Difference between revisions of "Virtual Reality Data Practices"

Revision as of 06:36, 28 January 2022

Source: https://xrsi.org/blog

Virtual Reality (VR) is a fully immersive software-generated, artificial, digital environment. VR is a simulation of three-dimensional images, experienced by users via special electronic equipment, such as a Head Mounted Display (HMD). VR can create or enhance characteristics such as presence, embodiment, and agency.^[1]. VR technologies are a collection of sensors and displays that work to create an immersive experience for the user of the technology. VR technologies create the illusion of virtual elements in three-dimensional physical space. These technologies require certain basic user-provided information as a starting point, and then a constant stream of new feedback data that users generate while interacting with their virtual environments. This baseline and ongoing feedback information could include biographical, demographic, location, and movement data, as well as biometrics. Advanced functions, such as gaze-tracking and even brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies that interpret neural signals, continue to introduce new consumer data collection practices largely unique to VR devices and applications.^[2]

VR Device Categories

Standalone devices have all necessary components to provide virtual reality experiences integrated into the headset. Mainstream standalone VR platforms include Oculus Mobile SDK, developed by Oculus VR for its standalone headsets, and the Samsung Gear VR.^[3]

Tethered headsets act as a display device to another device, like a PC or a video game console, to provide a virtual reality experience. Mainstream tethered VR platforms include: SteamVR, part of the Steam service by Valve. Oculus PC SDK for Oculus Rift and Oculus Rift S. Windows Mixed Reality (also referred to as "Windows MR" or "WMR"), developed by Microsoft Corporation for Windows 10 PCs. PlayStation VR, developed by Sony Computer Entertainment for use with PlayStation 4 home video game console. Open Source Virtual Reality (also referred to as "OSVR"). The list of supported games is here.^[4]

Other Mobile headsets, which combine a smartphone with a mount, and hybrid solutions like the Oculus Quest with the Oculus Link feature that allows the standalone device to also serve as a tethered headset.^[5]

VR Related Terminology

Extended Reality (XR) is a fusion of all the realities – including Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Mixed Reality (MR). These technologies are mediated experiences enabled via a wide spectrum of hardware and software, including sensory interfaces, applications, and infrastructures. XR is often referred to as immersive video content, enhanced media experiences, as well as interactive and multi-dimensional human experiences.^[6]

“XR does not refer to any specific technology. It’s a bucket for all of the realities.” Jim Malcolm, Humaneyes^[7]

Augmented Reality (AR) overlays digitally-created content on top of the user’s real-world environment, viewed through a device that incorporates real-time inputs to create an enhanced version of reality. Digital and virtual objects, such as graphics and sounds, are superimposed on an existing environment to create an AR experience.^[8]

Mixed Reality (MR) blends the user’s real-world environment with digitally-created content, where both environments can coexist and interact with each other. In MR, the virtual objects behave in all aspects as if they are present in the real world, e.g., they are occluded by physical objects, their lighting is consistent with the actual light sources in the environment, and they sound as though they are in the same space as the user. As the user interacts with the real and virtual objects, the virtual objects will reflect the changes in the environment as would any real object in the same space.^[9]

Source: xrsi.org

Volumetric Video Capture is a technique that captures a three-dimensional space, including depth data, so that it can be later viewed from any angle at any moment in time.^[10]

360 Degree Video is an immersive video format consisting of a video – or series of images – mapped to a portion of a sphere that allows viewing in multiple directions from a fixed central point. The mapping is usually carried out using equirectangular projection, where the horizontal coordinate is simply longitude, and the vertical coordinate is simply latitude, with no transformation or scaling applied. Other possible projections are Cube Map (that uses the six faces of a cube as the map shape), Equi-Angular Cubemap – EAC (detailed by Google in 2017 to distribute pixels as evenly as possible across the sphere so that the density of information is consistent, regardless of which direction the viewer is looking), and Pyramid (defined by Facebook in 2016). This type of video content is typically viewable through a head-mounted display, mobile device, or personal computer and allows for three degrees of freedom.^[11]

Field of View (FOV) defines an observable area or the range of vision seen via an XR device such as HMD when the user is static within a given XR environment. The standard human FOV is approximately 200 degrees, but in an immersive experience, it may vary. The higher the FOV the more immersive the feeling.[^[12]

Degrees of Freedom (DoF) describes the position and orientation of an object in space. DoF is defined by three components of translation and three components of rotation. An experience with three degrees of freedom (3DoF) allows for • Swiveling left and right (yawing); • Tilting forward and backward (pitching); • Pivoting side to side (rolling). An experience with six degrees of freedom (6DoF) allows for • Moving up and down (elevating/heaving – Y Translation); • Moving left and right (strafing/swaying – X Translation); • Moving forward and backward (walking/ surging – Z Translation); • Swivels left and right (yawing); • Tilts forward and backward (pitching); • Pivots side to side (rolling).^[13]

Head Mounted Display (HMD) usually refers to a device with a small display such as projection technology integrated into eyeglasses or mounted on a helmet or hat. It’s typically in the form of goggles or a headset, standalone or combined with a mobile phone (Gear VR).^[14]

Haptics is a mechanism or technology used for tactile feedback to enhance the experience of interacting with onscreen interfaces via vibration, touch, or force feedback. While an HMD can create a virtual sense of sight and sound, haptic controllers create a virtual sense of touch.^[15]

