Belmontia is the working title of our Purposeful-Experience project. Purposeful-experiences happen when you combine a purposeful environment, with active participants and an experienced guide. The environment is created by non-programming authors that wish convey a scene to multiple users, and have those users meet one, or more, goals. After creation of an environment, the original creator can interact with the users, much as an instructor, guide, or dungeon master, might help students, tourists, or players, depending upon the goal of each environment.
Our guiding use-case is the democratization of the creation, distribution and execution of virtual-reality based training/learning experiences. Drawing from our deep background in online learning, and from our first-hand knowledge of creating hands-on, visceral STEM courses, Belmontia lets normal people create real scenes. Just as importantly, the scenes are normally meant to be guided by a real person, just as an online course often has a live instructor directing the lesson. Tools are provided to Experience Guide to help them interact in a meaningful way with each participant.
Scenario: Language Learning with Experience Objects
A live language instructor would gather their students, from around the world, into a single virtual location with goals. A french class may gather in a stylized french café and be tasked to order from the menu, while the instructor listens in on various conversations. Alternatively, a traditional Parisian cafe might be used that then connects to the streets of Paris.
Experience Objects are in-scene items with meta information and logic related to the goal. A french cafe might have cups and glasses that the user can interact with, including French translations. The creator might create a scene with learners are directed to order coffee, pay, and then go visit a nearby attraction.
Scenerio: Connected 360 scenes
Pulling together 360 photos spheres, or video spheres, create a mapped world that uses can navigate through. The experiences could range from historical education, such as visiting the historic Plimoth Plantation, to more traditional adventures, such as running through fields to solve a mystery.
Scenario: VR-First Academic Courses guided by Live Instructor
Traditional academic topics still bring people together. Tools might facilitate presentation of core knowledge, while other tools let the instructor break the students into break-out sessions to work through assigned scenarios.