Virtual Reality Experience
Kristen Powers

Virtual Reality is a new concept to me, but after joining this class I feel like I hear about it everywhere I turn. This emerging technology has an exciting future, so I am thrilled to learn how to use VR early on in the game. Not only is it a great way to tell stories, but it is a blast to experience! Every story that I entered into left me smiling ear to ear, or with my mouth hanging open in amazement. My group got in a few good laughs as we watched each other turn around to see all of space and flinch when a shark came near us, but nothing beats that realistic experience!

During our first class exercise I was able to test two headsets: the Samsung Gear VR and the "Cardboard" Plastic Viewer. I watched someone experience the Oculus DK2, and I plan on going into the innovation lab next week to give it a try myself.

Both were realistic experiences, but the Samsung Gear VR blew my mind when it came to storytelling techniques. The view was completely spherical which dropped me into the scene. My favorite scene from the Samsung Gear VR was being in space. No matter where I looked, I was in space. It was so realistic. The space image in the Samsung was clear and not pixilated. I think this is key in making it feel real. The images also looked like they were taken right from in space. Some of the images I found looked more cartoon like, but this looked like a real photo (it may have been, it was that good). The head tracking was also extremely smooth. When I moved my head to look around I actually felt like I was in space because everything moved so effortlessly. There were no distractions with the equipment, which really kept me feeling like I was floating in space.

I also tried an underwater shark scene on the Samsung. It felt real, and I actually felt a bit underwater, but some of the shark graphics were more pixilated which pulled you out of the scene a little. When I turned to the left there was a scuba diver who was just kind of looking at me. He looked very realistic, and even swiftly moved in the water. The coolest part to me about this scene is that when I looked up, you could see the sun reflecting off of the water in the sky. It was a calming experience being underwater, and even cooler because I could breath!

The “Cardboard” Plastic Viewer was realistic at times, but there was a little bit of a disconnect. I think this was because I saw everything in front of me, but it was a bit like tunnel vision. It was spherical in the sense that I could look up, down, and around and still see the scene, but my view was always restricted to a square.

I liked the use of sound all the stories I entered. This helped to zero out the sound of the room, which really placed me inside of the story. Sound can also help evoke different emotions, which would be neat to utilize in different stories. The space scene didn't really use sound, since space is probably pretty quiet, but the underwater scene and the trippy scene did use sound which did enhance the experience.

My whole group got so excited when we entered the VR story. Just watching everyone, and how they reacted to the scene you could tell that we all felt physically present in the story--especially in the space scene on the Samsung Gear VR. In the "cardboard" plastic viewer we entered a pretty trippy scene. We experienced being in a field and then it was like we entered a womb with a fetus. The baby was reaching out to us and it actually felt like it was trying to touch you, and that you could touch it. It was a bizarre. I think it felt so realistic because the 3D image was so clear. Although it wasn't necessarily completely realistic, you actually did feel like you were right beside the baby. It was definitely a bit disturbing when the 3D graphic of the baby reached for your hand and smiled at you, but at the same time you couldn't look away and almost everyone in my group also reached for the babies hand.

On this same viewer I tried a roller coaster ride that our group downloaded on an iPhone. This experience was definitely more like I was in a comic strip because the pictures were very cartoon like. Regardless, my mind actually went through what it usually does during a roller coaster. When I was going up the big hill right before you go flying down, I actually physically felt a little nervous, as I usually do before the big roller coaster drop. It was fun because I actually felt like I wanted to put up my hands when going down hills. I probably looked like a goof when I did it, but when you are in a VR you really feel like this is happening to you. To my pleasant surprise I did not experience nausea on the rollercoaster, or any of the VR experiences. Everyone in my group seemed fine in that respect as well.

Both of my experiences were wireless. I didn't try a wired one, but I do feel that being wireless made the experience more realistic. I was able to turn around in my chair, look up and down without any chords getting in my way, which helped me stay present in the VR.

The only thing that I noticed is that the lenses on the VR gear fog up quickly. This was not so much an issue when I was wearing it and in a scene; however, anytime we switched scenes the lense definitely needed to be wiped.

This VR experience just got me jazzed for more to come. It will be neat to actually learn how these scenes are created. From my VR experience in class, I am sold on the fact that VR can be a very powerful medium to tell a story.

Further interest: When looking through http://share.oculus.com the videos that popped out to me were the ones that seemed realistic. I studied abroad, and during that time I visited Paris. I am interested to see how the 360 degree video was used to capture the city. The video is just some views of the city, but I am interested in seeing how the live action shots turned out and how the experience is in the Oculus Rift DK2.