Substitutional Reality: A New Frontier

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Substitutional Reality: A New Frontier

Von Betelgeuse - vonbetelgeuse.com

Digital Film, Games and Animation BA

Leeds College of Art

2014 / 2015


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An introduction

The following dissertation is research into the field of design considerations for

substitutional realities using Oculus Rift technology. Up until now it has been consideredthat digital environments had rarely been adapted or distinctly designed towards

substitutional realities. In discussion with Joe Robins 3D Artist, Game Developer, Unity

Technologies Community Evangelist, (2014) it was suggested that one of the main

reasons was that hardware was largely inaccessible at the time due to a number of

reasons including lack of developer support and general lack of interest by the public

mainly tied to the limitations on what could be created and would run smoothly on the

computer hardware readily available at that time.

Acknowledging that the past of commercial virtual reality has been fairly bleak, there is

a seemingly bright future on the horizon with a number of companies engaging in a type

of arms race, each developing their own hardware solution to access substitutional

realities with. In other words, virtual reality has gained a huge amount of financial

backing meaning that interest has skyrocketed in part to the fact that there is a type of

stability being introduced, not only suggests there is a market for the technology but

simultaneously underlining that this area of design is in essence almost entirely

unexplored territory ready to be claimed.

In conjunction to these leaps and bounds in hardware progress, substitutional realities

are quickly becoming a new type of virtual reality in which the users consciousness is

transported to another space, this may be a real time streaming coming in from an

outside camera, pre-recorded 360videoof a place somewhere else like Warner

Brothers The Hobbit VR Experience (2014), or a pre-designed virtual environment

that was the core concentration within the research.

Since digital substitutional realities are frontier land, we must come to think of them in

new dimensions that have not been relevant up until now. Instead of thinking about

virtual reality purely from a gaming perspective, we must now consider how do

substitutional realities impact the user, how are they different to what has been created

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so far and extract from previous documentation what elements can be fully utilized

along with the possible pitfalls one might encounter. Oculus Rift technology can be an

excellent addition to gaming but it also opens up an entire new genre of experiences

where there is no particular goal or objective apart from enjoying being transported toanother world.

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The various aspects of perceiving realities

This chapter will give a brief introduction to the past, present and distant future of

substitute realities and related experiences. Are substitute realities a contemporaryconcept or is it a craving deeply embedded within human existence? If so, why?

Whilst exploring the topic of substitute realities one must first attempt to define what

reality is. Of course, there is no absolute answer and although many philosophers and

theorists have attempted to define it since the dawn of time, most answers are at best

artistic impressions trying to define ones existence into a compact, ready to read,

bite-size morsel that pose more questions than answers.

For the moment, let us consider a number of definitions as starting point foundations to

the subject. Between the years of 430 to 347 B.C., Plato developed a vast collection of

theories, amongst other topics were those on Reality. Drexel University (2015) supplies

several condensed descriptions on Platos point of view that:

Plato believed that true reality is not found through the senses. [...] The sensesare not trustworthy. Plato believed that there was a higher realm of existence accessibleonly through using your intellect to go beyond your senses. [...] The universal formsexist in this higher realm. A universal is an abstract term or object which ranges overparticular things, such as the concepts large, chair, and green. We can sense objectswhich exhibit these universals. Plato referred to universals as forms and believed thatthe forms were true reality. Through developing our intellect, we can attempt to gaingreater understanding of reality. This helps us act in ways that are closer to the ideal.

This would suggest that our physical bodies, our senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell

and touch are incapable of experiencing the theoretical ideal that we all strive to

experience as they act almost like middlemen purveying distorted information to our

minds. An example that may be applied is that many of us have do not have 20/20

vision which to some has been more of a curse than a blessing, like the renowned artist

Claude Monet (Payne, 2007), who suffered from heavily distorted vision due to

cataracts. When his vision was arguable at its worst he painted some of his most

famous masterpieces that were painted in his characteristic technique of dappled

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brushstrokes of colour.

These sorts of situations suggest that the mind is almost completely enslaved to a body

which in itself is a life support system for the mind that will ultimately deteriorate, haltingthe mind from being able to function in this reality. In this respect, as we deteriorate and

acquire physical flaws that impede our senses, this distorts the way we perceive reality.

