I have been always delighted by the virtual reality (VR) and its possibilities. It is not fiction; it is real.
I have seen application in surgery, building, tourism and entertainment. It makes me think why is not used more often. And thinking about that, I started to seek about some key issues to understand the virtual Reality (VR) and the User experience (UX).
Let’s start from the beginning: What is VR?
According to the Oxford Dictionary, Virtual Reality is defined as the computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional image or environment that can be interacted with by using special electronic equipment.
The Vade-mecum of EU Publications office (read on 2010) defines VR as simulations in which the user is immersed within a computer-generated environment. VR usually involves real time 3D animation, position tracking and stereo audio and video techniques (understanding 3D as graphics are represented in three dimensions: width, depth, and height. This is, however, a distortion of the truth as 3D computer graphics are really a two-dimensional representation of a virtual three-dimensional world).
According to Frederick P. Brooks, Jr., Ivan Stherland wrote in 1965 that we shouldn’t think of VR as a screen, but a window to look through into a virtual world, where the image has to be improved keeping the world model in real time. Virtual world means also that sounds real and feels real (1999).
There are several visualization systems, where projection devices and screens take part. Every one is appropriated for a particular use. In all of them the stereoscopic projection capacity is present. This capacity is in fact the one providing the immersive experience, providing the 3D perception of objects and environments, the volumes of them, and then the user is involved inside the environment, feeling he as part of the model simulated (T-Systems. 2009).
The next important aspect to take into account is the election of the screen. The considerations are the size, of course (a large angle of vision), but also material and quality of the screen. There are some other factors as the emitted light by projectors (so the screen has to be respectful with such a light distribution and lighting). It must get the maximum independency of the user position (T-Systems. 2009).
RAVE’s Manifesto of 2009 (RAVE is the acronym of Real Action, Virtual Environments) explain its interests in how and why people reacts as they do in a virtual world. It is a way to help ICT engineer to do it better.
RAVE is an initiative belonging to PEACH, Presence Research in Action. PEACH was an action funded by the European Commission and coordinated by Starlab under the Future Emerging Technologies (FET) - Information Society Technology (IST) program.
PRESENCE is a field studying the science, technology and social impact of digitally mediated interaction, interested in real feeling experiences and the impact of technology on social dynamics.
According to G. Rivas and all, in their conclusions, the VR can be described as a communication tool, an interface itself when talking about a single user and a medium when involving more users. It can be seen as an evolution of the current communication interfaces. They say that there are two main characteristics of this experience. The first of a satisfying virtual environment is the disappearance of mediation; the VR world and the physical world disappear from the user’s awareness. The second is the sense of community developed by interaction where it is possible to share interests, becoming a carrier for emotional support (2001).
There is another concept known as mixed reality, where objects of the real world and virtuality are mixed (Regenbrecht and Wagner, 2001).
In this sense it is possible to get a cognitive effect working with the textures (Hilsenrat and Reiner, 2009).
The level of immersive or how the boundary between the real world and the virtual world disappears from the user’s perspective, defines what is immersive virtual reality and non-immersive virtual reality. However, this border is grey and then appears some other category like augmented reality.
Thus, it is possible to increase the effect of the VR experience by introducing some objects of the real world. In fact, what we are doing is mixing the sense in a virtual environment, involving other sense like touch or sound. And there is no limit to involve the other sense like taste and smell.
So, involving as many sense as possible we can get a better immersion into the virtual reality.
When I was in Barcelona in 2009 for the Rave’09 I went to visit the installations of virtual reality that Barcelona University and T-System run. They have got a power wall and a cave of four sides. In the cave, they ran an application consisting on a platform that ascends lot of meters up. When the platform stopped you could go walking along the platform to a place without a fence. From there you could see the fall by moving ahead. Then giving just a step ahead you fell all those meters down against the floor. I felt the sensation of the fall, in legs and ears. And after the fall against the floor a feeling of legs shaking lasts for while.
In the Rave’09 (the 4th of March of 2009) one of the speakers (unfortunately I don’t remember who) experienced something similar in their VR laboratory, in a cave, but they introduced in the environment just a single step so that the user can feel the touch (under their food) of the step before “jumping”.
It was so curious that the same human reaction against such a kind of “crazy” jump in the real world is experienced in the virtual environment, I mean, even knowing that it was a virtual scenario, my mind was against giving that step making me “fall and die”.
Mel Slater, in his blog of November 2007 asked himself why do people smile at an avatar when the avatar is smiling at them or why do they become anxious when standing in front of a deep virtual hole when they know that there is no hole in the ground? People tend to act realistically in response to virtually generated sensory data. It is not all a question of “being there” since you are in a physical reality. The real actions in virtual environments have ramifications across many dimensions: Neuroscience and Psychology, Neuroscience of the body, Computer science and Engineering, Applications, Philosophy, Entertainment, …
So we have moved from a mere virtual reality, a mere computer simulation, to the “presence”, in words of Mel Salter, real actions in a virtual environment (2007).
NEXT CHAPTER: what about the User experince (UX)?
(Coming soon)