Growth of VR

In the 1920s, The Link Flight Trainer was developed to improve the safety of trainee pilots. Grounded in ‘safety’, this kick-started the development of technologies we now know as XR. The acceleration in VR technologies has developed significantly since the rapid growth of cheap computing power in the 1990s. This acceleration in availability and adoption can also be attributed to many factors, principally, a reduction in hardware cost increases the availability of high-speed high-quality connectivity, and most recently, shifts in society brought on by the global pandemic. According to market analysts, Fortune Business Insights, the size of the VR market in 2019 was USD 3.10 billion and is forecast to grow to USD 120.5 billion by 2026.^[16]

Leveraging their 2014 acquisition of Oculus, early in 2020 Facebook launched a closed-beta test of their VR social network, Horizon. Horizon is only part of a broader project known as the “Metaverse”. The Metaverse Facebook proposes will consist of experiences that leverage fully immersive VR technologies, as well as augmented reality devices, nascent technologies; such as holographic displays, and traditional information systems; including billboards, televisions, shop windows, and transport information screens.^[17]

See also

References

1. ↑ “The XRSI Definitions of Extended Reality (XR) - XRSI – XR Safety Initiative.” XRSI, XR Safety Initiative, 3 May 2021, https://xrsi.org/publication/the-xrsi-definitions-of-extended-reality-xr.
2. ↑ Dick, Ellysse. “Balancing User Privacy and Innovation in Augmented and Virtual Reality.” Balancing User Privacy and Innovation in Augmented and Virtual Reality, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, 4 Mar. 2021, https://itif.org/publications/2021/03/04/balancing-user-privacy-and-innovation-augmented-and-virtual-reality.
3. ↑ “Comparison of Virtual Reality Headsets.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 Jan. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_virtual_reality_headsets.
4. ↑ “Comparison of Virtual Reality Headsets.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 Jan. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_virtual_reality_headsets.
5. ↑ “Comparison of Virtual Reality Headsets.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 Jan. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_virtual_reality_headsets.
6. ↑ “The XRSI Definitions of Extended Reality (XR) - XRSI – XR Safety Initiative.” XRSI, XR Safety Initiative, 3 May 2021, https://xrsi.org/publication/the-xrsi-definitions-of-extended-reality-xr.
7. ↑ “The XRSI Definitions of Extended Reality (XR) - XRSI – XR Safety Initiative.” XRSI, XR Safety Initiative, 3 May 2021, https://xrsi.org/publication/the-xrsi-definitions-of-extended-reality-xr.
8. ↑ “The XRSI Definitions of Extended Reality (XR) - XRSI – XR Safety Initiative.” XRSI, XR Safety Initiative, 3 May 2021, https://xrsi.org/publication/the-xrsi-definitions-of-extended-reality-xr.
9. ↑ “The XRSI Definitions of Extended Reality (XR) - XRSI – XR Safety Initiative.” XRSI, XR Safety Initiative, 3 May 2021, https://xrsi.org/publication/the-xrsi-definitions-of-extended-reality-xr.
10. ↑ “The XRSI Definitions of Extended Reality (XR) - XRSI – XR Safety Initiative.” XRSI, XR Safety Initiative, 3 May 2021, https://xrsi.org/publication/the-xrsi-definitions-of-extended-reality-xr.
11. ↑ “The XRSI Definitions of Extended Reality (XR) - XRSI – XR Safety Initiative.” XRSI, XR Safety Initiative, 3 May 2021, https://xrsi.org/publication/the-xrsi-definitions-of-extended-reality-xr.
12. ↑ “The XRSI Definitions of Extended Reality (XR) - XRSI – XR Safety Initiative.” XRSI, XR Safety Initiative, 3 May 2021, https://xrsi.org/publication/the-xrsi-definitions-of-extended-reality-xr.
13. ↑ “The XRSI Definitions of Extended Reality (XR) - XRSI – XR Safety Initiative.” XRSI, XR Safety Initiative, 3 May 2021, https://xrsi.org/publication/the-xrsi-definitions-of-extended-reality-xr.
14. ↑ “The XRSI Definitions of Extended Reality (XR) - XRSI – XR Safety Initiative.” XRSI, XR Safety Initiative, 3 May 2021, https://xrsi.org/publication/the-xrsi-definitions-of-extended-reality-xr.
15. ↑ “The XRSI Definitions of Extended Reality (XR) - XRSI – XR Safety Initiative.” XRSI, XR Safety Initiative, 3 May 2021, https://xrsi.org/publication/the-xrsi-definitions-of-extended-reality-xr.
16. ↑ “An Imperative - Developing Standards for Safety and Security in XR Environments - XRSI – XR Safety Initiative.” XRSI, XR Safety Initiative, 25 Feb. 2021, https://xrsi.org/publication/an-imperative-developing-standards-for-safety-and-security-in-xr-environments.
17. ↑ “An Imperative - Developing Standards for Safety and Security in XR Environments - XRSI – XR Safety Initiative.” XRSI, XR Safety Initiative, 25 Feb. 2021, https://xrsi.org/publication/an-imperative-developing-standards-for-safety-and-security-in-xr-environments.