The Avatar Project
A Dating Violence Prevention Project
In a partnership spanning 10 years with the SMU Department of Psychology , SMU Guildhall students and faculty develop VR role-play simulations for behavioral research studies .
SMU Guildhall supports the research efforts of Dr . Ernie Jouriles of the SMU Department of Psychology , in collaboration with the Family Research Center , to raise awareness of dating violence and teach teens to practice assertiveness skills .
Since the project began , additional animations , props , and voice modulation features have been added to support new technology including the Oculus RiftS and to pilot a study on the effects of racism on making the choice to drink alcohol . In 2022 , this IVET was employed for a $ 5,000 internal research grant that offered improv sessions in VR designed to teach Emotional Intelligence . We use the IVETs to continue to reach into high-schools and address risky teen behaviors for “ The Avatar Project ”, as part of the Virtual Reality behavioral research “ Female Avatar Project ”, an Oculus Rift VR simulation used to assist college students ’ responses when confronted with a situation that could lead to another individual getting hurt and “ My Voice , My Choice ”, a VR simulation behavioral research simulation to train college students to reduce the incidence of sexual violence in adolescent girls .
For 2022-2023 , a $ 30,000 University Research Grant was used to update the simulation with male and female Police avatars in the Porch and School scenes to be used in officer training scripted simulations , along with additional interactor avatar animations . This brings the current total to eight IVETs deployed in behavioral psychology research including voice modulation capabilities and a participant stress meter for role-play scenario . In response to our leadership role in virtual / augmented / SMU Guildhall first created a secluded car scenario VR simulation using Half-Life 2 , for which a research article was published , Reducing Sexual Victimization Among Adolescent Girls : A Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial of My Voice , My Choice . SMU Guildhall later recreated the simulation in 2015 for Unity with new Oculus VR support and is still developing for The Avatar Project , a further expansion of the Oculus Rift VR simulations .
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