Introduction
Virtual reality (VR) is a computer-simulated, artificial environment that can be similar to or completely different from the real world. VR technologies have been extensively developed since 2010 and are now most commonly used for entertainment and educational purposes. The modern VR systems use either headsets or multi-projected systems to generate realistic images, sounds, and other sensations that simulate a user’s physical presence in a virtual environment. VR enhances the audience’s sense of immersion, substitution, and interactivity by providing emotional, spatial, sensory-motoric, and cognitive stimulation.
How VR Enhances Immersion
Immersion into virtual reality is a perception of being physically present in a non-physical world. It is created by surrounding the user of the VR system with images, sounds, or other stimuli that provide an engrossing experience. The stimuli may include smell, the sense of balance, vibration, pain, thermoception, and kinesthetic sense. VR allows users to interact with and respond to the surroundings, expands the space, and forms a super-large field of view. It also transforms a user’s perception of their physical body as they become a central part of the story themselves.
VR enhances the audience’s sense of immersion, substitution, and interactivity by providing emotional, spatial, sensory-motoric, and cognitive stimulation. Emotional immersion occurs when a user becomes invested in a story, similar to when reading a book or watching a movie. Spatial immersion happens when a simulated environment is visually convincing for users and creates a sense of presence. Sensory-motoric immersion is provided by sensory and motor input when a user’s senses are stimulated in such a way that they have an immersive perceptual experience. Cognitive immersion is associated with mental challenges that are created by involving a user in a scenario that is independent of reality. Immersion helps users to perceive and interpret the presented stimuli, leading the mind but not controlling it.
The modern VR systems primarily focus on cognitive and spatial simulation and do not provide full sensory-motoric immersion. The available technologies do not yet allow to represent the user’s actual body and gain a realistic first-person experience. A fully immersive VR world is supposed to be able to encompass every single sense and interact directly with the nervous system. In the movie The Matrix (1999), directed by the Wachowskis, people are switched to the VR system that interacts directly with their brains. They live their whole lives in an artificially created simulation, with their minds connected to the Matrix and their bodies trapped inside capsules. The system creates a world that is so similar to reality that people do not realize that it is not real.
In the movie Ready Player One (2018), directed by Steven Spielberg, much of humanity uses the virtual reality called OASIS to escape the real world. They are connected to the system using headsets and heat-sensitive haptics suits that apply pressure on the player’s body wherever an object or other person in VR touches them. The depicted VR experience is so seamlessly immersive that there are no physical barriers between users and the virtual environment. The world is not perceived by players as reality, but the system allows them to achieve full sensory-motor immersion. The types of immersion depicted in The Matrix and Ready Player One are not yet achieved by modern technologies and are predicted to be the future of VR.
Simulation and Presence
VR is a type of simulation that is intended to provide an increased feeling of presence. Presence is a sense of being inside a space that is created by VR with the help of tools that allows the users to interact with and feel within a simulated world. It is both an internal psychological state of the user and a function of immersion. Emotional and cognitive presence is provided by the narrative, while cognitive and sensory-motor presence is achieved through different types of stimuli. In the movies, different types of VR presence are represented. In Source Code (2011), a science fiction action thriller directed by Duncan Jones, a U.S. Army captain is sent into a computer-generated reality to find a bomber. In the real world, he is severely injured and is on life support, while in VR he has full control over his bodily functions. VR technology is seen as a tool that allows disabled people to live a full life that they are incapable of doing in real life by transforming their perception of their bodies. In Ready Player One, the VR system involves active body movements as part of the gameplay, projecting the player’s actual physical movements into virtual reality. The players feel present in VR mostly through bodily sensations, with their brains realizing that the environment that they interact with is not real.
In Inception (2011), directed by Christopher Nolan, another type of VR presence is represented. The film tells the story of a professional thief who steals information from people’s minds by entering their subconscious. His team uses an experimental technology that allows them to create a shared dream world to interact with their targets’ minds. The disadvantage of technology is that when dying in a dream, people enter the subconscious level in which they cannot distinguish dreams from reality and do not realize that they are in a dream world. While living through too immersive an experience that is superior to actual reality, people lose connection to the real world and have difficulties returning to it. The movie can be seen as a metaphor for the dangerous effects of VR that are now experienced on a lesser level by many people who find comfort in their online activity and have trouble communicating with people in real life.
VR and Two-Dimensional Screens
VR technology provides a challenge for traditional two-dimensional screens by offering an increased sense of immersion. While immersive VR systems are not yet used on a large scale, non-immersive VR is regularly experienced by millions of users. Movies shown in VR are more realistic and engaging, and more and more viewers choose virtual reality instead of two-dimensional screens. The development of VR is predicted to give more power to the user in making their own choices and manipulating the plot of the film, increase the sense of presence, and provide full immersion.
Conclusion
VR is a powerful technology that is predicted to change the way humans interact with the world. VR enhances the audience’s sense of immersion, substitution, and interactivity and creates a sense of presence that other modern technologies are unable to achieve. VR technologies are predicted to develop to achieve full immersion and even create worlds that are indistinguishable from reality, which provides a threat to traditional entertainment industries, including two-dimensional screens.
Bibliography
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Fagan, Kaylee. “All the Futuristic technologies from ‘Ready Player One,’ and How Close They Are to Becoming Reality.” Business Insider, 2018. Web.
Inception. Directed by Christopher Nolan. Burbank, CA: Legendary Pictures, 2010.
Ku, Anastasiia. “What Makes VR Real.” Medium, 2018. Web.
Ready Player One. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Burbank, CA: Warner Brothers, 2018.
Source Code. Directed by Duncan Jones. Los Angeles: The Mark Gordon Company and Vendome Pictures, 2018.
The Matrix. Directed by Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski. Burbank, CA: Warner Brothers, 1999.