How to time travel in highly immersive virtual reality

From five human senses, smell and taste are still absent in a substantial manner in the virtual reality world. While visual (numbers, words, and images), audition (sounds) and tactile senses are widespread in virtual reality; the sense of smell remains largely absent. Absence of sense of smell also causes absence of taste (and flavor) because the former has a significant impact on the formation of the latter. Without smell that has a much higher emotional valence than do numbers and words, human experiences are always defective and even confusing in the cyberspace. For example, an Internet user continues to smell olfactory signs of the computer lab, while s/he is virtually in a forest. The absence of pertinent odor reduces the reality of virtual experience and consequently impedes the deployment of the experiential marketing in the borderless market of the Internet. The olfactory sensation can enhance the sensational experience of virtual reality, increase the stickiness of the website, and consequently lead to deployment of capable online experiential marketing strategies. In addition, smell can get attention through emotions on the Internet where abundant and increasing data and information have made attention a scare resource. In an age where sound and touch have already been mined, scent is the next logical next step in digital experience. It has the potential to tap into very strong emotions. The research on hands aims to explore the past and current olfactory experiences both in the fields of strategic marketing and technology. The objective is to provide insights on the development of digital olfactory technologies and the impacts they might have on the deployment of experiential marketing strategies. In this perspective, the paper respects following structure: First, we briefly present an olfactory sense system. Second, we review the literature on the impact of scents on human experiential attitudes. Third, we study the cases of digital olfactory technologies since the initial experiences up to now in order to pinpoint the factors of failure and success. Forth, we explore the potential of the existent olfactory digital technologies and the relative prototypes on the online experimental marketing strategies. Two methods command the development of this research. We adopt the research method of case study for the analysis of the digital olfactory technologies, and the method of strategic review for the analysis of experiential marketing online and offline.

BackgroundInnovative technologies such as virtual reality may improve physical and cognitive functions in older people. While there are some experimental studies on virtual reality, qualitative studies related to the virtual reality experiences of older people are limited in the literature. This study aims to describe older people’s perceptions about their experiences regarding virtual reality.MethodsThe study has qualitative descriptive design. The data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews with older people (n = 37). The interviews were conducted during a two-months period, from February to March 2022. Thematic and descriptive analysis was used to analyse data. The Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) checklist was used to report the study.ResultsFour themes and 15 sub-themes were identified from the interviews. The themes were (a) time travel through virtual reality, (b) comparing the past and present through virtual reality, (c) benefits of virtual reality, and (d) the meaning of virtual reality.ConclusionsThis study provides in-depth information about the views of older people regarding the virtual reality experience. The study revealed that older people had positive experiences with virtual reality and showed that it has the potential to be useful in elderly care. In the study, virtual reality also enabled older people to have a time-traveling experience. It is recommended that virtual reality should be integrated into the care of older people by nurses and healthcare professionals.

While virtual reality has been around for some years, it is only now, with the emergence of cheaper, more robust hardware and software that animators have gained greater access to virtual reality technology, with the opportunity to create their own content. Leading practitioners in film, games and animation are beginning to explore the narrative possibilities and limitations of this new medium. As we note, this is a time of experimentation and discovery, where narrators are searching for ways in which to best reveal a story within a virtual world, and exploring the tension between passive watching versus a measure of passive interactivity of the virtual reality film viewer. In this paper within this emerging context, we provide a short analysis of the animated VR short Invasion (2016) from Baobab Studios, expanding into the experimental approaches and examples of student animators work from Middlesex University, the emerging new language of virtual reality and its opportunities for animators.

