Been Set Free: A Distributed Virtual Theatre Dance Performance

For Frameless 2021, we present a fully realized example of virtual theatre. We define virtual theatre as a live theatrical performance, experienced on a stage in virtual reality, with participants in different physical locations (Geigel 2018)

Experimental Analysis of Spatial Sound for Storytelling in Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality leverages our cognitive and perceptual abilities to provide immersive experiences that recreate both the visual and aural elements of real spaces with a high degree of realism making it a suitable delivery platform for conveying narratives through games and films. Spatial sound is useful in enhancing immersion and presence of the user in a virtual world. This audio design allows the game designer to place audio cues that appropriately match with the visual cues in a virtual game environment. These localized audio cues placed in a story based game environment also help to evoke an emotional response from the user and construct the narrative of the game by capturing the user’s attention towards the guiding action events in the game. Our work currently involves a thorough literature study on the significance of debating the usefulness of spatial sound. Our future work involves conducting a user study for analyzing the same i.e., understanding how spatial sound improves user performance and user experience in a virtual game environment. Furthermore, with the help of the relevant subjective and objective inferences that will be collected from the user study conducted on four different evaluation models, our work will also analyze and establish the potential of spatial sound as a powerful storytelling tool in a virtual game environment

AR Fantasia: An Augmented Reality Musical Experience

In 1940, Walt Disney Pictures released their third full length animated feature film, the classic film Fantasia. The concept and challenge behind Fantasia was simple: To merge music and visuals, using the media of animation, to provide an integrated backdrop for, and interpretation of, classical music. The complete film consisted of eight such animated sequences, each providing a visual landscape as a setting for a classical musical piece (Granata 2002)

Establishing the Actor-Audience connection during performance on a Virtual Stage

In distributed virtual theatre (presentation of live performance in shared virtual spaces), a major challenge lies in creating a social connection between audience and actors, who reside in physically distant spaces. The goal of this demo is to explore the extents by which this chemistry can be recreated in a virtual space even though participants are in different physical locales. We focus on non-verbal connection using body motion and actor-audience proximity to create the social bond

XR & Museums: Mixing Disciplines, Extending Boundaries, and Delivering Multi-Modal Experiences in a Post-COVID World

Our talk demonstrates and elaborates upon the ways in which the development of mixed reality with museum partners can, and has, fostered the mixing of disciplines among academic faculty, thereby encouraging the breaking down of silos in the university environment