Human-Computer-Interaction Exploration in Immersive Technology: The Superiority of Mixed Reality Applications from Agriculture to Climate Change and an Evaluation for a Mixed Reality Sea Level Rise Simulation

Against the backdrop of the boom in Virtual Reality (VR), Augment Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), and the looming food supply crisis and climate change crisis, this thesis starts with crop yield simulation virtualization, explores the design and development of VR, AR and MR applications for simulating Sea Level Rise (SLR). This thesis outlines their development and deployment on a mobile VR head-mounted display (HMD). The effects of VR technology and Human-Computer Interactive (HCI) MR technology based on hand tracking on climate and environmental education are discussed. To gain a more nuanced analysis from the users, controlled experiments are conducted and the effect of these applications is evaluated. The results from a comparison of hand-tracking MR mode versus traditional VR interaction indicate that these technologies positively affect people's environmental awareness at a statistically significant level using the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale. A near-completed AR application is also proposed, bringing new possibilities for adding comparison with AR in future work.