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH) has a very picturesque past. Founded in 11th century, it has always been a crossroads of faiths and civilizations. Extended Reality (XR) technologies can finally take us to time travel into this history, enable us to experience past events and meet historical characters. In this paper, we overview the latest applications we developed that use Virtual Reality (VR) video, Virtual and Augmented Reality (AR) for interactive digital storytelling about BH history. “Nine dissidents” is the first BH VR documentary, tackling a still tricky subject of dissidents in the Socialist Yugoslavia, artists and writers falsely accused, persecuted and still forbidden. “Virtual Museum of Old Crafts” aims to present and preserve crafts intangible heritage through Virtual Reality. “Battle on Neretva VR” is recreating a famous WWII battle offering the users to experience it and meet comrade Tito, the commander of the Yugoslav Liberation Army. “Sarajevo 5D” shows the cultural monuments from Sarajevo that do not exist anymore in physical form using Augmented Reality. Through user experience studies, we measure the user immersion and edutainment of these applications and show the potential of XR for the presentation and preservation of cultural heritage.

This article describes the phenomenon of using virtual reality for educational purposes using the synergy of folkloristics and digital technologies as an example. It is not difficult to agree with the opinion that virtual reality today is an ideal learning environment. The concept of using virtual reality technologies for education and science is fully implemented in the virtual reality software and hardware complex for education - VE 3D ieCenter. With the help of this hardware complex, it becomes possible to use virtual reality for studying folklore by pupils or students. The expediency of using the 3D Internet as a means of increasing the interactivity of the educational process is argued. The desire to break beyond the two-dimensional presentation of information has led to the creation of dynamic virtual technologies. Today, new perspectives in the form of 3D information on the Internet are available for teachers in educational and information technologies. Using virtual and augmented reality technologies, students of secondary and higher educational institutions will be able to interact with objects in virtual space or participate in important historical events. Virtual and augmented reality technologies should be applied in the field of education, primarily because the educational system must adapt to complicating processes, models, and theories and students need to operate with a lot of information and new ways of presenting it.\n\nAs an example of the use of virtual reality during practical classes on the study of folklore, the article described the structure of an interactive quest and a seminar

BackgroundDigital technologies have the potential to contribute to health promotion and disease prevention in the aging world.ObjectiveThis study aims to identify digital technologies for health promotion and disease prevention that could be used independently by older people in nonclinical settings using a scoping review.MethodsThrough database (MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and SCOPUS; to March 3, 2022) and manual searches (to June 14, 2022), 90 primary studies and 8 systematic reviews were included in this scoping review. The eligibility was based on the PCC (Population, Concept, and Context) criteria: (1) people aged 50 years or older (population), (2) any digital (health) technology (eg, smartphone apps, websites, virtual reality; concept), and (3) health promotion and disease prevention in daily life in nonclinical and noninstitutional settings (context). Data items included study characteristics, PCC criteria, opportunities versus challenges, and evidence gaps. Data were synthesized using descriptive statistics or narratively described by identifying common themes.ResultsThe studies were published in 2005-2022 and originated predominantly from North America and Europe. Most primary studies were nonrandomized, reported quantitative data, and investigated effectiveness or feasibility (eg, acceptance or usability) of digital technologies in older people. The participants were aged 50 years to 99 years, predominantly female, affluent (ie, with high income, education, and digital competence), and intended to use or used digital technologies for a median of 3 months independently at home or in community settings. The digital technologies included mobile or nonmobile technologies or virtual reality. The studies used “modern devices” (eg, smartphones, wearables, or gaming consoles) or modern and “older devices” (eg, computers or mobile phones). The users interacted with digital technologies via websites, emails, text messages, apps, or virtual reality. Health targets of digital technologies were mobility, mental health, nutrition, or cognition. The opportunities versus challenges of digital technologies were (1) potential health benefits versus unclear or no benefits for some outcomes, (2) monitoring of health versus ethical issues with data collection and management, (3) implications for functioning in daily life (ie, potential to prolong independent living) versus unclear application for clinical management or care, (4) tailoring of technical properties and content toward older users versus general use, (5) importance of human support for feasibility versus other factors required to improve feasibility, (6) reduction of social isolation versus access to digital technologies, and (7) improvement in digital competence versus digital divide.ConclusionsVarious digital technologies were independently used by people aged 50 years or older for health promotion and disease prevention. Future studies should focus on (1) more diverse populations of older people, (2) new digital technologies, (3) other (clinical and care) settings, and (4) outcome evaluation to identify factors that could enhance any health benefits of digital technologies.International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)RR2-10.2196/37729

