During my research phase I conducted in the inner friends & family circle I found there are certain things me and my friends are missing in the current crisis.
In the guest lecture with Mr. Maureira he adressed the huge potential for VR in terms for applications with psychological impact (e.g. treatments for people with mental disorders) - but otherwise he sees more potential in AR technology.
But aren't we all suffering from the crisis already? What might the long-term impact look like?
I am aiming to create an immersive experience for all those who suffer from the current situation.
This week, I've spent two days in hospital 🏥. Before my treatment I was bedded in a waiting room 🛌. The patient next to me was connected to a oxygen pump, which to me just made the exact same sound as a jacuzzi pump distributing bubbles in a hot whirlpool. Besides that, they played holiday charts music from the 2000s. When I closed my eyes, I suddenly felt incredibly immersed by those two ingredients and immediatly flashed back to my last holiday in Spain 🇪🇸. My treatment was done under full anesthesia - before they induced the medication the doctors engaged me into a conversation. My last words were "wow, am I getting tired right now?" - "Yes, the doctor answered" I woke up 4 hours later in the initial room, with the same relaxing music, with the oxygen jacuzzi pump still running. I was entirely confused and my initial thoughts were "did someone just respawn me - is this real? Hey doctor, what time is it" - "2.30pm - You have been asleep for four hours" This entire journey showed me, how simple our imagination can be supported by stimulating senses either by speech, sounds, music or narcotic drugs.
I am curious, how adding the visual sense might either improve or worsen this experience, as recalling events from our visual memories is often more personal, meaningful and prioritizes positive fragments. However I assume that inserting random visuals could even destroy the immersive experience my brain would generate when entirely relying on sound stimulation.
But what is meaningful during the crisis? As restaurants were closed for a while, I was craving nothing more but a Döner Kebab. I know - you might say "Do it yourself at home fgs" - True, that's what I am already doing. But it is not the same. Going to your local Döner Kebab shop means, yet again, immersion: You enter the shop, by saying "Salam aleykum", the kebab man answers "Guten Tag", in the background there is high-pitched oriental music playing. The raw kitchen tools and fast working pace just contributes to an overall satisfying atmosphere. And I am missing this atmosthere.
Apparently, I am not the only person demanding the Döner Kebab experience during quarantine. Here you can see an employee practicing for Home Office.
The Kebab Simulator VR video was especially interesting to see, as it captured the experience just from the outside, while the VR experience itself was not shown in the video and thus pretty much up to the viewers interpretation. I see this as interesting entry point for my tinkering phase.
Yet another aspect that I am missing in the current phase is the Scheveningen beach - especially the ride towards there. That comes together with the bad bicycle infrastructure in Germany. Whenever I go for a bike ride here, it requires extensive planning. A bicycle helmet is required in any case as some people, especially from the countryside who never saw a bicycle in their life tend to behave like maniacs. Planning the route upfront is therefore crucial. Dealing with the given issues, you might understand how higher my demand for relaxation here in Germany is .
All the cat cafes in the randstad area closed for some obscure reason. I am going to miss a good purring cat.
Initially I planned on using Roblox for the prototype. The reason for choosing Roblox was primiraly due to the fact, that in the parallel course "PS1 - Shared Spaces", in my team, I was the responsible person for the 3D prototype and while the HCI course started, as it was the last big chunk in our project, I still had enough work load allocated there.