So let's get started at the beginning when you decided to get a virtual reality headset, there's often some kind of tutorial or some kind of introduction to it. And we're going to look at Oculus first steps just to get a sense for what virtual reality is, at least the first time you see it. So there you are in your heads. It just getting used to this new virtual reality around you looking around and then you see your hands and you actually don't see your hands. You actually see some kind of model of hand some abstraction and they're moving as you are moving. It's actually getting it relatively right. And so you're surprised. Wow, how does this actually work? I'm just holding these controllers. And the reason that this kind of works is because of the button placement on the controllers. We can actually estimate where your fingers are and then render it accordingly. And so we can even hide the controllers. Now, in the latest headsets, you have had a hand tracking available so directly tracking your hands. We don't even need the controllers anymore. But in the Oculus rift and rift, as in the beginning. At least this is what it looks like. So then you're getting familiar with this virtual reality. Their buttons that you can press on objects spawn like out of nowhere. It's like magic. So you're picking them up, you're throwing them around and you are surprised by their behavior and the fact that they always come back. I wish this were money that I could spend. It would just always come back. And then you're picking up some other objects. So here I'm starting to freak out because paper airplanes, I mean paper airplanes in virtuality. That's really what we need at this stage, and it's flying, and I'm doing a good job. So the term virtual reality that's, however something that we should explore. So in this video, we're going to talk about some of the key characteristics. We're going to look at it this way. We're going to start with the five Ws. So basically really establishing what is virtuality. We're going to ask a lot off w w w questions. Who What? When, Where, Why etc? Then we're going to talk about key concepts. Okay, what makes it actually a virtual reality? So this is the part that I want to focus on in a separate video I'm going to talk about the technology is really This is how these key concepts are actually implemented. How does we are work? So when we talk about these technologies, this will then maybe be a little bit technical. But it doesn't hurt to understand some of the stuff a little bit more detail, and then throughout, you'll see some demos, me, demoing things. And actually, it's part of the course I want to do get involved as well. And so you're trying out some of the demos yourself, and you can report on some of these experiences. So let's start with the five Ws for virtuality, the Who, what, when, Where and why. The why is probably like the best one for you. Why virtuality? Why do you want it? Unless you are of course, enthusiast and you, like never would. You would never ask this question. But a lot of people that I work with are like wondering Michael, why do you have all these toys? And so before we get to the Y, let's start with a hoop. So the who I would say some of the key players in the space of Google Oculus, now Facebook, HTC and Microsoft and there are others. So don't be said if I didn't mention you, but I mentioned you because you have some off these key products that kind of like pave the way for virtual reality. I want to start with cardboard, cardboard really from Google and open source platform really cheap. And all you have to do is like [SOUND] Put your phone inside and then you can experience virtual reality. For many of us, this will be or was the first time we actually saw it. I'm often do this in the classroom, and so this is actually a really good way to bring virtuality to the masses, if you will. Unfortunately, this is kind of like on the verge of dying so mobile. And the idea of using a mobile phone and and adapted like this is not being pursued actively anymore. We're actually going really towards some of these more mature six degrees of freedom headsets. So these are some of the concept I talked about here as well so that we get a better understanding. Why is this happening? Why is this? How is this different from the other thing you just talked about. We'll get there, all right, and now I just grabbed the daydream. So the daydream is kind of like the D lacks cardboard. Okay, made of nice material. Comes with the controller. Three degrees of freedom. We'll talk about that again, goes on your head. Boom. Even stays there so can be wrapped around. And it's relatively comfortable and actually feels quite good. Depending on the resolution off your phone because the phone goes inside, you may actually have a pretty solid a pretty good virtual reality experience. It is a on the lower end of the spectrum experience so cardboard and daydream and then rift go and. Quest, which are really the Oculus products. And then HTC has a number of different Vive models out there. And Microsoft is in the space with Windows Mixed Reality. Which is more like a platform in specifications because different kind of vendors are then actually implementing the headsets like Acer or Noble. So how did it get to this? There have been many before that and many efforts have actually died. I would say I can identify these three waves. There was one early on that was really exciting in the 1960s. The first head monitor displays sensor Raman and some other things that you may read about when you read about virtual reality history. I don't go that far back. I don't think it's that productive for all purposes. And then the second wave was really virtual reality movies and games so this is in the 90s. So Michael Douglas, when he was still doing movies and that VR was a thing, okay, and it was really interesting. And then Nintendo had the Virtual Boy and that's not something I've experienced myself, but maybe you have. I never played with this, I never got to play with it, but I know that there was a lot of hype around it. There were also various data gloves, so really haptic gloves that some people probably at least buying into this. And so this was the second major wave, and I'd say the third major wave is the one we're