Movement is limited, touch becomes less sensitive, hearing fails and eyesight dims, this

poses the age old question Can we ever know how another person senses the world

Is the blue I am seeing the blue you are seeing? (Rand, 2012).

Alongside senses it is important to remember that how we experience situations, how

we interpret allegory and symbolism is also deeply related to our memories, what we

have already experienced. A person that was brought up with spiders as pets will not

perceive spiders in the same way as a person with a deep-rooted phobia based on a

past history of being bitten by a spider. A vast history of memories, feelings and

associations is assessed to compare a situation before our eyes, enabling us to make a

decision on how to act.

In this respect, it is almost impossible to fully understand another persons point of view

due to the many variables that are involved based around two core root comparisons of

presently perceiving information via stimuli and interpreting information through the

prism of previously gained knowledge. Designing an experience is usually based on

cultural representations of topics stereotypes that are commonly recognised by the

larger audience e.g. insects and snakes induce fear and disgust, kittens and puppies

induce feelings of adoration and the need to nurture, yet once in a while a subject, like

mice, leaves the larger audience divided.

Perception of reality has always been relative to the being that is experiencing it first

hand, at this moment and time one can attempt to completely discredit this being

possible with the technology that is on hand, but at this moment in time brain-to-brain

interface technology is currently being researched by a variety of neuroscientists, one of

the most prominent being Miguel Nicolelis who successfully linked the minds of two rats

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together telepathically enabling them to solve problems together (Gorman, 2013). This

a starting point from where we begin to explore substituting our realities with someone

elses, a type of deep-rooted empathy achievable via brain to brain communication.

Returning from the quite distant future, attempts at experiencing simulated, or if you like,

alternate realities have been envisioned and attempted hundreds of years before

attempting to create a plug in and play VR headset.

If you reach into the sphere of parapsychology you will quickly come across the term

out-of-body experiences. Prior to this term coming into existence there were plenty of

similar experiences in the same vein described through spiritual traditions and texts

falling under the general terms astral projection, spirit walking and soul travelling(Aspell, Blanke, 2009). For example, Dr. Jeffrey Mishlove (2015) states that:

Allusions to astral projection are particularly prominent in the scripts of TantricBuddhism, a subdivision of Mahayana Buddhism found in Tibet and parts of Mongolia.[...] The particular notion of astral projection can be traced back to Pythagoras' claim tohear the music of the heavens. The Pythagoreans assumed that the distances of theheavenly bodies from the earth somehow corresponded to musical intervals. Byallowing one's consciousness, uplifted by philosophy, to rise through these astralspheres one ultimately might attain to union with the divine.

Subsequently such terms as astral projection and out-of-body experience have come tobe applied to a wide variety of visionary, mystical and psychic experiences. Forexamples, the experience developed in the mystery traditions which enabledparticipants to lose their fear of death might be viewed in this way. St. Augustine'svisionary experience, described earlier, is another possible instance.

Following these descriptions, one can argue that the concept of substitutional realities

has been with us since the dawn of spiritual thinking, although the scientific term

out-of-body experience only first appeared in George N. M.Tyrrells bookApparitions

(1953). This particular description was adopted by several other researches including

Celia Green and Robert Munroe. Although very closely linked to the more spiritual terms

such as astral projection, this term was less tied to a belief system (that at times could

be described as pseudoscience) and more attached to the area of experimental

neuroscience (Aspell, Blanke, 2009). Such experiences could be induced by near brain

experiences, brain trauma, hallucinogenic substances, sensory deprivation, sleep and

most interestingly of all electrical stimulation to the brain.

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One of the more interesting experiments that involves a combination of electrical brain

stimulation and sensory deprivation is the Ganzfeld Experiment that prominently

features in contemporary paranormal investigation shows like Paranormal State(2007-2011) that are made almost exclusively for entertainment purposes. Due to

focusing more on the financial turnaround of such television programmes, the legitimate

scientific facts are largely passed over and/or depicted as fantasy, yet the type of

out-of-body experience triggered has been meticulously documented by experts in its

field as the Ganzfeld Effect.

