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.
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.
A few years ago I said that I would upgrade my mac book pro when apple came out with a dual display laptop where the keyboard is a touchscreen display that changes to suit the application in use.
Two days ago I had a change of heart. I do not expect Apple to come out with such a device. I have set my sites on a different idea. An edit suite which requires VR goggles to use. The edit suite could be used either by standing people or sitting people. Turn your eyes to the left and you see the rushes. You would have a choice. The rushes could be shown as keyframes on a board or as film strips. Motion feedback gloves would be worn that provide tactile feedback. Double click and the selected clip appears in the player window. With current editing systems keyboard shortcuts are learned and memorised by editors to avoid using the mouse. In this case specific finger positions would be short cuts. You could trim, splice, insert, overwrite, make multiclips and more. Sound and vision could be faded as if using physical controls.
Imagine multicamera editing in Final Cut VR. The setup would be like in an OB van except that you’re in an edit suite or in a park. You could even be sitting in the back seat of a car. The beauty of such a setup is that monitors and displays could eventually be removed from the desk to be replaced with goggles and a pair of gloves.
This means that the same edit suite could have a virtual 64 channel audio mixing board for sound technicians, colour correction wheels for colour graders, vision mixing console for vision mixers and standard video editing controls for video editors. In theory we could go back to the jug/shuttle controls from linear editing days.
I now look forward to seeing whether Avid, Apple or Adobe come out with the first virtual audiovisual creation suite. Imagine how immersive the experience would be. Enjoy the notion that this virtual environment will allow you to stand or sit down.
Yesterday it snowed for several hours and that snow was covering the path to my house. When I saw the ground turn from asphalt black to grey, to white I decided to go and start clearing the snow. It’s easy to clear snow when you have three or four centimetres, rather than more. At first it was light and easy to move so I cleared the path once, and then a second time, and then a third, and by the third I decided to stop. It had become a sisyphean task. It was falling as fast as I was clearing it.
Eventually I got around to spreading salt but because it had got wet it was clumpy and very hard to spread as efficiently as when it’s dry so in the end I didn’t spend too much time on it. I could have got away with not using any salt because within a few hours the snow turned to rain. I could have ignored the falling snow and the problem would have solved itself.
It was never about clearing the snow. It was about having a different workout than usual. It was about seeing an opportunity to have an upper body workout for free. It’s easy to walk, run or cycle. Sometimes it’s just as good to shovel snow, even if it was going to be melted by nightfall.
Eventually I was going to go for a walk, but because the snow was still falling I shovelled more snow. By this point it was wet and heavy so I eventually felt that I had reached the limit of my endurance and stopped. I was frustrated by the clumpy salt that was hard to spread because I was worried that the snow would freeze overnight and the ramp would become a rink.
Experimenting with Plex
Recently I have been listening to various Linux podcasts and I kept hearing about Plex, a video streaming service, and self-hosting solution. Plex is both a self-hosted media server as well as a film and television streaming service. Yesterday I watched Breaker Breaker as well as Ice Pilots NWT. When I watched Ice Pilots NWT on the laptop I had no ads but when I watched Breaker Breaker on an iOS device and Apple TV I did. I’m not sure whether it’s because of content type of viewing platform.
Plex looks like a great alternative to YouTube. It allows you to watch film classics like Nanook of the North, films from the 30s as well as plenty of films from the seventies, as well as more recent content. It’s divided in two. On one side you have video on demand, where you choose what and when to watch. You also have the Live TV option. Here you can watch Guardian TV, Euronews and other channels. You also have the Washington Post, Reuters and more.
The TV cateogires you can choose from are featured, news, hit tv, crime, sports, Game shows, Movies, action and more.
Plex feels like Satellite Broadcasting used to feel. You have a choice of many genres and hundreds of channels for niche interests. Rather than sorting through clickbait headlines like you do with YouTube you get real content, produced by Television and Film Professionals.
And Finally
When it snows you have a great opportunity to get an upper body workout. At this altitude it’s quite rare, so that’s why its fun. Plex is an interesting alternative to Netflix and YouTube because you have a wide variety of programs to watch when it’s convenient for you.
Yesterday the Theta+ Video app came out for Android. The Theta+ video app allows you to trim video clips and then share them to social networks. This means that you no longer need to wait until you get home to prepare content for sharing. You can do it while you sit and have a post activity hot chocolate or other drink.
[caption id="attachment_3325" align="aligncenter" width="169"] Video options[/caption]
When you select the raw video it is converted to be a spherical video. When that process completes you can choose between creating a 360 degree video or a cropped one. A cropped one is a tinyworld video.
[caption id="attachment_3326" align="aligncenter" width="169"] Filters, Trim and music[/caption]
The next menu gives you three choices, filters, trim or background music. I never bother with filters and the trim option is fiddly on the Sony Xperia Z5 compact with a 13 minute video. With a shorter video I would have found this process easier. Saving is not intuitive. First you trim the video and then you go back and save the changes. While saving you need to keep the app open.
The sharing options are to Facebook, youtube and other social networks. This varies according to which apps you have on your phone. I like that the two first options are facebook and youtube as these are the networks that I usually share to. When I tried to upload to youtube it failed twice. When I attempted to upload to Facebook it was stuck at 99 percent twice.
This is a great app to trim videos before sharing and add some music when required. What I would like to see in future versions is the ability to compile a number of 360 videos together to create edited sequences. They need to improve uploading so that it works better. At the moment of posting all attempts to share videos failed.
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.
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