Author: Kat Valachova

Name of the Project: “I Do.”

Partners: Molly He, Ben Tablada

Links:

The “1 minute project”:

https://youtu.be/NxazNNrrNXI

30 seconds long documentation:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Mlm17z9e5ZCGfNhuu3wy7Nnh31xzAsmU

What worked well – I have to admit  our marriage market experience idea worked much better, than any of us anticipated. There have been many times me and my partners felt the project was hopeless or that the initial idea would have to be courbed because of the situation at hand. In the end, we didn’t have to do any project idea sacrifices and the response of our test user was so much better than what we could have imagined at the beginning of this project. We also ended up having much more amazing content than we expected when the actual shooting took place. Seeing people genuinely thrilled after experiencing our demo version during the IMA Show was something we all watched with wonder. I feel very lucky to have the team I had for this project, because without the great effort and cooperation everybody showed, this project with all of its challenges would be impossible.

I have learned a lot during both this project and the course as a whole. Before the course started, I had never even tried a VR headset before, not even talking about creating any VR content. I chose this class with great anticipation to learn as much as possible about VR, but I was also very worried. Lacking knowledge, creating VR content meant to me something alongside programming a game or shooting a very complex movie, meaning humanly impossible. Thanks to this project, I discovered VR is not as intimidating as it seemed at the beginning and it can offer great possibilities for being creative and share it with others in a very fun and unique way. The content creation is also, with enough guidance, possible for even amateurs to make. I never worked with Premiere pro before, so besides shooting VR content for the first time, this was another challenge for me, which taught me a lot. Overall, I learned so much about the whole video based VR making process, from shooting to editing, postproduction and user testing.

What I would do differently is the preparation before shooting. I believe we were well prepared in terms of the terrain, the place we wanted to shoot so it would incorporate all of the angles and objects we wanted it to. The problem we did not think through were the local people, which ended up posing the biggest challenge. We should have chosen a different approach, communicate with them beforehand, get them on our side and excited to be part of our project.

Another thing I would make sure of next time is checking the quality of the video and presence of all of the components (such as the sound source we have lost) during all of the stages of production – from stitching, transferring of the project to rendering.

4 BEST
Elegant “Haptic” Hack by Mythbuster’s Adam Savage
I believe this Adam Savage’s little DIY project is a prediction of what we will find in the shops under VR accessories / equipment in the near future. Being able to engage other senses besides sight and the sense of hearing is vital for making VR experience more real and immersive. What the VR is now missing is the “hands on” component, which could bring it up a notch. VR companies are trying to deal with this by creating components such as haptic gloves, but there is still a long way to go before these can be implemented in “everyday” VR experience. Also one thing is the ability to feel, meaning to be able to touch and interact with objects as one would do in real world and another is being able to weight them. Having extensions that are easy to interact with, are not expensive and can induce better experience is something I believe will become more popular as the VR content base grows.

VR fitness: 5 emerging brands that are driving the health-care tech trend
The same thing I said for Adam Savage’s light swords “hack” also goes for the VR fitness. In the nearest future, before better technology is invented, using real life objects and machines and implementing them in a VR experience is the way to bring the most out of VR, as it gives VR the other dimension only wearying the headset is missing. Also combining VR with fitness is also a great way to make this strenuous activity more interesting and less as a chore, that it often becomes.

LookingGlass Factory Releases Monster 3D Display
This 8K holographic display is simply beautiful. I believe this can be the new plasma/LCD/OLED TV and in a few years, it will become an everyday thing in our homes.

New Microsoft Patents May Hint at Project Scarlett Features
Although it may seem a little impractical at first glance to have a huge immobile mat at home, I think there may be some big hidden potential in it. As we have discussed in class, this mat may offer privacy, which is in this age something invaluable. I can imagine this could also become a part of modern home office, where one can easily work from home, the mat providing a virtual office, being completely in touch with his coworkers.

4 WORST
VR improving milk
The idea of goggles improving milk seems absurd for multiple reasons. The first is, considering the state of VR technology as it is now is not something that one can find in every household. VR headsets for humans are still in the process of being rapidly improved and it hasn’t been too long since the VR switched from cardboard to non-mobile version. As VR is still a novelty, the high price does not allow for everybody to have a set, so how could the cows have one? Besides affordability, there is also another question about technical challenges such a headset would bring, from the disparity, size, battery, etc. But most importantly, can the VR can really improve the quality of milk? I don’t believe there has been any proof of VR having effect on people’s mental state, how could there be one on cows? But if VR by chance really proves to have a positive effect on cows’ mental state, I believe using VR headsets during their slaughter to deal with their fear would be a great way to reduce the toxins in the meat as well as make it more cruelty free.

Microsoft’s DreamWalker lets you see VR cities during real-world walks
In class, I was among those that enthusiastically raised their hands, wanting to try it out. Now that I think about it more, I believe this project as it is now does not have much future. It is that kind of thing you want to try once and then you lose interest as there is not much else to it but the initial thrill. For a long term use, it is rather impractical and potentially dangerous.

Facebook’s Latest Purchase Gets Inside Users’ Heads—Literally
Although Facebook seems to have some great plans for their new brain reading bracelets, I don’t think those will be easy to introduce to people based on how different an input it is. I have tried biofeedback before, which has the same function – using just thoughts to manipulate objects – and I can say it is very hard to concentrate enough to be able to finish the given task. It requires quite a lot of training before one can see bigger results and it is rather strenuous for the mind, as one has to be always 100% concentrated. Based on how rapid this age is, I am not sure people will be willing to spend so much time on learning how to use this new technology.

MediView XR raises $4.5 million to give surgeons X-ray vision with AR
The article talks about how this can be the new GPS, only for human body. Taking into consideration how disoriented my GPS gets from time to time, it is chilling to think what could a confused AR of organs do during an operation. Removing cancer tumors should never be viewed as a video game. Game is for fun and is not meant to be real. Doctors should be at all times conscious of what they are doing and should rely on their own skills, rather than computed images that could be wrong. Nonetheless, I believe AR could be of great use in medicine in terms of practice.

1. First rephotography is by Peter Sramek, a Czech photographer who created a project which examines the archive of topographic photographs of Paris made by Charles Marville between 1865 and 1877. You can find this photo under “portfolios”-> Rue Jean de Beauvais on his website.

2. Following  rephotographies are created by a Russian photographer Sergey Larenkov. In the article in which I found his work presented here, they describe Larenkov as “is a master of a technique called, alternatively, perspective-matching photography or the fancier computational photography” (link here).

The first photo is from the World War II, Prague (Old Town – Prasna brana):

Second photo is from Vienna also during World War II:

Third photo is, I assume, from Germany. I didn’t find a direct description of this one: