel MR system as a solution to global mitigation challenges. We evaluate the effectiveness of conveying climate change awareness topics through Mixed Reality with a pilot study.