Virtual reality (VR) generally refers to an artificial environment, constructed using a computer and presented to the user in such a way that they feel they are inside an alternate world. In 2016, VR - the experience of exploring 360 degree photos and videos and to interact with computer generated characters and objects inside virtual worlds - has finally (after years of development) shown mass market commercial promise. While much of the VR revenue is currently being captured by hardware and software makers, it is not difficult to imagine value being captured by licensing access to user generated content (UGC) in VR. For example, as with videogames and professional sports, it might be possible to monetize the experience of watching players of exceptional ability as they play a VR game (e.g., gameplay by someone engaged in a VR eSport). Alternately, offering a global audience the opportunity to explore a work of art created by a master in VR (perhaps as the master is creating the work) could also present a source of revenue. Stakeholders, including VR app developers, gaming platforms and game production companies, will likely want to control revenue from UGC as it is in their commercial interest. In this article, we explore the potential for right of publicity, performance rights, and copyright protection for UGC in VR. VR has only been commercialized very recently and there have not been court decisions concerning the ownership of user generated content in a VR world. Therefore, to consider some of the legal questions that we anticipate will arise around VR, this paper examines court cases regarding the next closest forms of entertainment - video gameplay and sporting events. Having examined the court decisions and considering the room for creativity and performance given to VR users (in our view, significantly more authorship and protectable performance than that of video game players at the time of the court decisions), we conclude that in many circumstances UGC in VR could give rise to content that is protectable. In other words, at what appears to be the dawn of commercial VR, the question(s) at issue may not be whether UGC is protectable, but instead what rights exist and who has ownership of VR UGC.

The time-travel genre of Chinese Internet literature combines old mythological motifs with contemporary science fiction approaches to create a narrative line in which the protagonist travels through time, undergoes a series of trials, discovers new worlds, and realizes an idealized life. Borrowing Foucault’s theory of utopian bodies and heterotopias and taking Tianxia Guiyuan’s female-oriented Internet novel Empress Fuyao as its exemplary case, this study analyzes how time-travel fiction uses time travel in order to image a “utopia” and what kind of “new world” is projected by this utopia. In the process, this paper will simultaneously examine the relationship between utopia and twenty-first century China’s new media literature.

Virtual Reality (VR) has become a useful tool in psychological therapy, rehabilitation, and basic research. It provides the therapist or scientist with high ecological validity and complete control over multimodal stimuli and the virtual environment. To build lifelike virtual environments, commercial software or game engines are often used. On the other hand, many psychological experiments require an accurate timing of presented stimuli and user reactions, which is not easily obtained by modern hard- and software systems. In this work, we present a VR software for psychological experiments which combines modern computer graphics and Virtual Reality techniques with accurate stimulus and event control. We describe the system features and possibilities for VRbased experiment generation and propose approaches for precise stimulus and event timing. These approaches are evaluated for achievable accuracy in stimulus control and performance monitoring within typical virtual environments.

As virtual reality technology matures and popular, it is gradually applied in art design.Virtual reality is constructed by high-tech means of the artificial environment.How best to achieve the user in the virtual world of realistic experience, has become a new research hotspot.In view of the present virtual reality technology and virtual aesthetics can improve the effect of the simulation are faced with the problem, in this paper, the study of virtual reality in art and design.Put forward the integration of technology and art technique can improve the virtual reality visual properties and the degree of match user requirements, improve the effect of the simulation.

