By Ying Chen

Last summer, when I was done from my graphic design class, walking down to the hallway, I heard people laughing loudly, with "Wow" sound all the time. It sounded like aliens just landed here. I ran there quickly and found people are playing with VR. It didn't seem very complicated, a person wearing a headset that connected with a PC through many cables. In the hands, the person held two remote controls. It was hard to tell what the person exactly saw or heard from the headset, but it's sure that they were enjoying it. Soon it was my turn, and the moment I wore the headset, I got to understand why people wearing this can behave so excitedly. It was more than amazing. I was suddenly placed into a dark space, like the outside world, without any stars or lights around me. Totally black. But when I raise my hands and move them, I saw shining paths. Yes, my hands were given magic, and I could draw anything with that magic. It felt like I was Elsa from the Frozen, standing at the top of the snow mountain, drawing snow and shining icy castles.  That was my first touch with VR. And I still remember how the scene stayed in my head, making me so unused to the true reality after I took off the headset. Then I understood VR was a tool to take us to a "fake" world that makes us feel it's true. It (3D graphic) might be a key purpose to the inventors of VR at the very beginning, but not a mainstream to the industry anymore.

Lately VR is more likely to be applied to real-life storytelling. Nothing is more real than than the real world and real events, right? Before TV came out, people learn information through print papers, on which we use our imagination to trigger senses. Later, we watch TV and other screens to get a visual learning process. We only see what the square screen shows us. Anything beyond that? No way. But this is not how our real eyes work. Our eyes can catch anything in any perspective as long as we turn our heads. This is what makes VR so revolutionary. Every scene caught by the 360 camera is like to be captured by our eyeballs. We turn our heads with the headsets, and then we get different perspectives.

My favorite scene during the innovation lab tour was the world trip. It combines both 3D graphic scenes and real world scenes. At first, there was the Earth ahead of us, like I was driving a spaceship and ready to land. I used the remote control to select the countries and region that I wanted to go. After done selection, I landed. In some places, I landed on a busy street, following the crowds to move forward. On the left or right were different shops and buildings. Looking far ahead there were more buildings, and looking towards sky, there were clouds and helicopters. I could hear the noise from the crowds, people talking, cars driving, and engines of electricities. In other scenes, I could be driving a car on a highway, where it got darker and the city was lighten up. Or, I could become a customer and glance at items on the shelves. With the natural sound around me, I really felt I was there.

But for some stories and some VR sets, there are challenges. I did experience nausea when I watch the after prison life story. First of all, the room was so tiny and dirty. I just wanted to leave. Secondly, the interviewee was so close to me. Maybe because of the shooting perspective, he was too tall and too close. I kept stepping back but it didn't help too much. Also, when I turned around, it was not smooth. There was uncannyness all the time, not in comic strips, but in blue or green shadow around the character, which made me really uncomfortable. I guess VR scene works better in big open space rather than small limited space. Otherwise the limitation will create a sense of anxiety to the audience.

Most VR headsets are wired, but there are some wireless sets. Personally I prefer wireless, and I think this should be a trend to future VR sets. The reason is we gotta move and turn around all the time while experiencing the VR scenes. Those cables are really blocking us moving, and sometimes with the wires, it's very possible to fall down.

After these experience with VR, I saw more possibilities of breakthrough in various industries. Not just gaming and entertainment, but also journalism, like reporting and storytelling, especially in events and sports covering. Anyway, audience are always amazed by content that makes them "feel" it's reality. We don't want to just watch and see, we want to experience.