All Hazards Preparedness Game

Background:

Traditional disaster preparedness research often involves real-time studies during actual emergencies, which can cause significant distress for participants and pose ethical challenges. This is especially critical when focusing on vulnerable populations such as older adults. Recognizing these limitations, the development team for this innovation sought a controlled, risk-free method to improve preparedness training without exposing participants to real-world disaster environments. The team focused on initial testing with older adults.

Technology Overview:

The All-Hazards Preparedness Game employs virtual reality technology to simulate various disaster scenarios, including evacuation procedures and shelter-in-place directives. Users engage in realistic decision-making processes within these simulated environments, allowing them to practice and enhance their preparedness skills. Built on platforms like Unity and Blender, the software integrates newly developed code that represents half of the program’s structure, ensuring a tailored and innovative experience. This technology addresses ethical issues in disaster research by eliminating the need to study participants during emergencies, thereby reducing stress and potential harm. Moreover, immersive VR training fosters greater cognitive engagement than traditional methods, which can translate into more effective real-world responses. By targeting older adults—a group often overlooked in disaster preparedness initiatives—the game helps reduce the demand on first responders by promoting individual disaster readiness. However, while we started with older adults to ensure it was usable for that population, we expect AllHazards to be used and benefit all age groups.

Advantages:

•    Provides a safe, controlled environment for disaster preparedness training without exposing participants to real emergency situations.
•    Tailored to consider the needs of older adults, and modifiable to enhance inclusivity for various populations in disaster readiness efforts.
•    Utilizes immersive virtual reality to improve decision-making skills, leading to better protective action decisions.
•    Reduces ethical concerns associated with traditional quick-response disaster studies.
•    Incorporates significant new software development, ensuring innovative and customized simulation experiences.
•    Potentially lowers pressure on emergency responders by improving individual preparedness.

Applications:

•    Disaster preparedness training programs for individuals, households (and caregivers) that could be deployed at community centers, and healthcare facilities, and schools
•    Educational tools for emergency management organizations aiming to improve public readiness.
•    Use by insurance companies to incentivize customers to take preparedness actions that could limit damage to property, bodily injury, and death.
•    Use by policymakers and planners to assess the effectiveness of preparedness strategies in a simulated environment.
•    Incorporation into virtual conference presentations and workshops focused on disaster resilience.

Intellectual Property Summary: Patent Pending

Stage of Development: TRL 5

Licensing Status: This technology is available for licensing.

About the Research Foundation for the State University of New York:

As the nation's largest research foundation supporting the nation's largest public university system, The Research Foundation for SUNY powers research and innovation to address today's most pressing problems and shape a better future for generations to come. The Research Foundations supports SUNY researchers leading the way globally in AI for the public good, quantum technologies, next-generation semiconductors, biotech and medicine, energy and climate solutions, and more. The Research Foundation for SUNY is a private, nonprofit educational corporation that is tax-exempt under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 501(c)(3). To learn more, please visit us online at rfsuny.org.

About the State University of New York

The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, and more than 95 percent of all New Yorkers live within 30 miles of any one of SUNY’s 64 colleges and universities. Across the system, SUNY has four academic health centers, five hospitals, four medical schools, two dental schools, a law school, the country’s oldest school of maritime, the state's only college of optometry, 12 Educational Opportunity Centers, over 30 ATTAIN digital literacy labs, and manages one US Department of Energy National Laboratory. In total, SUNY serves about 1.7 million students across its portfolio of credit- and non-credit-bearing courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs. SUNY oversees nearly a quarter of academic research in New York. Research expenditures system-wide are nearly $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2025, including significant contributions from students and faculty. There are more than three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and annually one in three New Yorkers who earn a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunities, visit suny.edu.