Virtual Reality is a great opportunity to practice skills and keep fit at the same time. It’s fun to watch people play these immersive games and get carried away. In Holopoint you’re an archer shooting at targets and they shoot back at you. You need to dodge out of the way to avoid being hit.
At first you’re given enough time to shoot and avoid the arrows but as you progress in the game you need to react faster and dodge more arrows. From level 10 onwards you’re shooting at Samurai warriors and dodging arrows from boxes. The game looks both fun and physical. This game looks as though it could be addictive.
If I had an HTC Vive I think I would pull the cable so that it is hanging from the ceiling rather than from the headset down my back and on to the floor. From my experience of the HTC Vive in Crans Montana and from the comments he makes during the video it seems logical to get the cable out of the way. It would be a shame to trip and break the device or injure yourself.
The beauty of VR is that the graphics don’t need to be photo realistic for the application to be fun. As with Altspace you’re immersed in an environment and you know that you can interact with objects and talk with people in other programs. At first I was unsure about socialising via Virtual reality but after experiencing it I changed my mind. You are in a virtual environment and you can play with objects and move towards and away from groups. A friend was playing basketball in Altspace and I had fun piling mugs of beer until they fell to the floor.
Virtual reality is as much about the environment as it is about having fun. The ability to play in a virtual environment is entertaining. I look forward to seeing how these environments progress and become more realistic. I was thinking about how sailing and other simulators would be possible with such technology. That would be a lot of fun. It would make a change from car driving and flying games.
AR/VR and XR have been around for years, if not decades. The most unique VR experience I was involved with was people wearing an immersive headset whilst snorkelling in a pool to experience being “weightless” whilst watching an immersive video.
The second most interesting video 360 experience was a ZDF volcanic explosion where you could watch a volcano explode, as if you were in Pompei. You could follow the projectiles as they flew by you. You could watch the pigeons take off and fly away.
The third immersive experience of note was where we sat in wheelchairs, with a VR headset on and we saw the world through the eyes of an old person in a wheel chair. We could see people “talk” to us, as if we were the main character.
Price as a Barrier to Entry
The Pure Vision headset by Apple is exhorbitantly priced. A few years ago the Quest 3 headset cost about 340 CHF and could be used for gaming. The Apple headset costs 3700 USD. Samsung headsets in contrast cost the price of a mobile phone and a headset.
The Affordable Options
VR headsets that are mobile friendly cost just 20-70CHF depending on the size of the phone, and the quality you desire your headset to have. Apple’s is way out of people’s acceptable price range.
Patent Monopoly
One of the most worrying things about the Pure Vision demonstration yesterday at WWDC was the mention that they had over 5000 patents. Some might think “Youpie, that’s a lot of innovation” but I see this as monopolistic and destructive. The more they patent indiscriminately the more they will prevent innovation by others. I would own a Quest 3, if Meta didn’t own Oculus. I don’t trust Meta with Immersive experiences, and I don’t like how Apple charges exorbitant fees.
Always Worn
From the demonstration of the Pure Vision headset it seems as though Apple wants us to immerse ourselves into XR for extended periods of time, to browse photos, videos, and work in AR. They seem to want us to edit video in augmented reality, rather than on a screen. They want us to be fully immersed, to the point that when we’re talking to someone, the display becomes transparent, rather than have us take off the headset.
Film Watching
They demonstrated how the headset fades the background to “nice colours” or some similar kitsch. They also promoted that we can make the screen for movie watching as big as we want. When I heard this I thought “Imax VR experiences”. With 23 million pixels you could probably watch Imax quality content from the comfort of your airline seat, should you have such a desire.
Solitary
One of the key issues I see with the Pure Vision headset is that it will isolate us from the world we are in, encouraging us to spend more and more time alone in a virtual world, rather than in the real world. I see this as great for people who live alone, but awful for family, love and other aspects of life. If you’re watching a film with a VR headset then you’re alone, unless they code in a way to be with others.
Irony
It’s ironic that just as Meta gave up on VR/AR/XR apple brings out a headset that would help get people immersed.
