Erika Zoffer

Virtual reality is changing the way we tell stories. For the first time, humans are able to craft and transmit an experience for others in an exact way that can be repeated over and over. Last summer, I was given the opportunity to work with Oculus Rift and code for an app that Honda would use at conventions in order to allow customers to design their car and driving experience without ever leaving the room. I began to see the extent of Virtual Reality as an opportunity to extend from just entertainment to marketing and education and I was hooked. Presently, I see the greatest challenge with virtual reality to be it exceeding the abilities of existing common-place mediums like traditional broadcasting. I think this will come with enhancing graphic realism in the most immersive forms of VR to truly create a reality almost indistinguishable from the real thing.

Working in the lab in class, I moved from the more basic technology gradually to the more advanced. Beginning with Google Cardboard, I noticed graphics are actually more advanced than later models like Oculus Rift. Google Cardboard and Samsung gear are basically a more immersive way of watching TV. It's good because you can walk around wirelessly, but at the same time there really isn't any reason to move. While locked in to a Google Cardboard video, you are completely unaware of the outside world and if you were to move your depth would not change--you can not get closer or farther from objects in the video. Advantages of this form of VR might be if you wanted to film a tutorial and have the user watch something be done from a first-person perspective.

Oculus Rift must be stationary because it isn't wireless, but does seem a little more of an involved experience than the previous two examples. I did find that working in the Oculus Rift world gave me the most nausea, not during the experience, but after I came out of it and had to readjust I tend to become dizzy and find the experience disorienting. Moving from this to the HTC Vive really emphasized how much better I think the VR experience is when you are able to physically move freely within a space. This model is not without flaw, yet I think it demonstrates the greatest potential of VR so far. The most major issues are the animated look of the graphics and the inability of the space to adjust to physical boundaries. For example, one must "teleport" to a different space to move when the space you are operating in is not large enough to allow one to physically walk further into the space. It can be very jolting and reminds the user that the space is not real. Additionally, because one can not yet see their own body, no arms when reaching or feel when walking, it gives the eery illusion of floating in the space rather than walking around how one normally would. However, with the HTV Vive we are able to alter the virtual space, such as when Professor Pacheco placed an elephant into the design. I would like to use this to create a peaceful escape. Moving around freely with the noises adjusting in surround sound  really enhances the experience, but visually it could use improvement.

The most useful technology I have used so far, I would actually say is the Holo Lens, which unlike the other forms of VR, is a modified reality in which you can still see the world around you but nonexistent objects can also be projected like Holograms. This seems particularly useful for 3D modeling in presentations or to add addition things to a space that can not physically be there. Right now, this is the most practical and seemingly complete version of the technology we have tried. As I know that this technology is quickly developing, I am excited to see how the graphics will improve even by the end of the semester. One thing I definitely became excited to do through this experimentation was to create my own space in VR. I'm really looking forward to learning more about what I can create as my ability to manipulate these technologies improves.