360 Video and VR

To discuss 360 video and VR, I first need to identify what makes them different.

Virtual Reality takes users into a digital world (Burch, 2016). It allows you to fully immerse yourself into an environment, giving you the opportunity to interact with and explore your surroundings. For example, in Batman: Arkham VR you can investigate crime scenes, solve puzzles, interact with computers, use phones, pick up objects, throw batarangs and even play the piano all in the first person, with your own hands, as opposed to using a controller in a third-person environment.

On the other hand, 360 video is purely a voyeur experience. Live-action 360 videos are filmed on a 360-degree camera and can only be viewed on a 360 compatible device. Animated videos like Baobab Studio's 'Crow: The Legend are created through software such as AnimVR that allows the creator to work with their VR headset on. The journey of a 360 video is in the hands of the filmmaker and can not be shaped by the viewer in the same way that virtual reality can. However, they can look around, but only from the perspective of the filmmaker.

I find that 360 video lends itself more to traditional storytelling than VR does. In VR, you are more likely to experience glitches and other frustrating aspects such as distorted depth perception that can lead to a player struggling to actually interact with the world. Furthermore, virtual reality has a habit of taking you out of the story through a number of mechanics. One being the need to interact with the gameplay. To use Batman: Arkham VR as an example, there are stages of the game that you can not progress until you have solved a puzzle first. For some players this will take them out of the immersiveness of the experience as their progression of the story is stunted by the gameplay. However, other players favour interactions like these as they allow players to leave their handprint on the experience which gives them an increased sense of ownership of the story. In addition, games like Ironman VR give the player the feel of being inside a Hollywood movie as they watch the suit fit around their arms and body and fly through the sky, dodging debris to save Pepper Pots as they say to themselves 'I am Ironman'.

In contrast, 360 video, has far less opportunity for glitches and allows the viewer to sit back and enjoy the story without interruption, whilst also being completely immersed into the world, increasing the viewer's connection to the characters and the story. This is why many refer to the VR headsets 'empathy machines'. it allows you to literally step into someone else's shoes.

For example, The Guardian, who have their own free VR app and have been making 360 videos since 2017, create experiences that give you the chance to explore different environments and perspectives. One of their short films, 'The Party', offers viewers the chance to step into the shoes of 16-year-old Layla as she attends a birthday party (The Guardian, 2018). As a viewer, you hear her thoughts as though they are your own, and experience how overwhelming an event like this might be for someone on the spectrum or with a learning disability. For example, when cutlery falls off the table, Layla is triggered by this, and as a viewer, you experience ringing in your ears and blurred vision. This allows for the development of human empathy. As Francesca Panetta, executive editor, virtual reality, Guardian News and Media said, this medium allows audiences to experience and share these unique encounters, whilst giving the opportunity to see the world from another perspective and enabling them to become fully immersed in the experience (Srivastav, 2017).

Despite having the potential to be a real game-changer for journalism, VR and 360 don't possess the accessibility to reach wider audiences, it is very much still more of an 'experiment' rather than a main source of revenue, for many publishers, the small number of people buying headsets do not justify the costs of production (Southern, 2017). The Guardian tried to fix this by giving away 97,000 Google Cardboard headsets to UK readers for the launch of their app (Srivastav, 2017). Adam Foley, the Guardian’s commercial strategy director said: “VR is still a young technology, but as it develops, we are confident the demand will grow” (Southern, 2017).

However, being new technology is just another obstacle in the way of attracting more users, especially among older audiences. There is still a digital divide between older adults and younger people. The former demographic owns and uses far less digital applications and spend less time online than the latter. This is often due to personally held values and concerns around its impact on society and data security. Researchers, Dr Bran Knowles and Professor Vicki Hanson in their paper 'The Wisdom of Older Technology (Non) Users', recommend that online services offer better safety nets that can offer actual protection and do more to reassure older users. They also recommend that the online and digital companies should accept a social responsibility to address the worry surrounding the idea that online services threaten local businesses and job security as well as social opportunities like going shopping with friends and face to face interactions (Lancaster University, 2018).

"The efficiency gained by conducting online interactions is not a powerful motivator for technology adoption by older adults who may be experiencing loneliness and isolation. In many cases, making digital technologies appealing for older adults means ensuring that digital engagements do not replace social interactions, and if possible, facilitate new social and community-building opportunities where they can meet people." - Professor Vicki Hanson, (Knowles& Hanson, 2018)

On top of that, as people, we are still acclimatising to the technology. I find that as someone who has a fairly new relationship with gaming and long term screen use, I experience eye strain and motion sickness after around 15 minutes of wearing a VR headset, whereas my partner, who has grown up playing videogames, doesn't seem affected for at least an hour.

