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I collaborated with Drawn from Valor, a non-profit organization that aims to create art empowering children living with a range of abilities and disabilities to more effectively manage their conditions. I was tasked with creating a virtual reality program that would calm and educate children living with PTSD. This project opens at the main menu with three possible selections. Each is marked with branded objects and transports the user to interactive and relaxing scenery. The scenes are accompanied by informational flashcards to aid in coping with stress and trauma. |
Prompt
Organization
Drawn from Valor is a non-profit organization that aims to create art empowering children living with a range of abilities and disabilities to more effectively manage their conditions.
Background
The statistics tell us 50-60% of American adults will experience trauma in their lifetimes, and 14-43% of children and teens will experience trauma. Of those, 7-8% of adults and 1-15% of kids and teens will develop PTSD. We know adults may
not get help for themselves, but they may for their children. Our target audience for our series is both the kids impacted and their parents.
Suggestive Idea
We want to show that help is available if you have the courage to ask; that there is always hope. We believe some possibilities include sharing various scenarios with a trusted person, e.g., parent, teacher, clergy, school counselor, doctor. We
also believe it could be good to have scenarios for the affected parent to practice reacting and/or reaching out to doctors, mental health providers, support groups, clergy, etc.
An Example
The Executive Director, Susie Dicker, gives this example from a personal scenario “When I was a kid, I was really struggling with something and couldn’t figure out how to tell my mom I needed her help. I finally
left my journal open for with a note asking her to read it. It let her know what was going on with me and opened the door for that conversation. Over the next few years, it became a pattern where if I really couldn’t articulate it, I could write it. She then
knew how to talk with me about those topics.”
Drawn from Valor is a non-profit organization that aims to create art empowering children living with a range of abilities and disabilities to more effectively manage their conditions.
Background
The statistics tell us 50-60% of American adults will experience trauma in their lifetimes, and 14-43% of children and teens will experience trauma. Of those, 7-8% of adults and 1-15% of kids and teens will develop PTSD. We know adults may
not get help for themselves, but they may for their children. Our target audience for our series is both the kids impacted and their parents.
Suggestive Idea
We want to show that help is available if you have the courage to ask; that there is always hope. We believe some possibilities include sharing various scenarios with a trusted person, e.g., parent, teacher, clergy, school counselor, doctor. We
also believe it could be good to have scenarios for the affected parent to practice reacting and/or reaching out to doctors, mental health providers, support groups, clergy, etc.
An Example
The Executive Director, Susie Dicker, gives this example from a personal scenario “When I was a kid, I was really struggling with something and couldn’t figure out how to tell my mom I needed her help. I finally
left my journal open for with a note asking her to read it. It let her know what was going on with me and opened the door for that conversation. Over the next few years, it became a pattern where if I really couldn’t articulate it, I could write it. She then
knew how to talk with me about those topics.”
Matching The Theme
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During our initial meeting with Drawn From Valor, we were introduced to the project they were making progress on. Our VR specific project will need to extend the storyline, The Golden Acorn.
THE TALES OF THE GOLDEN ACORN " The Tales of the Golden Acorn is a resource for kids, families, and their loved ones who may be impacted by trauma and/or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD.) The series of short videos, and its related pilot episode Oinya's Prize, follows a family of squirrels after the parents are changed by trauma. Together they go on adventures in a mythical land and learn about family, change, healing, and love. Most importantly they learn they are not alone, and there is always room for hope. Created in partnership with subject matter experts in the fields of developmental and clinical child psychology and trauma counselling, the first 10 episodes of season 1 of The Tales of the Golden Acorn are being developed now and are intended for audiences ages 6 and up. " Visit https://www.drawnfromvalor.org/ptsd to learn more. |
Persona and Initial Story Board
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Part of our research process involved creating possible personas that represented the qualities and characteristics of a possible user who would interact with the VR application. I also included one of our initial storyboard examples here.
Setting Up Unity
While installing Unity, I made sure to include the Android development pack. I also downloaded the Google Cardboard SDK package as well.
My main issue with developing the application for google cardboard came after realizing that the Google Cardboad headset only had one button available for users to interact with. The objective of the application would allow the user to not only walk around but interact with in scene objects as well. I initially tried forcing the player to look downward at a 45 degree angle to move the character forward, but decided to move away from that and look into a time-gazed function.
Time-Gazed Function
The below function allowed the user to simply aim at objects and hold the reticle over that object for a period of 2 seconds to interact with the object. This allows the player to simply hold down the headset button to move the character forward.
My main issue with developing the application for google cardboard came after realizing that the Google Cardboad headset only had one button available for users to interact with. The objective of the application would allow the user to not only walk around but interact with in scene objects as well. I initially tried forcing the player to look downward at a 45 degree angle to move the character forward, but decided to move away from that and look into a time-gazed function.
Time-Gazed Function
The below function allowed the user to simply aim at objects and hold the reticle over that object for a period of 2 seconds to interact with the object. This allows the player to simply hold down the headset button to move the character forward.
Assets using Blender
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This project will be primarily be designed for a younger audience, hence pushing me to design low-polygon style assets. Before sculpting these icospheres, I made sure to select Dyntopo to allow a consistent size of the subdivisions and to allow to sculpting to extend the original object if necessary. Assets imported from blender include, three menu buttons, three environments, birds, planes, clouds, trees, character models, and hot air balloons.
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Assets using Google Sketchup
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I decided to use Google Sketchup to assist in the design of city structure assets. Sketchup seemingly provided the easiest way of creating rectangular structures quickly.
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Loading Scene
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The first scene acts as a menu screen. Each scene is associated with a specific character from The Golden Acorn Storyline. Each character is associated with different age groups that correlate to specific questions from the playing cards. The actual interactable menu items are small rotating versions of the actual environment correlated with the scene it will bring the user to. As the user holds the reticle over an object, the rotation speed of the object will increase and as the reticle leaves the object, the rotation speed will decrease
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Object Rotation Code
First Scene
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This leftmost button associated with the character Lora brings the user to a very low-poly scene for younger users. This scene offers different scenery details including distant planes, clouds, and birds to follow. Users may explore the world freely.
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Second Scene
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The middle button brings the user to a rocky beach area and is associated with the character named Oinya. This scene is also associated with a card set for middle aged children. This scene allows the user to explore the environment either relax on a hammock or swim out to the moving boat all while listening to the waves of the ocean.
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Third Scene
The third scene is linked with the character Caroline and is also associated with a set of questioner cards for a older age group. This scene exhilarating scene places the user inside the cockpit of a hot air balloon before flying the user to a far away city.