The Mobile Office
The Apple Pure Vision headset was marketed as a remote work tool, as well as a work tool. the idea is that you organise your work space within the immersive VR goggle experience. Video editing in VR could be interesting because rather than get a large screen, you simply set up the timeline, player and program screens as you want them to be. In theory you can edit 360 videos whilst immersed in VR. They didn’t explore typing and writing, but I did get the impression that they want us to navigate through the environment either through gestures, to grow or shrink windows, or voice, to tell Siri and the VR environment what we want to see.
Looking Forward to the PureVision SE
Although Apple haven’t even started to sell their PureVision headsets yet I look forward to the PureVision SE alternative. This version should be more affordable and more interesting for normal people. By normal people I mean people who buy a fragile glass headset rather than an electric bike. I want the PureVision SE option to be affordable, maybe even existing mobile device friendly as we have with the Samsung Gear solutions.
An Increased Demand for Content
The PureVision headset should come out in the beginning of 2024 which means that for the rest of the year we should be working on 360 videos and other immersive experiences. Now is the time to make sure that when the headsets come out, our content is there, for people to enjoy. YouTube videos, netflix content, amazon prime, and others should know work towards 360 video experiences, like the porn industry has already made available.
The one drawback to porn and the PureVision goggles, is that there are plenty of cameras, and if it uses gestures, then self-gratification may not be ideal.
And Finally
With good battery life, simplified typing and good gesture controls PureVision and similar products could replace laptops and desktops, and if not laptops and desktops, then external screens. In my experience VR is a lot of fun to experience but it does cause fatigue, and that fatigue means that we use it less than we would otherwise.
The act of putting a VR headset on, queueing content and more is slow and clunky. If Apple has found a way to make this easier, then that will help drive adoption. The Quest 3 was already a good step forward. We have to see the leap made by PureVision.
360 timelapse videos provide us with interesting new opportunities. Imagine for example placing the camera out to see near Weymouth beach and watching as the tide comes towards the camera and then beyond it towards the city. Imagine watching as the sun rises on one side of the Leukerbad Valley and sets on the other. Imagine that BBC Natural history unit sequence of sand dunes moving across the landscape one day at a time for a year.
I say that you could do this because there are high winds up there and you need a heavy tripod to keep the camera from falling and breaking one of the lenses. You also need to find something to do while the camera is working.
Yesterday morning was clement, we had clouds and blue sky so I was able to try a timelapse. I set the camera to take an image every ten seconds for an unlimited amount of time. The settings on this camera give you great flexibility with timing. You can go from every eight seconds to setting a much longer amount of time. You can set the interval to take pictures from every 8 seconds to every 60 minutes and 59 seconds.
You can either preview the image as a spherical image or as an equirectalinear image. Once you are happy with the settings you can start capturing. In yesterday’s test I was able to get more than 600 images on a single battery charge when the camera was set to take a picture every ten seconds.
The obvious limiting factor with this camera for timelapses is battery life. As soon as the camera is plugged in to a power source it turns off and starts to charge. As a result charging and taking pictures at the same time is not possible. There is also the minor issue of having the USB charge port right next to the tripod screw. You would need to modify a plate to charge the camera at the same time. The camera lasted for about 100 minutes before the battery died.
Post production
With the Ricoh Theta S and final Cut Pro X post production is efficient. You are dealing with images with a resolution of 5,376 x 2,688 pixels. That qualifies as UHD. You can import the image sequences from your timelpases straight from FCP X cutting out the need for other apps. Once the images are imported your your event you can open a new project at full resolution. I added the UHD image sequence to the timeline, created a compound clip and then used the speed tool to adjust the duration.
I still need to do some research about how to export the edit at full resolution. As I was given an error message I decided to export the video as 1920×960. This worked flawlessly. I used the Spatial Media Metadata Injector to add the necessary image meta data and then uploaded the injected video to youtube.
I look forward to finding ideas and projects that will take advantage of what 360 timelapse videos have to offer. I feel that it provides us with an opportunity to better understand how time and light evolve in a spherical environment.