Music and sound cannot be experienced through writing and numbers. Writing freezes time onto paper; as a time-based medium, sound cannot be heard without temporal motion, and acoustic metrics are silent data. For a complete experience of sound, it needs to engage our bodies. Digital multimedia technologies offer powerful approaches to understanding the acoustics of the past, and this work will explore a number of those affordances. In particular, this work explores the use of apps that illustrate archaeoacoustic effects, set digitally within visual and acoustic archaeological cultures. The ways of immersing audiences through projection, acoustic simulation, field and studio recordings, and musical performance will be discussed. The use of virtual reality (VR) headsets is explored to create a sense of deep-flow and presence amongst audiences, total immersion in an experiential phenomenological understanding of interacting audio and visual fields, as well as setting such results within an appropriate context. This study will examine how acoustics results at caves in Northern Spain, in various phases of Stonehenge, and at Paphos Theatre (all World Heritage Sites) can be explored using VR and multimedia technologies, evaluating the comparative advantages of the use of different technologies. It proposes that such integration of visual and sonic modelling using interactive digital technologies is effective as a non-representational theory approach to compliment empirical studies, allowing understanding that goes beyond numerical analysis and binary dialectics to engage directly with the material of archaeological sites in an embodied manner, and address the real-world complexities of acoustic ecologies and their contexts.

With the rapid development of digital technology, digital medicine has seen an upsurge in the 21st century, thus entering the era of precision and digital medicine. This article mainly introduces the application of digital technologies in plastic and reconstructive surgery, such as three-dimensional scan imaging, surgical navigation, microsurgical navigation, 3D printing, etc. In the era of big data, digital technologies have been widely applied in the preoperative design, navigation during surgery and post-operative evaluation of plastic surgery. Naturally the digital teams and societies of plastic surgery have come into being. Additionally this article puts forward the new prospects for more extensive applications of digital technologies such as surgical robots, 3D printing of prosthetic implants, and virtual reality. We believe that when the professionals who master artificial intelligence algorithms collaborate with the experts who have deep insight into medicine, the digital technologies can be applied better to the field of cosmetic surgery. This is our main task at present and the final goal. Key words: Digital medicine; Plastic surgery; 3D printing; Virtual reality; Artificial inteligence

Strategic priorities of social production digitalization: world experience

After decades of research, technological development as well as few discouraging setbacks, virtual reality (VR) appears to be on the cusp of its settled adoption. The incorporation of VR technology into the palette of everyday communication media is not only exciting for filmmakers and game designers, but also for every manner of storytellers: documentarians, journalists, educators, scientists – all professions involved in clarifying surrounding us reality and communicating about it. They all discovered that social change can be valuably stimulated by development of new technology – technology that serves in the same time as a classic medium to communicate and spread this news around. Considering the factors enabling us to capture and disseminate “a true story” in a highly captivating, immersive way (which previously has been preserved exclusively for entertainment and commercial productions), we should mention at least 3 crucial elements: technological innovation, psychological evolution of the viewer, application of VR beyond storytelling. The first two factors mutually interact and play off each other in terms of the changing threshold of perceptual tolerance as well as rising needs of the new spectator. The first part of this paper deals with the interdependency of these two elements. Structured conclusions will be enumerated as a practical reference for VR storytelling productions. The second part of the paper will deal with the third element enumerating the most inspiring cases from recent years – eye-openers for instigating social change, adding value and promoting wellbeing via VR technology. The engagement of VR in social change, innovation and nonfiction storytelling introduced the VR technology within the current media palette. It not only changes the nature of storytelling about reality, but fulfills the story that our reality builds.

As emerging digital technologies, virtual reality and augmented reality technology have been widely and deeply applied in the medical field, especially in plastic surgery. This paper reviewed the development of virtual reality and augmented reality technology, indispensable components in realization process of virtual reality and augmented reality technology in plastic surgery as well as applications in preoperative planning, intraoperative navigation, surgical training of plastic surgery. At last, there is a summary of the applications, deficiencies and the future direction of virtual reality and augmented reality technology in plastic surgery. Key words: Virtual reality; Augmented reality; Plastic surgery