In the first day of class I had the opportunity to witness a fight scene between the Avengers and their robot enemies on the VR headset. I felt fully engulfed in the scene to the point that I was dodging debris and Captain America’s shield when they looked as though they were coming my way. I found myself hunching over many times as IronMan flew over my head, Thor threw his hammer over my head, and the Hulk appeared out of nowhere. I kept having to remind myself that I was not actually in the scene and that these respective objects could not harm me. Nonetheless, being so engulfed in the scene, it was hard for me to just relax and watch because I actually felt as though I was there.

I believe the fact that the VR headset is attached to one’s head definitely contributes to the feeling of being physically present. With the Google cardboards, you are holding up the device with your own hand and if you wanted to get away or even try to dodge something you could easily just move your arm and it would pull you out of the experience immediately. However, with the VR headset, you would physically have to remove the headset from over your head if you wanted to “get out” of the scene. This almost makes it feel as though one is trapped or can not easily get away, creating more of a feeling that one is actually there because when we are in our present lives we can’t just remove a headset and be transported to another world. Juli, a classmate, and I shared our experiences after we both went through the Avenger scene and we had similar feelings. Neither of us experienced nausea and I think that is because we were not standing and moving throughout this scene but were just being taken through it as we sat on the couch in the innovation lab.

I definitely experienced a bit of uncanniness. There was a point when I looked over at Thor and he looked more like a cartoon than a real person and it immediately reminded me that I was going through a virtual reality experience as opposed to experiencing real life. I think uncanniness definitely goes into screen resolution and the quality of 3D graphics. With lower screen resolution or amateur 3D graphics, a person could easily be detached from the experience as they may not feel they are physically present in a scene but are just witnessing a 2D cartoon. It breaks the virtual reality experience of feeling as though one is actually there and makes it harder for someone to suppress their suspension of disbelief. Sound that moves with the head is important because in order to feel physically present the images can not just be 3D and move, the sound has to be as well. For example, if an individual is up close and personal with a river but the river’s sounds seem far off in the distant, the logic is broken and the person is no longer getting the “realest” experience possible, which everyone seeks when in a virtual reality experience. It is the same techniques implemented in filmmaking: the sound has to match the shot or better yet, what is going on in the shot or the scene hardly makes sense. Lastly, the smoothness of head tracking and full spherical range of vision is definitely key to the experience. I feel as though they go hand in hand. If there is any interruption in head tracking or the range of spherical vision is short, it makes it hard for an individual to feel as though they are physically present because when experiencing something in real life, head tracking is smooth and we have spherical vision as far as our heads can turn. Virtual reality experiences have to match that in order for a person to feel physically present. If not, again it will just feel as though one is witnessing a 2D cartoon and that is not what people are looking for in a virtual reality experience.