Adam Aron, CEO of AMC recently made a generation of cinema non-goers angry with him when he said that he would allow texting to take place during projects. My generation, previous generations and the generations of the future complained on social media. Getting an audience to film screenings requires an understanding of what they prefer to do instead.
In the “Golden Age” of my cinema going life I would go to the cinema up to three times a week. I went this frequently because I lived close to the cinema, because we had two GBP Tuesdays and because it was something to do when other people were not available. Over a period of months I went to see more than 90 films. A consequence of this habit was over-familiarity with the codes and conventions of mainstream cinema. Since that “golden age” I have seldom been back to the cinema. When you know everything that will happen in a film within the first 15 minutes you get bored.
I know AMC through its television Series of which the Walking Dead is one. This is a series that I did binge watch when it was fresh and again when it was made available via netflix. Television series have better writers and better storylines than films. They also don’t overdo it with super hero rubbish and special effects. As these productions have storylines we care enough to watch one episode after another. Films fail to engage us in this manner.
When I was in London I went to a few screenings. The screenings I usually went to in London were at the Front Line Club. You would watch a documentary about current affairs and there would be a panel to discussion to discuss what you had just seen. In Geneva I found that the graduate Institute has started to do the same thing. I regularly go to such events because I like to complement what I already know by watching interesting productions and then listening to questions and answers sessions and learning something new.
Montagne en Scène is an example of what AMC should think of doing. They need to find and fund the production of films for niche markets. Montagne en Scène is an event where four mountain related films are projected to a specialist audience of mountain and sports enthusiasts. This niche usually relies on youtube and vimeo to find and share footage of their passions. By organising a special day these enthusiasts are encouraged to come to film screenings.
AMC is competing against mobile phones, televisions, Virtual reality goggles, tablets and Video on Demand via the World Wide Web. what they need to do is lower the price and make it more convenient for people in contemporary culture. Having panel discussions at the end of a screening is one way of attracting people. Lowering the ticket price would be another way. If they stopped making CGI films with no story then I would start going to the cinema again. This complain extends to the crappy films currently available, at least in Switzerland on Netflix. If Netflix did not have television series I would have stopped paying for their service months ago. If you treat your customers/viewers like mature adults then there is a good chance that you will attract them to film screenings on a more regular basis.
I was at the World Virtual Reality Forum in Crans Montana this weekend as a volunteer. During this time I was able to try many of the demonstrations and get a real feel for the potential of 360° and immersive videos. I was also able to listen to people comment on what they appreciated about the experiences and what they did not like.
Vulkane in 3D und 360
One of my favourite experiences was Vulkane in 3D und 360. I worked at this exhibit two out of the three days helping two people at a time every three minutes experience this. I had watched a number of videos before this one and when I watched this one I said Wow because the experience was so beautiful. The quality is excellent and there are some vistas that are spectacular. We are familiar with watching volcanic eruptions but with this experience we are watching the scene as if we are there. As the volcano erupts we can see the projectiles and follow their course through the sky. This is a novel experience for many of us.
Chernoby VR project – 360
Another experience that I got to try and received good feedback from was the Chernobyl 30th Anniversary experience. In this case you launch an app on the mobile phone and you can see a number of videos. You have interviews, videos of locations and interactive content. With this experience you can listen to an interview with a woman who still lives in Chernobyl. As she talks you can look around the room in which she lives. This provides you with a better understanding of whom she is.
Defrost was filmed using the Nokia Ozo and puts you in the place of a woman who was cryogenically frozen and then reanimated. For this experience we wore Samsung VR headsets and sat in a wheel chair. We were the re-animated woman. The experience was interesting because it allows you to feel empathy for whom you, as the viewer are meant to be.
The Difficult People Project.
The difficult People project has as it’s aim to provide people with an immersive experience in to the world as perceived by people with a different perspective on the world. In the first film we saw the world as someone would with hyperactivity. A second video was produced for the World VR forum and showed the world as someone with OCD would see it. This is a project that I personally contributed to with sound recording. The aim of the video was to provide you, as the viewer, with an experience of what it is like to go shopping with the disorder. You see the coping mechanisms via her interior monologue. You hear her worry that people are watching her, that people will see that she buys three of everything and that she may steal if she is alone in the aisle.