kind of like riding on at the moment. It started more or less with the Oculus Rift on it as a Kickstarter project really in 2012 and then bought by Facebook and then made it more or less kind of like a mainstream platform for Viana. So where is VR being used? Well, it used to be mostly in research labs and enterprise context. But I'd say now it might actually be used by you, you as the consumer or you as one of my students in my classes, including this online course as well. And then why? Well, why is a good question. So I think that there is something about virtual reality that I find very fascinating. This idea of being ported into a different places maybe that's maybe for some people, but to me it's just like a really interesting interaction modality and it's really around the user. And it's an immersive 3D interface that I can explore. I would say another reason why this is really happening and especially now, is because these technological advances are really. There's a lot of key players behind now, and so we're pushing really forward quite a bit. And it's become affordable, which I think is also really key factor that helps adoption. So I'd say, okay, let's quickly review some of the key characteristics I introduced you to. So I said VR by the book more or less is about autonomy or agency. When you're giving control of the user and we achieve this through head tracking and body input, like using your hands gesture, voice speech, or your eyes as input. So this then needs to natural interaction. Hand gestures and speech are supported, and then you can also use your hands or controller input or some combination of it. On some of the later models like the Oculus Quest, you now have hand tracking available so you can put the controllers away, and that's something I'll show in other segment. But it wasn't like this, it used to be more controller based. And I do think that there are still lots of tasks with the controller is actually just a lot more useful. And then presence, which is really a concept that we're going to look at here. But think of it as this idea or this feeling of being there. And we achieve this through immersion, which is actually another concept I need to explain a little bit more and then also multi-sensory input or stimuli. So basically not just visual senses, but also audio. And then if you can do tactile, haptic or maybe even olfactory, which is smell. You could really create really interesting virtual reality to some extent realistic virtual reality experiences. So in my mind, however, it doesn't have to be all that realistic. I think of VR being in a virtual environment, some kind of virtual world. It doesn't have to be nicely decorated. It doesn't have to look like a fairy tale land, that's fine. And I want to be able to work on something or solve something in 3D and being immersed in it. Usually, I think of stereoscopic views, right, the rendering for HI. I don't work a lot in these caves that I talked about as well. These room sized virtual reality displays, you like inside the display rather than having it on your head. It is really cool, but I don't really work there. So what I associate with virtual reality is like something on my head. And then I can do things in 3D and not just look around, but also walk around, six degrees of freedom. And then I think of an immersive task, really some kind of spatial interaction and sound around me. It's immersive in the sense that I'm really like into that task. I'm not distracted by all the other things around me. Virtual reality in many ways. Although that can sometimes be a little bit dangerous, allows me to focus on the task at hand in the virtual reality. You don't actually, this is not a conscious thing. This is actually really it's like because it's wrapped around you. This will happen so this can be good and bad. But I do think the minimum we should aim for is some kind of believable experience. I want to be good at the task that I'm doing. I want to believe that this is a virtual reality that I'm like engaged in there. I don't have to be in a complete virtual world. As I said, It doesn't have to be photo realistic. I think of virtuality, really as an interaction modality from a human computer interaction perspective. It's just a very interesting design world, the interfaces that we can create there, and so that's how I think a little bit more about virtual reality. So before we talk about some of the key concepts, let us first quickly introduced the kinds of the artist place we actually have. So we can distinguish between head mounted displays or H MDs and room sized VR environments. So you're basically like inside the display and we refer to these as caves automatic virtual environments. And here I have an illustration of this on the left. You see, headline of display the way I've tried to draw it here it looks it's supposed to look like a Google cardboard. So it's supposed to be this and again just, like goes on your head and then you have a rendering for each. I'd so That's what I'm trying to illustrate here in this concept. So for the room science VR or the cave, I mean, you would actually be standing inside these inside of this room. You would have multiple waltz and even the floor and sometimes also a ceiling that is being projected on usually caves are projection based or projector based. So the main difference between the head mounted display and the cave is well, you're putting this on your head, and then you are moving with a display, and in the cave, you're actually moving inside. Well, the display, if you will. Each of these walls function as a display projection based, and you see the kind of like the same content roughly here. There's no stereoscopic view however, usually wear something. That tracks you because we do need to render the content from the perspective where you currently are. So as you're moving to this space here, this projection would actually change a lot and would look very differently. So if people are like observing on the outside, it looks cool for people having people inside the cave. But like on the outside, the perspective isn't correct. The perspective is usually for the people inside the cave. Let's look at some of the more common concepts so that we get a better sense of what virtuality is really about.
