virutal reality

Augmented reality y (AR) is the term for a constellation of digital technologies that enable users to display and interact with digital information integrated into their immediate physical environment. AR is the technological counterpart of virtual reality (VR), which until recently was much better known, though not necessarily widely used (see virtual realit y). In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the digital graphics pioneer Ivan Sutherland developed the first head-worn computer displays permitting the user to see computer graphics overlaid on their visual field. fi Although Sutherland’s displays constituted the beginning of both AR and VR, interest in VR eclipsed that of AR in the following decades, as display and tracking technologies were being developed. Work on AR was revived in the 1990s by Steve Feiner, together with his graduate students Blair MacIntyre and Doree Seligmann at Columbia University, as well as at other universities and research centers. (The term augmented reality y itself was possibly coined in 1990 by a researcher at the Boeing Company.) AR and VR are often classed as examples of mixed reality (MR) on a spectrum described by Paul Milgram in 1994.

The spectrum indicates the ratio between the amount of information provided by the computer and the amount coming from the user’s visual surround. At one extreme there is no computer input (only the socalled real environment); at the other, the computer is providing all the visual information, and possibly sound as well, to constitute a complete “virtual environment” or “virtual reality.” AR lies in between these extremes, but typically far more of the user’s view is constituted by the actual visual environment and the computer is adding relatively little information. “Augmented virtuality” is a little-used term to describe the case where some elements of the physical world are integrated into a predominantly virtual environment.
The spectrum, however, obscures a fundamental distinction between AR and VR. VR cuts the user off ff from involvement in the physical and, by implication, the social world. AR acknowledges the physical world rather than eliding it. It is one of a trio of such technologies that came to prominence in the 1990s—the other two were ubiquitous computing and tangible computing. Each of these was in its own way a response to the implicit promise of VR to project the user into a disembodied cyberspace (see cyberspace, virtual bodies).

(Johns Hopkins University Press)

Over the past decade, installations of the CAVE have compelled participants to explore how immersive text spaces create playful literary sandboxes in which to experiment with various forms of appropriated writing. Although the fusion of virtual reality and literature has continuously been flirted with, the interactive digital creative space has yet to be realized with comparable impact. So far we have been invited by composers such Rui Torres, Stuart Moulthrop, and Jörg Piringer to participate in the ludic engagement with textual instruments; with “New World Order: Basra,” Sandy Baldwin demonstrated how gamespace provides a compelling environment for textual manipulation. However, to my knowledge, we have yet to develop the space that places these a combination of these capabilities within a single compositional environment.

With the upcoming commercial release of both the Oculus Rift and Google Glass headsets, the arrival of virtual reality’s now decades-old promise of embodiment within the digital appears to be more imminent than ever before. My paper will articulate the foundation of an ongoing project that will attempt to mitigate these revolutionary output devices with combinatorial input sources already in use to create a creative virtual realm. As my presentation will introduce, my Text(ual) Renderer Project will combine VR technology, speech-to-text software and motion-sensing devices to create a unique composition environment. Within this virtual space, the user will input speech which will then be displayed in the 360-degree VR space provided by the Oculus Rift. This text will then be manipulated and arranged through motion input of the user.

My proposal for ELO’s gathering consists of both a paper and a demonstration to be presented simultaneously. My paper will first review the relationship between VR, performance, and language manipulation. After this summary, I will then propose the next iteration of this embrace, an environment that, like the CAVE project, provides the user with a textually creative and interactive experience. I will then provide an exploratory first stage of ongoing research in the modification of an existing gamespace, Mojang’s sandbox world generator Minecraft, which will render the Text(ured) environment into a viable compositional space. Through the creation and manipulation capabilities provided with Minecraft, I will then illustrate the numerous potentials for text creation and manipulation in the virtual landscape.

Finally, my paper will posit several subsequent projects that depart from Minecraft mods to renegotiate the user’s relationship to the textual environment within virtual and augmented realities. These include the development of a VR Processing compiler that allows users to manipulate the code structures and modules through sensory input, the potential benefit for accessibility, as well as the possible opportunities provided by augmented reality (AR) devices. (Source: Author`s abstract)