On the first day of the conference I was helping people with this experience and as I received feedback I started to see 360° or immersive videos as literature because of the way in which it enables people to feel empathy for the subject of the video. Some people said that they were curious to see whether they suffered from the same problems.
Viens
Viens can be translated as either “come” or “follow me”. I saw this as art, as an experiment which took advantage of what 360° videos have to offer. The camera is hanging from the ceiling and you see a group of people standing around the camera. At first they are hidden behind plastic but as you get further in to the video you see nude people standing. As the film progresses the camera changes position. At one point the camera is lower and you are looking up at giants. At another moment you seeing the action from above.
In each sequence you have the choice of which action you most want to watch. In this experience you choose what you want to see, rather than the camera operator or director. You are in control. You are the camera operator. This video really demonstrates the power of 360° videos. It demonstrates how immersive film making is an opportunity to think about what works well as an immersive experience and what works well as conventional video content.
The new role of camera operators
Immersive video content requires the content maker to think as a camera operator, to think about what is in front of the camera and what is behind it. It requires a new way of lighting a scene and a new way of recording sound. Wireless technology makes this much easier. In hallway conversations I heard people speak about how important it is to think as much about what is going on in front of the camera as much as behind it. If there is nothing interesting to see behind the person then normal video is enough.
Content duration is also relevant. Virtual reality and immersive experiences are still new to people. The experience can be tiring so short content is best, for now. When people get used to immersive story telling program length can grow.
The challenge now is to find subjects that lend themselves well to immersive story telling.
Yesterday we had a snowy day. I saw that the snow was beginning to pile up so I went and cleared the snow for fun. I could have left it as it was but I saw an opportunity to have some weight training, for free.
I regret that I didn’t set a fitness tracker to track the snow shovelling as weight training. It took a while and I got at least 2500 steps out of it, but as I wasn’t counting this as a workout the calories burned was counted differently. If I clear snow again I will track it properly.
What surprised me about shovelling snow yesterday is that I broke a sweat but I didn’t feel that I had pushed that hard. It’s nice to be fit enough to get a workout without suffering.
I did this for fun, but I still claimed the action. I do it for fun, but I don’t want someone else to be able to claim work that they didn’t do. I don’t want people getting free credit.
A Quick Walk
I went for a 6.6 kilometre walk afterwards. The light was good. Dark clouds with highlighted hills and trees covered in snow. At least today’s walk was atmospheric. Normally on such a walk I would wear at least one thick, warm layer but I didn’t bother. I think I had enough residual heat left over from the shovelling not to get cold. Luckily this assumption was correct.
And Finally
I haven’t used Twitter for at least two days. I took a break from the site because I don’t like the new owner and what he is turning the platform into but also because it started to feel toxic, rather than enjoyable. Twitter is meant to be a “social” network but how can it be social when we need to make our accounts private to avoid trolls, and tweet anonymously to avoid future problems.
There is an upside. Twitter revenue went down 40% on the same day, from one year to the next with over 500 advertisers suspending spending. Twitter blocked third party apps to control revenue. Tweetbot and twitterific were blocked, if I remember correctly.
Such actions won’t enrich Musk. They will simply encourage people not to trust Twitter, as it behaves erratically. To be of value social networks need to be pleasant and trustworthy. It is neither.
The Theta S by Ricoh is a 360° camera with two lenses. One lens is looking at the person taking video and the other lens looks at what the holder of the camera sees. When the two signals are combined you can export the video as a 360 video to be shared.
The device has a mini HDMI out, a USB port, enough memory for 45 minutes of video at 1920X1080 with a 30FPS shooting range. It is currently one of the more affordable and intuitive devices to use. You can keep it with you at all times and getting material ready for editing takes seconds. The beauty of such a simple and light solution is that it allows for a very quick turnaround time.
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