The Ganzfeld Effect is the result of the brain amplifying neural noise in order to look for

the missing visual signals that are interpreted in the higher visual cortex, subsequently

causing hallucinations (EVSC.net, 2010). Eva Schindling describes that The brain is a

pattern-searching and pattern-making machine. If we are confronted with random

stimuli, the brain often recognizes patterns that are not there.

From this we can gather that there has been plenty of experimentation in the area of

perception of realities in the past hundred years, yet the concept of substitutional

realities has been discussed for thousands of years prior to the creation of VR

headsets. One can argue that VR headsets have infact been hundreds of years in the

work, the only thing holding back their development has been the technological

infrastructure that has only come into its own in the past 5 years enabling to progress

from philosophical theories to readily deployable experiences.

Although at first glance the philosophical background of this technology may seem

dismissible as archaic imaginings of the future, the underlying psychology is of vital

importance to the design process of VR environments because they give a better

understanding to what the audience wants, in effect an almost spiritual experience that

makes them question their own existence in the reality they find themselves on a daily

basis. A substitution to mundane life is presented to them and that makes the viewer

either dive into a dream reality where they do all the things they are unable to in real life,

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for some this may be something as simple as having the freedom to walk around

unimpeded by their physical bodies.

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The biology and psychology of virtual realities

In this chapter the psychological and physical impacts of Virtual Reality will be

discussed with particular focus being given to sources from scientific journals, papersand trials. What research has been done into Virtual Realities with core concentration

on its sub-genre, Substitutional Realities? How is the body and mind affected and what

uses in health regeneration could these effects have?

Since the dawn of home-based video gaming there has been a profound interest in

utilising the new technology for health benefit purposes which in turn opened up

academic research to what effect virtual realities. From a reverse engineering point of

view it is vital to understand what effects current VR environments have to have a better

understanding of how to design for human perception to achieve pre-established goals

when it comes to audience reactions.

The following concepts taken from research papers have been chosen to grasp a better

understanding of how the human psyche can interact with substitutional realities, or

summarizing what proven reactions can be achieved and how.

Virtual reality exposure therapy for anxiety disorders (Gerardi, 2008) gives an

introduction to the topic of how substitutional environments may alleviate feelings of

anxiety by introducing a reality that although substitutional and completely

encompassing one that the user fundamentally knows is not real. Along these lines

virtual reality has been used as a method of practicing surgery (Grantcharov, 2003)

without putting a patient in danger. The results of such experiments has been very

fruitful proving that after using VR simulations, surgeons work to a better standard,

seemingly due to the fact that they have multiple several times in ultimately what is a

stress free environment where any mistake does not have an impact on someones

health. As a surgeon progresses through a number of such simulations achieving better

and better success rates they gain more confidence in their abilities which in turn

impacts their performance in the operating theatre. A person that approaches a task

with well-grounded confidence due to previous VR training will achieve a better result

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due to the fact that they have proven multiple times that they have more than adequate

skills to accomplish the tasks well. In a sense what one can a take away from this is that

a substitutional reality can build up ones self-esteem, a task or a situation that one

might fear in reality can be tried, exited, retried at will with no lasting impact.

Under these circumstances a substitutional reality can also break boundaries of placing

the user in situations that are far more radical than any real-life counterpart could be.

Bearing this in mind, the opposite may be invoked by through a type of Pavlovian

association. A good example of this is what impact the game Silent Hill leaves on some

players. Dense fog is heavily featured in the game and in a real-life situation where

weather conditions cause similar scenarios it is more than a little unnerving to anyone

that has played the game.

This quickly ties on to two issues, the first being the desensitization of users who play

violent games and the lasting psychological impact such games can have (Anderson,

1986) and the second whether games can cause lasting physical damage (Dixit, 2014).

The former source states that post-game play, the players of the mildly and highly

aggressive games exhibited hostility, anxiety and depression with more hostility being

exhibited after the highly aggressive game. This is clear evidence how a virtual reality

environment has an impact on a persons psychological well being, albeit a negative

one. Whilst the far less academically written latter source touches upon the subject that

these violent environments being created can cause such a acute stress that it may

lead to sudden deaths by heart attacks or strokes.

