Faculty in MnRI and the Department of American Indian Studies partner for a new project

MnRI funds the project ‘Mixed Reality Spatial Interaction for Diverse Communities’ with the objective to get technology into community hands while accounting for pandemic restrictions

MINNEAPOLIS 07/02/2020—Professors Dan Keefe (MnRI, Computer Science and Engineering) and Vincente Diaz (American Indian Studies, Native Canoe Program) have been funded to create the ‘first-ever traveling studio for indigenous co-design of spatial interfaces.’

The project includes method modifications that allow scaffolding to be conducted virtually using zoom and web platforms and where community members may participate from their own homes. Rather than deploying a classroom-like model of traveling hardware, the investigators will shift to a “traveling set of co-design ‘backpacks’, where the intention will be for each family participating in the virtual workshops to receive a backpack kit for authoring interactive Indigenous XR experiences.”

For more information please reach out to Profs. Keefe (dfk@umn.edu) and Diaz (vmdiaz@umn.edu).