Building Emotional Worlds in Virtual Reality

Editor's Notes

1. TAKE A DEEP BREATH BE EXCITED!BE INTERESTED!BE YOU! Josh / CEO of Cubicle Ninjas
2. Travel to tropical beach, Antaractica without the cold. Hell, the moon, a Dali-painting, or explore Hogwarts. And do it on your lunch break for a $1. Then share that exact world with a friend. THIS IS HUGE. THIS IS A REVOLUTION. It may be the ultimate tech revolution of our lives.
3. Hard to explain to someone who has never tried it.
4. Environments that create memories.
5. Environment has a deep unconscious physiological and psychological impact, speaking directly to our primal lizard brain, pushing past cultural boundaries. In tests these don’t need to be physical presence or even window view. Simple static photos of nature had a dramatic effect. If a piece of paper can impact us, what about VR?
6. What unconscious effects does environment have on our lives? Lush environments have been shown again and again to restore our focus*, our mood, our self-esteem, our memory, and reduce stress. Natural environments, and even the architecture of a room, improve hospital recovery times, reduce pain, reduce our aggression and our desire for immediate gratification. *known as attention restoration theory and stress reduction theory If we know that there are biological hacks that are innate to human operating system, VR is the key to unlock them with perfect, cost effective, replicable stimuli.
7. In other words: virtual worlds can change the way we see the real one.
8. Pinnacle of storytelling Aw, that was it?I don’t want to do that again.I would not recommend this.Aww, that was fun.I’d do this again.I may recommend this.AWE – I SEE MY REFLECTION IN THE COSMOS.I’d do this often. I will recommend this to others. We want to create memories, not gimmicks.
9. This is our app Guided Meditation VR. We released for fun, and it has received over 40,000 downloads. We’re creating Gear VR, Oculus, and Vive versions. Examples of scenarios where virtual reality therapy can assist: ADD, PTSD, anxiety disorders, pain management, senior care, and long-term care. But I think the true future opportunity using VR for health and wellness goes beyond things labeled disorders. 50% of americans don’t take all of their vacation according to Time magazine.. Now, we have the ability to proactively increase our mental and physical ability at minimal cost. Cost effective, self-guided virtual reality emotional enhancement could be the solution.
10. Users will be able to select from 40+ exotic locales to be provided self-guided cognitive behavior therapy techniques. Users typically don’t want to leave when they get in. We have a demo here at our booth, where you can visit a tropical beach and learn breathing techniques, or experience an anxiety meditation in a zen garden.
11. In this example: isolation
12. Some spaces have greater impact. Water or green spaces are shown in environmental psychology to multiply a space’s effects. Negative mood decreases, alongside fear, anxiety, and sadness. We’ve also seen natural lighting. Sun rays or a water’s reflections.
13. Not just forests. They’ve done these studies with urban spaces, showing some green or water within them has the same result. A pop of nature will impact us.
14. Personal preference (or memories?!) matters. This is what psychologist would call compatibility. Natural environment: What is the climate you were raised in? Example: a beach. You will find beaches uninteresting, preferring new stimuli. Mountains, jungles, the draw of something special. The beach has real world concerns associated with it. This means that globally we’ve seen country based preferences. Europeans for example love our canyons, because that is exotic to them. Smell: Cherry blossoms, water, beach In other terms, our senses are interconnected. When existing sensory data is available we will recall it. Can we find ways to trigger this more often? Allergies: Just like we recall our past memories of a space for preference and smells, some environments trigger allergy symptoms in those with extreme allergies. Dust motes or pollen bearing plants are two cases we’ve seen cause this reaction.
15. I started my career as a kid’s book illustrator, and it took years to learn that often I had to modify a drawing to make it look right, even if I matched a photo perfectly. Often our perception of what is real is triggered by creative work. We’re looking for flaws. So as creators we need to modify our work to “feel real”. In other words, be inspired by reality, not a slave to it. Great artists of VR will be (and do!) bend all of the rules to “feel real”. Examples- Color: You’ll notice the saturation of colors in our screenshots are very high. We spent hundreds of hours testing color. This leads to an almost cartoon quality on 2D screens. But in VR it feels right. It feels like the best little day in this waterfall garden. Sound: Often sounds will need to be louder than they would be to emphasize environmental factors. Users also have dramatically different abilities when it comes to processing audio and video simultaneously. Data shows only XXXXXX people are visual and auditory learners. You’ll need audio and visual instructions or indicators or people will get confused. Simplicity: Who here has seen or tried Oculus’ Toybox demo? If not, it is cubes and simple head shapes, and yet it is likely my favorite experience in VR. A simple space can have a big impact in VR. It feels real, and just so happens to be great for performance. Process: When building start at the extremes of reality. Don’t be afraid to stylize.
16. Don’t break immersion! Ever. Less is more. Example: Huts Think of this like a set. Don’t place anything that could be a distraction.
17. We build spaces with escape routes or cover. Being able to see a horizon. May be seen as safe havens—areas in which our species tended to have greater rates of survival.
18. Complexity equals calm. Curves equal calm. *According to research for stress restoration theory.
19. Studies show that maximum impact of a space is either 5 minutes or all day. 10 minutes had the lowest impact! So, make environments that change often in less than 5 minutes.
20. Close, Medium, Far isn’t just for art. Spaces with depth diminish states of arousal and negative thoughts within minutes.
21. Small details with small rewards. “micro”-experiences that are an escape. Needn’t be a big change, but a delightful one. These have a clear reward for a user: the “VR giggle”
22. Things up close should amaze. Make them higher poly. Make make them worth looking at.
23. SAMSUNG DATA The Mullet: Party in the back. Business in the front. The Reverse Mullet: Party in the front Business in the back. By Miguel Benetiz.
24. How do you know when it is working? You’ll know when things are working when senses overlap. They will smell the cherry blossoms. See clouds that aren’t there.