Gathering that man-made environments can have such impacts it is worth taking these

negative results and turn them into a positive output like the ones previously discussed.

Instead of creating VR entertainment that can leave lasting detrimental effects, it would

make sense to explore environments that leave a lasting positive effect that does not

necessarily have to be of the medical therapy variety and instead may focus on

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generally empowering the player and perhaps even leaving a feeling of contentment

bordering on euphoria by taking a thrill giving experience and making it accessible to

the general public, particularly focusing on people that are not able to travel far

distances, in essence opening up an entire universe that one may explore from theirliving room.

Taking these notions into account, it makes sense to contrast substitutional reality

design against man-made environments against outer-body experiences that each one

of us have experienced, namely dreams. Although much research has been done in this

field, particularly from a neuroscience and psychology point of view, as of yet there is no

consensus to the purpose of dreams.

Some of the top theories discuss the processing of background information obtained

during the day, which ties itself closely to psychoanalytical dream theory pioneered by

controversial psychologist Sigmund Freud (Dream-interpretation-dictionary.com, 2014).

Regardless of why we dream, it is more important within the topic discussed to consider

how we perceive dreams and distinctly how we perceive our physical forms and how

they interact with the surrounding environment, both areas that are immediately

applicable to substitutional realities.

Instead of keeping dreams and digital man-made substitutional realities separate, one

can discuss both under the term dreamscape.

A dreamscape is shortly described as a dreamlike usually surrealistic scene

(Merriam-Webster.com, 2014), which ultimately is an ideal description for both a dream

and a substitutional reality.

Where as dreams are in essence subconsciously man-made by the dreamer,

substitutional realities can be made by the person directly engaging in them or by

another party that has designed an environment for them. Ultimately in both

circumstances, the viewer of the sequence being shown is unaware of the seemingly

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random events that are to be displayed in front of them, unless of course they have

consciously chosen what they want to see in the digital representative.

When discussing conscious choice, there are some dreams that people would like toreturn to, some even expressing when abruptly awoken they were having a good

dream, good of course being a wide definition interpreted differently by each individual.

With digital dreamscapes, as opposed to subconscious created dreamscapes, one

could theoretically keep returning to good dreams and reliving them at will. To boost

ones self-esteem or to even treat a phobia (which is currently being heavily researched

as mentioned previously) of public speaking, one could visit a dreamscape where

walking on stage they would be greeted like a rockstar, thunderous applause, flags

being waved and the odd screams of Youre amazing! and Youre doing great!.

Stepping back to from the more literal dreams and returning to the more abstract area of

self-perceival in dream, not each dream shows a realistic representation of ourselves.

Depending on how we perceive ourselves in subconsciously created dreams is,

according to Freud, predominantly tied to (Dream-interpretation-dictionary.com, 2014)

the Id, the part of our mind that drives the basic instincts and also described as [...]

unorganized and seeks to obtain pleasure, or avoid pain, at times when increased

arousal of tension takes place, the Ego which is described as having the instinctive

drive of the Id but only in realistic ways that will benefit in the long term and attempts

to mediate between id and reality, and the Super-Ego, the part of our minds that can

be thought of as a type of conscience that punishes misbehavior with feelings of guilt.

For example: having extra-marital affairs.

The combination and constant struggle of these mindsets is constant in everyday

behaviour, but in dreamscapes, there is less inhibition, which can cause dreams to be

more fantastical as one is not inhibited by bodily functions (such as having to breathe

under water) or physics (flying dreams having been experienced by most). This is

particularly the case in some types of dreams over others.

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into particular consideration during the making of the digital artefact

accompanying this written research and will be further discussed. These dreams

may be particularly vivid and events and persons may be greatly exaggerated.

Since the sleeper is aware that they are dreaming, they will have the tendency tomanipulate the outcome of the dream.

9. Psychic Dreams in which the dreamer feels that the imbued messages of the

dream are communicating a prophecy of things to come. A common occurance

be a situation in which a person comments that they saw an incident happen

before in a dream.

