Developing a Virtual Reality Video Game to Simulate Rip Currents

Summary

Rip currents are among the deadliest meteorological hazards in the United States. In order to demonstrate the proper actions to take when caught in a rip current in a memorable and engaging way, a virtual reality video game is developed.

Abstract

Beachgoers in the United States face many different hazards, but rip currents are annually the deadliest for ocean swimmers. Despite the risk presented by rip currents, it is apparent that the public has a limited understanding of their danger and the proper mitigating actions to take when caught in one. A virtual reality (VR) video game placing participants in a simulated rip current was developed to help ameliorate this issue. The VR game was used to survey beachgoers on the Atlantic Coast of Long Island, New York during July and August 2019. The actions participants took when confronted with the rip current were recorded, along with whether they escaped it or drowned. An interview with each player was also conducted after they partook in the game to determine the realism of the rip current simulation and its effectiveness in demonstrating proper actions to take when impacted by one. Analysis of those results indicates that VR has potential to communicate rip current risk and ways to minimize it in a unique and engaging manner. However, further work is needed to improve ease of use of the VR simulation and better understand how factors such as demographics influence perceived rip current risk and behavioral response.

Introduction

Rip currents are “strong, narrow flows of water that extend away from the beach¹.” Rip currents can commonly occur on any beach with breaking waves and can transport swimmers quickly away from shore. Hazardous rip currents can occur on seemingly ‘safe’ beach days with wave heights of only 2 to 3 feet², and thus can surprise swimmers as they are carried a considerable distance from shore. This puts swimmers at risk of panic, exhaustion, and even drowning. As a result, rip currents are one of the leading causes of weather fatalities in the United States. For example, in 2018, 71 deaths were attribut....

Protocol

All methods used were approved by the Hofstra University Institutional Research Board (IRB). The VR video game developed was used to survey 64 individuals.

NOTE: Scripts were written in the C# language, and are available for download at: https://github.com/Jasebern/HofstraVR.

1. Creation of VR rip current video game: Virtual environment and user input/output

1. Open VR development platform (e.g., Unity¹⁸). This procedure was complete.......

Discussion

Preliminary analysis of the results from the follow-up survey demonstrates the VR rip current video game was generally effective in accurately portraying risk and demonstrating proper actions to take in an engaging and memorable way. Respondents to the Likert-scale questions indicated the VR simulation resulted in them feeling more prepared than not for a rip current and also that it was fairly immersive. Moreover, the results of choosing one of six brief statements clearly showed the video game was helpful given that ov.......

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Dell 17.3" Alienware 17 R5 Laptop	Dell		PC for virtual reality development
Oculus Rift S	Oculus		Virtual reality headset