Virtual Reality for Preservation: Production of Virtual Reality Heritage Spaces in the Classrooom

The Bethel AME Church was the oldest African American church in Indianapolis. In November 2016, the congregation moved out of downtown, and the building that had housed the congregation since 1869 was sold. It is now being redeveloped into a hotel. Through the Virtual Bethel project, faculty and students in the Media Arts and Science (MAS) program at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) created a 3D virtual space of the physical sanctuary to preserve the cultural heritage of Bethel. During its creation, Virtual Bethel served as a curricular and co-curricular experience for the undergraduate students in the 3D graphics and animation specialization within class N441 3D Team Production, which was co-taught by Albert William and Zebulun Wood. Virtual Bethel, finished in 2018, was the first historical and cultural preservation project that used VR within our class, program, school, and Indiana University (IU) campus. Users can interact with various types of primary sources (e.g., photographs, video, audio, text) to learn about the underrepresented history of African Americans associated with the church. Virtual Bethel was created in a series of classes within the MAS Program in the School of Informatics and Computing (SoIC), IUPUI. Methods of teaching a team of students to preserve historic spaces using VR are discussed, as are our philosophies toward productions when working with varying stakeholders’ priorities related to data preservation, asset preservation, and cultural preservation

Complexities of Digital Preservation in a Virtual Reality Environment, the Case of Virtual Bethel

The complexity of preserving virtual reality environments combines the challenges of preserving singular digital objects, the relationships among those objects, and the processes involved in creating those relationships. A case study involving the preservation of the Virtual Bethel environment is presented. This case is active and ongoing. The paper provides a brief history of the Bethel AME Church of Indianapolis and its importance, then describes the unique preservation challenges of the Virtual Bethel project, and finally provides guidance and preservation recommendations for Virtual Bethel, using the National Digital Stewardship Alliance Levels of Preservation. Discussion of limitations of the guidance and recommendations follow

Virtual Reality to Assess and Treat Childhood Aggression

Digitized for IUPUI ScholarWorks inclusion in 2022The lack of advancement within the existing forms of assessment and treatment for youth aggression result in inaccurate data. The potential of advancement needs to be addressed, as accurate assessments of aggressive behavior lead to affective treatment. The integration of virtual reality will help fill the gap between clinical treatment and the real environments in which aggressive behaviors occur. I have developed a paradigm with the long-term goal of improving the efficiency and accuracy of assessments and treatments. The capabilities of virtual reality are limitless, and will provide positive long-term affects on youth aggression. The long-term goals will build on this to address the existing problems

Artifacts and Artifaction: Two Years of Historical Preservation with Benj. Harrison Presidential Site

Digitized for IUPUI ScholarWorks inclusion in 2022In 2016, the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site, based out of Indianapolis, contracted our class N420 Project Development to produce a virtual museum to become known as The 23rd Floor. Virtual reality systems allow interaction with 3D replicas of artifacts that are normally not able to be displayed due to quantity of historical artifacts and insufficient space to display them in. The University Library's Center for Digital Scholarship was instrumental to providing digital scans that provided the foundation to recreate authentic replications of over 50 assets inside the growing virtual museum

Artifacts and Artifaction: Two Years of Historical Preservation with Benj. Harrison Presidential Site

Digitized for IUPUI ScholarWorks inclusion in 2022In 2016, the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site, based out of Indianapolis, contracted our class N420 Project Development to produce a virtual museum to become known as The 23rd Floor. Virtual reality systems allow interaction with 3D replicas of artifacts that are normally not able to be displayed due to quantity of historical artifacts and insufficient space to display them in. The University Library's Center for Digital Scholarship was instrumental to providing digital scans that provided the foundation to recreate authentic replications of over 50 assets inside the growing virtual museum

Assessment of Boys' Responses to Interpersonal Conflict in Virtual Reality

Background: Continuous advances in virtual reality (VR) technology have increased its potential for clinical use in the research, assessment, and treatment of mental health difficulties. One potential target for VR use is childhood behavior problems, which are often associated with social-cognitive deficits that can be difficult to measure or modify. Materials and Methods: We enrolled 36 boys between the ages of 8–13 to assess the usability of a VR device and its feasibility as a psychiatric tool for youth. Each participant experienced three virtual school cafeteria scenes that varied in antisocial content and the intentions of a virtual counterpart (VC) (control, ambiguous, or hostile). Following each scene, participants completed questions about ease and comfort in using the headset as well as an assessment of hostile attribution bias (HAB). HAB is the tendency to attribute hostile motivations to others' behaviors, which contributes to antisocial thoughts and behaviors. Following this VR use, participants completed a standard text assessment of HAB. Results: In general, participants reported the VR headset to be enjoyable and easy to use, and scenes worked as intended, with VCs in the hostile scene rated the meanest. In addition, boys with more conduct problems reported that virtual characters were meaner to them, despite no difference in text vignette measures of HAB. Conclusion: This study provides preliminary evidence supporting the further development of VR programs to assess and treat childhood behavior problems

Mandibulectomy Prosthetic Case Report: Comparisson of Traditional and Digital Fabrication Methods with 3DMD Face Scanning, Digital Sculpting, and 3-Dimensional Printing

Digitized for IUPUI ScholarWorks inclusion in 2022Maxillofacial silicone elastomer prostheses are used to replace facial features congenitally absent, surgically removed due to disease, or lost because of trauma. Traditional prosthetic fabrication (impression, wax-up, mold fabrication, and silicone processing) can be streamlined using digital scanning, and computer-assisted design and manufacturing. The purpose of this report is to improve traditional facial prosthetic workflow using facial scanning, digital prosthetic design, and 3-dimensional printing technology. In this clinical case report, we present two design and fabrication protocols for mandibulectomy prosthesis: traditional versus digital modeling and 3D printing