10.Nightmares the dreams that one would rather not have, these are the most

emotionally draining and are driven by the fears we experience in waking life.

What we see in nightmares can be both hyper-realistic with elements of our daily

life incorporated and completely surreal with no inhibition of logic or physics.

At a glance one can see that these types share similarities and are interwoven with

other types featured in the above list, which is by no means exhaustive and is only one

attempt at categorizing dreams. Although these categories are based on

subconsciously created dreams, one can easily use them to establish what sort of

digital dreamscape one wishes to create, how it may affect the user and which other

elements of different dream types may be added for full desired effect.

Dreams and experiencing dreamlike experiences can be deeply personal. As suggested

above, the way a person interacts with a dream can reveal a huge amount of

information on their state of mind and subsequently such information can be used for

both positive and negative purposes that shall be explored in the following chapter.

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Privacy and identity issues that Substitutional Realities may cause

Being in contact with substitutional realities in such a very personal way can influence

our behaviour by helping us rid ourselves of anxieties, depression and stress, but aswith every type of therapy that tries to change how a person functions, there are

side-effects that one must be made aware of.

This chapter shall continue on from the previous discussing the feasible negative

impacts that being in close contact with third party created substitutional realities may

cause, in what negative ways can such substitutional realities impact our identities and

in conjunction to this issue, our rights to privacy and personal safety.

With substitutional reality therapies, it is a given that information on our current state of

mind must be first collected before it is analyzed. Open world environments may be

designed to automatically adapt to the users needs as their issues are resolved or as

new issues appear,

ultimately this means that a gargantuan amount of data will be collected on a user with

a particular focus on their weaknesses, complexes, phobias and anxiety triggers which

theoretically could be obtained and used against them for several purposes stated

below.

The first and probably most obvious to jump to mind is that if this data is not protected in

a thoroughly impregnable database, we may start to see a new more vindictive method

used of information gathering for personal theft.

In a situation in which we are made completely at ease with a man-made reality, the

chances are we may forget that we are being constantly monitored and any information

we may divulge is being sent to far corners of the Earth with the possibility of prying

eyes watching. In the luxury of a dream-like paradise simulation it is not too distant a

thought that someone might want to use the fact that our guards our down to see if they

can extract an account password or pin number. The more realistic a substitutional

reality is, the more we may be inclined to think that we are in control when the truth is

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Stretching into a dystopian future, such data could be used for purposes such as

interrogation and information extraction. An interrogator would have something close to

an encyclopedia of their captives behavioural quirks, fears and neurosis that could be

used to break the captive down. Even in a situation where one is a free citizen, onespersonal progress may be monitored for thought crimes such as political dissonance

such as attraction to the idea of civil disobedience.

Stepping back into the present yet keeping with the Orwellian nightmare line of thought,

it is worth looking at what current actions already align themselves to such a future.

Google since the dawn of home-based internet has quickly grown into a data analyzing

leviathan. Recently, the corporation has been criticized for their methods of collecting

information on web surfers and using it to directly plug advertisements based on that

gathered information. Terms and Conditions May Apply(2013) goes into detail stating

how their data harvesting system is used specifying that Poorly-worded terms of

services policies carefully hide the fact that each search a user makes is registered

building a profile of whether they are male or female, how old they are, where they live

and most importantly a plentiful list of items of interest that may be enforced on to the

person via adverts influencing them to buy, buy, buy. The commercialism is not only

incessant but projected as positive when at any point the company may choose to use it

for more malicious means.

In a substitutional reality it is not unfeasible to create situations that feed off the

anxieties of a persons self-worth to influence people to buy things they do not need, or

even particularly want, but feel inclined to have because of the pressure that they are

inferior by not having these status symbols. Companies will start looking into how they

can place their products into digital dreams, much like they already do in in films and

television shows, one notable one being I, Robot (2004) which was blasted for being

painfully blatant with their Converse Allstar advertisement (Complex, 2015) with some

viewers joking the film was one big Converse All Star Ad. Screen-based media is

already incredibly influential in directing our material desires, product placements placed

in dreams would no doubt be even more nightmarishly influential.

