Page 28 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report

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Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom and experi- ence an authentic thrill. Going even further, the viewer would have the power to determine the direction of the plot and the end of the work, as the research group V-SENSE of Trinity College in Dublin did [V-SENSE] when it put on a virtual reality version of Samuel Beckett’s work Play, written in 1963.
The play has three characters with monologues that permit some changes in the order of their performance, and it is this order that determines the direction and outcome of the play. Placing the viewer in the middle of the stage and permitting him to determine the order of partic- ipation of the actors with a simple glance in VR, makes each performance a different play.
Virtual reality is not expected to replace conven- tional cinema. However, it is clear that it opens up a tremendous new universe of creative expec- tations, whereby developing interesting stories by itself is not enough. In this new scenario, the director can immerse the viewer in that imagi- nary world, assigning roles which are yet to be discovered. Some investors are already working on the creation of special rooms, called “location based VR” or “LBVR,” where the viewer has this new type of experience, providing both the VR headset and the rest of the devices required
to fully experience the film being presented [Forbes]. There are currently four types of LBVR environments:
• VRcades, which are similar to traditional billiard rooms, and for which a virtual reality headset is provided.
• VR Coasters, which are considered home systems, since the experience only requires a simple headset with a smartphone.
• VR cinemas, with swivel seats, providing the equipment necessary for the experience.
• Free-movement systems, with mats and sur- faces that allow the viewer to move around.
The country that has developed more VRcades is China, where there were an estimated 5,000 arcades in the entire country at the end of 2016. It is followed by the U.S., which has a thousand VRcades, and Japan, Korea and the rest of Asia with 500.
Music
Two clear trends can be distinguished in music and its association with a sense of immersion: on the one hand, the technological develop- ments to generate a greater sense of reality in the sounds created, and on the other, the new musical experiences that are emerging in the VR environment.
In music immersion comes from the technological developments to generate a greater sense of reality in the sounds created, and the new musical experiences that are emerging in the VR environment.
There have been very significant advances in
the capacity of playback devices to simulate sound fields with acoustic sources clearly located in three-dimensional space, controlling both aspects of laterality (left-right) and verticality (top-down). When this happens, it is not only possible to know which side the sound source comes from, but it also to simulate an acoustic signal source within a range of certain heights, recreating, for example, the noise produced by rain when hitting the leaves of trees above the listener. The two systems that have this capabil- ity are Dolby Atmos [Atmos] and DTS: X [DTS]. Both can be used either in professional environ- ments (cinemas, theaters, etc.), and in the home. Of course, the better the reproduction devices (loudspeakers) and the more appropriately they have been arranged in the room, the better the listing experience will be. DTS: X is marketed
as the system that permits the creation of a three-dimensional acoustic field with the speaker arrangement that the user has, without a specific configuration. Atmos, on the other hand, sug- gests working with multichannel configurations
IMMERSIVE CREATIVITY, CREATIVE IMMERSIVITY · JOSÉ MANUEL MENÉNDEZ AND DAVID JIMÉNEZ BERMEJO
Digital Trends in Culture