Augmented Reality experiments on Support for Political Protest vs. Terrorism

Faculty: 
Jeremy Johnson, Maribeth Gandy, Jeff Wilson, Scott Robertson, Amy Lambeth
Students: 
Dhruv Karunakaran

In collaboration with political science researchers from Georgia State University and University at Albany, we are developing augmented reality-based experiments to examine the impact of grievance, opportunity, and risk as motivating factors when choosing to engage in political protest or terrorism. Study participants assume the role of a fictional ethnic minority in a fictional country and engage in dialogs with virtual characters that attempt to persuade the participant to join a peaceful student-led protest or join a violent resistance movement. Participants wear a head-mounted video display instrumented with cameras that allow them to view computer graphics mixed with the physical space about them. Sitting at a table, the participant can then see and hear virtual characters that appear to sit across from them, allowing the participant to experience the first-person point of view in dialogs with these virtual characters.

Lab: 
Director: 
Maribeth Gandy

We are a team of interactive media experts that includes computer scientists, electrical engineers, and graphic artists. IMTC is a multimedia research center at the The Georgia Institute of Technology. IMTC has grown and adapted to meet the needs of business and industry in the USA and abroad by developing and using multimedia technology for enhancement of their core business. IMTC's mission is to assist companies in developing advanced multimedia systems while educating students in multimedia technologies and techniques.

The center also works closely with faculty in a number of other units at Georgia Tech and with numerous other organizations that share and support multimedia technology. For example, IMTC collaborates with The Georgia Center for Advanced Telecommunications Technology, a joint research effort that includes Georgia Tech, Emory University, the Medical College of Georgia, Georgia State University, and The University of Georgia.

http://www.imtc.gatech.edu