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With product placements being discretely placed within digital dreams we choose to

experience this calls up the more direct problem of companies choosing to experiment

on users for the purpose of their own research.

A good example of this is Facebook using user timelines (comprised of very personal

and at times sentimental information) for psychological experiments (Gibbs, 2014)

which were revealed by a scientific paper published in the March issue of Proceedings

of National Academy of Sciences and described that the experiment was based on

hiding "a small percentage of emotional words from people's news feeds, without their

knowledge, to test what effect that had on the statuses or "likes" that they then posted

or reacted to. It would be quite easy to hide an experiment of a similar vein in a

substitutional reality by creating situations that invoke a particular reaction for the

purpose of collecting data on an individual. The fact that Facebook acquisitioned Oculus

Rift for a sum of two billion dollars (Dredge, 2014) during the same month, July 2014,

the experimentation scandal was headlining media, does not exactly fill the public with

confidence as the corporation has already proven they are completely untrustworthy

when it comes to experimentation on users and functioning ethically in regards personal

data.

Moving forward into the topic of dubious ethics, a report that recently has made

headlines (TVNZ, 2014) and is tied to the issue of influencing identities has been that of

evil clown gangs terrifying towns in France. At first glance the report saying that a

group of clowns had been chasing and harassing locals in Agde and had even violently

attacked a man in Montpellier in a demonstration of gratuitous violence. London police

have dealt with 117 clown-related incidents since 2013 whilst California police say they

have arrested dozens. According to commenters, they say the link between all these

clown-related crimes is the game Payday: The Heist (a first person shooter which

features violent clown mask wearing individuals that commit a series of crimes) which

was made free to play (Polygon, 2014)) on October the 16th 2014 which was some ten

days prior to the articles of clown gang violence appearing online. Whether the link is

true is debatable as other media such asAmerican Horror Story(2011 - present) and

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TheDark Knight(2008) feature similar characters, but the allegations that say gaming

has influenced people in a negative manner are not new. In the circumstances that

these clown gangs have been influenced by Pay Day: The Heist, this could raise

concerns on how substitutional realities may affect a users personality. A person that isimmersed in a violent environment steeped in sadism may very well take the

experiences they have had into the real world at which point they would most likely

become a threat to other people.

All these factors are issues that should be addressed at this point in time due to the fact

that Oculus Rift and similar technology is on the verge of being household technology.

Legislation calling commercial creators of substitutional realities to be legally

responsible for the impact their creations have on users. should be heavily discussed

and ultimately substitutional realities should undergo critical testing that address

whether commercial experiences should be allowed to be distributed to the general

public, and more importantly, who will be held legally responsible in the situation things

go wrong. Currently there are numerous institutions across the globe that are

responsible for issuing certificates on films, television productions and games, but

substitutional realities different types of expertise due to the feasible impact it may have

could be far more detrimental. One can only hope that this discussion will be brought up

before news stories appear on the topics of deaths caused by intense fear caused by

games being played by users in the rift.

Other more technical issues that can be detrimental to the user have been included in

the following chapter that goes over the primary research that was made during the

creation of the digital artefact accompanying the written research.

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How can virtual reality be currently used to supplement daily life

In conjunction to the written research, it is of vital importance to discuss the digital

artefact accompanying it, as it has raised many questions on where Oculus Riftdevelopment currently resides, not only in the sense of technical limitations but more

importantly how test subjects react in an emotional and biological sense. For the digital

artefact an on the rails experience heavily influenced by music was created. There are

several reasons why the pursuit of this type of substitutional reality was most beneficial

as primary research that shall be discussed below.

Returning to the underlying theme mentioned earlier, substitutional realities are very

closely tied to lucid dreams, where in they are a type of digital dream in which the user

is aware they are dreaming. Lucid dreams, as discussed previously have a tendency of

being vivid and distinctly exaggerated. Surreal situations are often played out and the

user retains most of their control over what is happening and over their actions. For

these reasons it was of interest to explore retracting a part of their control by placing

them within an on the rails experience which limits their movements and focus to

pre-planned events.