To create a 360 video, however, it is remarkably easy, that is if you have the right tech. The Insta360 One X Camera is a relatively affordable 360 camera (at around £400) that allows you to capture third-person footage, paired with their invisible selfie stick and the ONE X app which allows you to easily edit your film on your phone and has the potential to render it in 5.7K (Insa360, 2020). The camera does have very little battery and has a tendency to overheat, and the app is slightly limited and takes some time to navigate, especially on the pc and can eat a lot of your phone's battery, but for its price, it's a great piece of tech that comes with its own free software.

I started off by playing around with the Insta 360 One X Camera to create a little scene. I wanted to see how well it picks up omni-directional sound and/or if it has spatial audio. I also wanted to see how easy it is for a viewer to follow a story that is moving around them, and if certain cues would be beneficial.

The Insta360 One X does pick up omni-directional sound fairly well, you do have to make sure you are speaking up but for a little camera, I'm impressed with the mic. It doesn't automatically give me spatial audio but I'm sure it is something I could add post-production. In terms of following a story, it is completely up to the audience who and what they want to look at so I need to find a way to make them look where I want them to look or make the story still make sense, no matter where they are looking. This means making the dialogue and voice acting really clear so that you don't need to be looking at the actors to understand how they are feeling or what they are doing.

In other blog posts, I compare different software and hardware through the context of building a 3D environment, therefore, I used my Insta360 One X to record a real environment, as opposed to a virtual one. This means that the images I project on to the wall will feel more familiar and tangible. However, it does mean I am a lot less able to freely design my own environment, and it will potentially be less interactive (it being rooted in reality). Furthermore, I am limited to the spaces that I can access. For example, using a game engine I could create an environment in an African Desert, whereas, using the 360 camera I can only capture what I can get to, and in our current climate with our current regulations, that's anything within the centre of Liverpool.

Furthermore, much like I have said above - it was really easy to record. I didn't have to set anything up or watch any tutorial videos, I just had to download their app, which already comes with an editing suite. However, the camera's limited battery made the process frustrating, especially as exporting your content takes a long time (as it contains a lot of data), and the camera has to be turned on and connected to your phone to access your videos and images, which also means your phone can't be connected to a working internet connection whilst uploading. The app it comes with is fine, the user interface isn't very smooth and the editing options are very limited, however, it makes exporting content very simple.

In addition, due to the technology still being relatively new, it requires a lot of trial and error, as well as researching as to how you can upload your 360 content to online platforms. For a video you can just upload it to youtube and share the video, however, it's a little tricker for an image. Wix requires you to download an external app (360 virtual tours) but doesn't let you access that same app on your 'manage blogs' page. Another suggested method included setting up a Momento360 account, then once you upload your content to Moment360 you can embed a link into your Wix site which allows you to preview the 360 images.

Burch, A (2016) 'Infographic - Virtual Reality vs 360 Videos' [online] Touchstone Research. Available at: <https://touchstoneresearch.com/infographic-virtual-reality-vs-360-videos/#:~:text=While%20Virtual%20Reality%20takes%20users,smartphones%2C%20computers%2C%20and%20more> [Accessed 19 October 2020]

Insta360. (2020) 'Insta360 Store: The Official Store' [online] insta360. Available at: <https://store.insta360.com/product/one_x> [Accessed 19 October 2020]

Knowles, B. & Hanson, V. (2018). 'The wisdom of older technology (non)users.' Communications of the ACM Journal. 61. 72-77. 10.1145/3179995.

Lancaster University. (2018). 'Why some older people are rejecting digital technologies' [online]. ScienceDaily. Available at: <https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180312091715.htm> [Accessed 19 October 2020]

Southern, L. (2017). 'The Guardian remains committed to VR, despite limited commercial opportunities' [online] Digiday. Available at: <https://digiday.com/media/guardian-remains-committed-vr-despite-limited-commercial-opportunities/> [Accessed 19 October 2020]

Srivastav, T. (2017) 'The Guardian gives away 97,000 Google Cardboard headsets to introduce new VR app' [online] The Drum. Available at: <https://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/10/07/the-guardian-gives-away-97000-google-cardboard-headsets-introduce-new-vr-app> [Accessed 19 October 2020]

The Guardian. (2018). Virtual Reality by The Guardian. [online] The Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ng-interactive/2016/nov/10/virtual-reality-by-the-guardian.> [Accessed 19 October 2020].