Immersive Virtual Reality Environments

CI7810:  Digital  Studio  Practice  —   Project  Brief  October  2015

 

“Immersion into virtual reality is a perception of being physically present in a non-physical world. The perception is created by surrounding the user of the VR system in images, sound or other stimuli that provide an engrossing total environment.

The degree to which the virtual or artistic environment faithfully reproduces reality determines the degree of suspension of disbelief. The greater the suspension of disbelief, the greater the degree of presence achieved.”

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspension_of_disbelief)

The same source continues with the following categories of immersion:

Tactical immersion

Tactical immersion is experienced when performing tactile operations that involve skill. Players feel “in the zone” while perfecting actions that result in success.

Strategic immersion

Strategic immersion is more cerebral, and is associated with mental challenge. Chess players experience strategic immersion when choosing a correct solution among a broad array of possibilities.

Narrative immersion

Narrative immersion occurs when players become invested in a story, and is similar to what is experienced while reading a book or watching a movie.

Examples of applications include:

• Computer games from simple arcade to Massively multiplayer online game and Training programs such as flight and driving simulators. (More can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immersion_(virtual_reality)

When totally immersed a gamer describes a sense of presence as being cut off from reality to such an extent that the game was all that mattered. In the past few years new techniques with origins in psychological analysis have been introduced to shed more light on the experience dynamics of gaming, where the user feedback is more at an emotional

level. The continuous representation of emotion is a powerful evaluative tool that can be easily combined with proven usability techniques, such as observational analysis and player interviews. Given a time series of emotional output, researchers can identify interesting features, such as a sudden increase or decrease in an emotional state, then

investigate the corresponding underlying trigger in post testing analysis and interviews.

You are asked to:

• Explore the state of the art immersive VR technology today
• Research and analyse the mechanisms of one such system working and identify the areas of application that it may serve.
• Take one immersive VR environment such as Oculus Rift and explore how it may apply to enhance learning experience;
• Use UX methods to compile a set of requirements for designing one such learning environment
• Use the findings of your research to propose design of an immersive learning environment to meet the requirements emerging from the findings of your research
• Present your results in the form of a prototype or other artefacts to prove your concept; you may use established programming environments such as Unity3D for creating a prototype
• Use the computer animation to promote your ideas and create a coherent promotional material

 

Mentor: Darrel Greenhill

Suggested Tasks:

• Contact the Mentor; access the resources and confirm any support they might offer
• Review the literature, tools and techniques available
• Explore an existing application and use it to guide your experiments and work towards the game design improvements.

Skills: Research skills, Development of interactive prototypes; familiarity with new technology Resources: Existing Creative Concept, Existing applications, use of iCat (KU Library online service) for learned journal publications and other documentation surrounding your domain of application.

Starting point: Leveraging Oculus Rift for an Immersive Distance – Learning Experience: A High Definition, Panoramic Lecture Recording/Playback System using Commercial Virtual Reality Tools, 2014, http://www.editlib.org/p/149028/

Future Development: You have the opportunity to become an expert in a new field.