Prototype
Augmented Virtuality
What if…
we could observe a human being in his virtual reality live through the eye of a virtual camera?
Problem
The immersion in VR is achieved by perfect matching of the headset screens and the actor's head movements. An external observer can only follow the action by seeing the actor waving into the air and following a wobbly image from an ego perspective on the screen. This works but does not provide an inspiring experience for the viewer.
Solution
Augmented Virtuality complements a virtual environment with real content. In our case, we edited a video recording of the actor in real time into the virtual environment and were thus able to follow the events in the virtual world live from the perspective of a virtual camera. Augmented Virtuality is more than just a green screen trick. The positions of the virtual controllers are precisely adjusted so that the actor can actually move three-dimensionally through the image. Augmented Virtuality makes VR a group experience and is a powerful marketing tool for VR applications.
Challenges
One challenge was the construction of a suitable physical space in which the actor can move. We needed a large green area, uniform lighting and enough space to move around. The second challenge was to configure and integrate the software into our own VR application.