Virtual reality headsets offer more experiences for viewers and filmmakers at the Sundance Film Festival.
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Virtual Reality (VR) technology allows participants to perceive that they are physically interacting with another world. Images, sound and other sensory stimulation, such as vibration, can transport participants to experience landscapes that might otherwise have seemed inaccessible or even impossible. Imagine, for example, being able to experience the awe-striking beauty of a far off wonder such as Iceland’s ice caves without physically leaving your current location. Or, perhaps take a trip from your living room into outer space. Maybe instead of floating around in zero gravity, you would rather experience ancient Egypt. This has all become possible.
Photo by Samir Hussein
Audiences at the Sundance Film Festival recently got a taste of what some VR experiences were like. “From soaring over San Francisco to exploring the streets of Syria, VR took us everywhere,” wrote Bryan Bishop at The Verge.
With news reports about VR trending heavily since last summer, it may seem that the technology is kind of new. However, the concept of virtual reality has been around for decades and the public has been talking about it in contexts outside of science fiction since at least the ‘90s. It’s a subject that media has clung to with great fervor, generating more and more interest in the possibilities that VR has to offer. As Hypergrid Business states, “We seem to be hitting the inflection point on the old hockey-stick curve when it comes to the adoption of virtual reality technology.”
VR is being used in many sectors which includes the following: gaming (who can forget the introduction of Oculus Rift), medicine (for therapy and rehabilitation), in museums, the military and psychology. Techcrunch reports on Sunday that VR technology can also help people become more empathetic by putting the VR viewer directly inside of someone else’s shoes.
Some of these empathy inducing experiences were provided at Sundance. In one harrowing VR simulation, “Project Syria” put participants in the middle of a war-ridden world. “I am standing on a street in Syria when the bomb goes off. My ears ring so loud I can hardly hear the screams as I stumble through the smoke,” writes Josh Costine of Techcrunch. “Looking down, there’s a man cradling a crimson-soaked loved one on the curb. Others run for cover. I pull off my virtual reality headset."
Another VR experience at Sundance took the form of a short movie called “Perspective; Chapter I: The Party.” Filmmaker Rose Troche and VR pioneer Morris May created a storyline featuring two very different perspectives surrounding date rape that viewers could experience for themselves.
Other examples of how VR tech has been put to use include training viewers about sexual harassment and training soldiers on the battlefield. According to Newsweek, virtual simulations are more effective and immersive than role play scenarios that have been used in the past.
While virtual reality is beginning to have significant impact in many fields, it seems that the technology is in most instances being used for entertainment purposes only. At least, this seems to be the way that the technology is becoming popular with the public. One example lies in reports posted yesterday about Australia’s Qantas Airways which stated that the airline will begin offering first-class passengers in-flight virtual reality experiences. It’s a bit of a beta program that will begin in March and continue over a three month period.
Whatever roles the technology takes (and it seems there will be many) virtual reality may become an increasingly pertinent part of everyday life. According to Techcrunch, experiences such as the empathy inducing ones mentioned above are so powerful that a new form of journalism is taking form. Constine writes that “what you read in the New York Times or see on CNN pales in comparison to the power of VR journalism. It’s a term I think we’re going to hear a lot of.”
With experiments and innovations in haptic technology and with some VR incorporating sensory details from all of the senses (even smell and taste), a fully immersive virtual reality is seemingly close at hand. Who knows the breadth of what’s possible in the worlds of science and medicine, education, news and more.
*originally published on the now defunct Examiner.com
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