Within any type of ride, one of the aspects that adds exhilaration to the experience is

that of feeling movement, whether it be subtle jolts forward or extreme g-force and in

effect a viable substitute was found which was the outer stimuli of music. The music

was chosen due to the fact it has vastly differentiating sequences that give emphasis to

entering different environments and setting different moods, whether they be intense

and chaotic or eerie and moody.

Some similarities in music use can be drawn from the abstract rail shooter music video

game Rez which boasts a type of synesthesia created through destroying target foes

that in turn create melodies that can also be enhanced by an additional Trance

Vibrator peripheral (Metacritic, 2008). The peripheral created for use with the game

bridges a connection between the non-physical visual/audio stimuli and the user which

creates a more enveloping interaction with the game-play. The physical interaction

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aspect is yet an area to be explored within substitutional reality experiences, with NASA

currently creating their own VR rig that allows you to walk upon the surface of Mars

(Limer, 2013).

As the user has less ability to affect the outcome of an on the rails experience, they give

more concentration to what they are feeling in the scenes being placed in front of their

eyes instead of trying to take control of them. This is useful in establishing how people

react when they are being directed, whether by physical obstructions (the game

architecture) or psychological obstructions (fear of heights or snakes for example), in

this respect greater control over emotive manipulation is given to the designer. An

addition to this, the fact that the area is a dreamscape allows much more flexibility in

exploring surreal environment design that do not particularly have to adhere to any

conventions of health and safety as they would have to on a ride in the real world.

Tunnels can be more claustrophobic, large objects can be moving at higher speeds and

at closer proximities triggering withdrawal reflexes that protect the body from damaging

stimuli. These sort of primal reactions cannot be explored in real world environments

with ease since numerous precautions and safety measures must be taken to ensure

the safety of the test subject but in virtual reality, the user can experience the same

adrenaline rush whilst not being at risk of injury.

The artefact itself is made out of several areas that were created out of consideration to

how people interact with spaces, varying from moving through lengths of tunnels to

displace a sense of geography within the test subjects mind, to applying carefully

designed movie textures to walls to give the impression that the walls are not solid but

moving, when in actual fact they are completely static.

There is a conscious juxtaposition of enclosed spaces that enter spacious rooms to

encourage the user to look around and get a better idea of their position, for example,

entering the constellation area, the test subjects are immediately inclined to look up,

whilst in the rotating mobile room due to the proximity of the mobile coming so close to

them, they are more preoccupied by looking to the sides. Although the camera direction

is always pointed forward, there is complete freedom to look in every direction, as long

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destinations, one could theoretically stroll through a museum thousands of miles away,

which given the chance could be a wonderful educational experience for school pupils.

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Conclusion

Although there are limitless concept possibilities for the uses of this technology there

are still some considerable limitations that appeared during the creation of the artefact.From experience it can be established that the Oculus Rift Development Kit 1 has a

considerable impact on the frame rate a computer can uphold, along side the issue that

the Oculus Rift must run at a reasonably high frame rate, the general acceptance

among developers being a minimum of 60 fps to not induce motion sickness, although

artefact testing suggested between 50-60fps was still sufficient for quite a good

experience without any negative effects on the test subjects or visible distortions. It can

be assumed that the frame rate will be subject to some variance depending what is

happening in the scene, how you are moving around it, the headset you are using and

most importantly of all how easily you are affected by motion sickness.

For someone who is fairly technologically competent, setting up the Oculus Rift SDK1

can be a little tricky at first with there still being certain bugs that can prop up (after all, it

is a development kit, not a commercial version) but the main problem is setting up a

computer to run at it is optimum. Again, for a person who is fairly competent, this may

require a little searching, but will be resolved fairly quickly, on the other hand as a

commercial product for the everyday family this may cause issues on a few fronts, the

fundamental one being how many average home computers can carry the headset at a

reasonable frame rate?

Whilst producing the artefact on a laptop that has the top specifications of what is

currently available, there was still an evident issue of frame rate limitations that were

eventually resolved by separating an environment that was first planned to be one

whole level into two, the tent entrance and the actual ride experience.

Due to this, there has to be a certain amount of consideration of how much design

optimization can be applied whilst balancing it with computer specifications and overall

effect.

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