Hyperrealities Research

Hyperreality is when there is a perfect blend between reality and fiction to an extent where it is difficult to determine what is real or not.

There are tons of examples of hyperreality especially when it comes to stories used in movies, animations and games.

South Park

A couple of episodes of South Park point out very interesting incidents with hyperreality that could happen if technology advances to a certain point where separating reality from virtual reality is mere impossible.

Series 18 Episode 7 - Grounded Vindaloop

The episode is about Eric Cartman playing a prank on one of the more innocent South Park characters  Butters. Cartman makes his own DIY fake oculus rift virtual reality headset and convinces Butters that it is real and that it works. The clip below is one of the incidents I mentioned that looks at an interesting theory where Butters feels so immersed that he can't tell that he is in the real world (even though he has being in the real world all along but Cartman has told him that he has being transported into a virtual world of his own life) so he starts to cause mischief thinking that there are no consequences. This theory is a perfect example of hyperreality and it could be a possible future if technology advances as fast as it is doing so.



The other incident during the episode happens towards the end where we realise that Cartman pranking Butters is not real and that is the virtual reality of another character, and then that character realises that they aren't in the real world but in a virtual reality of another character. This keeps going until the 4th or 5th character and by then as the viewer you are so confused and don't know what is real or not anymore. The south park team Trey parker and Matt Stone pull off this modern idea of hyperreality to the "tee" because they manage to trick the audience into believing that they don't know what it is real anymore and how they feel because of this is a legitimate reaction from if this actually happened to them. At the point when reality and virtual reality in the South Park universe is a blur the South Park team decide to end the episode with a "thinking outside of the box" trick and the last person to take the virtual reality headset off is the character Stan but this Stan is a live action Stan which means that the whole cartoon was virtual reality and the real real life was reality.



PlayStation VR

PlayStation very recently released their first virtual reality headset before known as "Project Morpheus". Released on the 13th October 2016 PlayStation VR as it is now simply called promises players that they can be realistically immersed in their favourite video game universes through a headset that uses the PlayStation Camera that tracks the players movement by tracking the lights that protrude from the headset itself. The months running up to the headsets release PlayStation showed some interesting advertisements focusing on how the headset can immerse players into the world and the adverts are a great example of Hyperreality as is the purpose of PlayStation VR itself.





Unlike augmented reality where the virtual comes to you in the real world, virtual reality takes the player into the virtual world and both of these PlayStation advertisements try to capture that. Of course virtual reality could work for movies where the user stands in the middle of the action and can look around but eventually they will feel like they are not really there because no one is interacting with them. Now games that use virtual reality is where it will work best because the player will be able to interact with objects and people in the game and the response from these virtual characters  will create the real immersion required for virtual reality.

Idea: Simulating pain and other feelings in VR.

Virtuix Omni

A big question we all have when it comes to Virtual Reality and that is how do we simulate moving around in a VR experience? A man named Jan Goetgeluk also asked himself the same question and started to research and experiment in to finding a solution. Jan continues to find the Virtuix Omni a invention that allows players to safely walk on a treadmill while wearing the Oculus Rift VR headset to simulate the immersion of the game they are playing.



The beauty about this device is it has a treadmill that allows the player to walk 360 degrees so they can move in any direction in the game they are playing. Special shoes must be worn with a sole that matches into the grooves of the treadmill to ensure precise balance and friction which prevents injury. Another idea has being passed around that uses the principle of motion capture to capture the players movement as a whole. Cameras surrounding the player are able to track even more precise movements of the player than just walking. The treadmill on its own only moves the characters in the game when the treadmill is moving not what the player themselves are doing so having the cameras around allows the player to jump or move one leg out in front of the other for the game to recognise what the player wants to do and simulates the same movement in their character.

Idea: Having a device that simulates hot or cold temperatures, wind, rain, even maybe a impact system for when objects touch the player in the game.

MyndPlay

MyndPlay is a UK based company that are experimenting and researching into mind control. This topic is very interesting as we only can imagine this kind of stuff to be real in movies and fictional stories. MyndPlay began using technology that appears to be a simple headband but can measure brain waves depending on what the user thinks about and during the task they are doing at the time.



The showreel shows MyndPlay recording brain activity during various tasks for example a man driving a Mercedes at intense speeds. The data they gathered from these different activities allowed them to invent a way for the user to interact with digital content with their minds. The showreel continues to show a man creating art on a TV screen just by thinking and another case where a man is watching a fight scene from 47 Ronin where he chooses what happens and how the fight turns out just by thinking about it. The headband can track very specific brain waves people create when they think about certain things, it reminds me of finger prints because each and everyone of us can be identified through a very unique pattern in our finger prints and the head band detects very unique brain waves which allow us to interact with our minds. This discovery leaves so many questions about the future: How will the experience in cinema's change? Will we all be able to change what happens in a movie just by thinking about it? Will we ever have to use a mouse or keyboard or a TV remote or even our mobile phones again? When you think about having ultimate privacy inside your minds might also change, imagine if people can then read other people's minds without them knowing. I can imagine if that is the case everyone would have some kind of pin number or password they have to think of before they can proceed.

Resident Evil 7 Demo: Kitchen

One of the first demos for PlayStation VR and the first real horror experience in PlayStation VR. Resident Evil 7: Kitchen Demo presents a very immersive, scary simulation of a women gone mad provoking the player while they are tied to a chair. This reaction video from the members of IGN proves the game does it justice but what happens if we could further the immersion? The idea comes from a similar video where a women says "It would be more scarier if I could feel the pain of getting stabbed" during the part the player gets stabbed in the leg with a knife. This gives me the idea of creating virtual gear that could also simulate feelings from the game's surrounding.




Rooster Teeth's Immersion

Rooster teeth are a company who host web shows and make animations to entertain an audience. Rooster Teeth have a running show called "Immersion" which bring the ideas and mechanics from a video game to reality by performing experiments show what these would look like in real life.


In video games there are at most times objects that can be destroyed very easily and normally have items inside for the player to collect. For example vases in the famous video game The Legend of Zelda are destroyed by the player by picking them up and throwing them to collect rupees the game's currency that lie inside. This episode of Immersion sees the "lab rats" Michael and Gavin put in various rooms full of real life objects that are commonly found in games, where they use weapons and tools to smash them open to find a key which allows them to proceed in to the next room. The experiment is to see if destroying these objects in real life acts in the same manner as when they are destroyed in the games. In most games the player can just touch the object and it shatters but in real life it could take much more effort to get inside crates or vases.