Singapore Panorama - Short Film Programme 4 VR ( SGIFF)

 Singapore International Film Festival

The VR event is held at 46 Waterloo Street . Inside there are 3x3 areas for 9 viewers. They are seated on a rotatable chair on rollers, wearing Oculus Quest 2 and headphones. It was my first time experiencing VR from Oculus Quest 2 , way better than viewing in Google Cardboard. 

The Seven Step Verse I do like the VR experience, when the cleaner lady was standing near me and looking directly at me, I could sense her presence as if she was really there. They started off  standing in a circle doing some form of Cleaning Ladies Exercise on the top floor car park of Chinatown building. After a good workout they head out to work in Singapore's old malls such as People Park Center and Fortune Center. The only discomforting feeling for me is that when I was placed near the edge , looking down below the floors. Otherwise it was overall an unique VR experience.

In Times Like Theses  Exploding trees , exploding flowers and exploding cubes. I think I preferred we live in ocean of air VR experience better. This one does not have interactivity.  https://prataverse.blogspot.com/2022/10/we-live-in-ocean-of-air-vr-experience.html 

The above picture is from SGIFF website https://sgiff.com/festival-programmes/singapore-panorama/

 

 

 

Affordable Art Fair Singapore AR showcase by Dorsett Hospitality International

 

Affordable Art Fair Singapore is the largest art fair in Singapore and this year. It is held at the F1 Pit building , local and international galleries showcase different types of contemporary art under S$15,000 for the modern house decor. I am here for the AR. 

 I am given a tablet to see the AR dance animation. There is something about AR life sized dance animation, the fluid body motion is enjoyable to watch. 

They move so I don't have to walk around it like a static 3D object to prove that it has spacial presence.  

The other AR installation was wall mounted . I have to scan the picture marker and a miniature platform appeared and there door opened and out came a miniature dancer dancing on the spot light. 

ART Reimagined AR Art Exhibition by Meta

 

ART Reimagined AR Art Exhibition by Meta was located in Hatch Art Project gallery space Tiong Bahru Singapore. The space are divided into 3 sections featuring 3 local artists works translated into AR. This is unusual to me because the artwork itself is the AR content unlike other AR exhibitions I have attended , where the AR augments the artwork. 

Norhaizad Adam

Longgok the artwork's title, is an performance, based on the Malay superstition of the unseen Jinn that hangs around piles of unfolded clothes. 

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In Malay homes , mother warn children not to create a pile of clothes or the Jinn spirit will get inside. 

 Kumari Nahappan

The chili sculpture artwork is titled Tango . It is absurd and amusing at the same time to see the two chili dancing to the beat of Tango music animated in AR.

But first you need to plant the chili seeds and water the plants before they produced chili that will Tango for you .

 

And in the end the Tango chili in spite of their talents are eaten in the another AR game to bite as many chili as you can to score points.

Goh Beng Kwan

He paints the Singapore River as he remembered in 1978 and in 2022.

 

 

The Future of AR a personal opinion

 

Why AR ? 

Short answer it is experiencing location based information eg 3D objects in a simulated immersive environment.

You use the word "immersive environment"  that more commonly refer to VR. Are you saying that AR is immersive ?

Yes I think both VR and AR would want to achieve a high level of user immersion.

AR immerse the user by altering reality. The AR simulation can become so real that the user thought what he or she witness is real. 

However I think the AR tech would have some way to go for this to be possible e.g. AR glasses that can power realistic real-time 3D rendering and motion tracking , AI object recognition technology , and most importantly AR 3D object occlusion as AR object always appear in front .  

Sounds like science fiction , would it not be dangerous if the user cannot distinguish between the virtual and the real ?

Yes but I think we should be free to design the technology first before applying ethics to restrict certain technological features.

I can imagine a pedestrian wearing the AR glasses of the future, walking down the street eating a banana , seeing a trash bin along his way and he throws the banana peel into it without realizing the trash bin is a virtual AR object. He has unknowingly committed a littering offense and needs to pay a fine if the contextual situation is in Singapore.   

I can also imagine a pedestrian wearing the AR glasses of the future, crossing the street and got into an accident . He did not see the car closing in because the car image has been overlaid another virtual background image. 

If technology provide the means then there is no stopping AR experience designers to intentionally cause harm to the user , from pranking to terrorism. 

In the future the government and businesses need to regulate of AR design experiences that are safe for public use.  

That paints a dystopian future, is there one positive outcome for future AR?

Probably one application could be in anger management . Anger is usually triggered in situations such as another person facial expressions , a AR face masking feature can tone down an aggressive to a milder looking face to cool down the tension. Loud voices can be muted or tone down , trigger words can be censored.

We have gone to far into the future. What do you think of the AR application today ? Why AR today ?

We should not attempt to design AR for AR sake. 

We need to ask do we need location based or in situ information to be displayed in AR ? Or the use of traditional information media eg pdf or video instructions is good enough.

We choose AR when other instructional methods are unable to provide better visualization due to the limitation of that media as follows.

PICTURE ( pdf manual )  ---> MOVING PICTURE ( video ) ---> INTERACTIVE MOVING PICTURE ( eLearning ) ---> I AM INSIDE THE PICTURE ( AR / VR )

The visualization in immersive experience is more than just creating a visual for the eye , it also include spacial-body visualization.

You mean the immersion criteria is important for choosing  AR / VR over other instructional media ?  

Yes. As an example lets examine the 3D in AR that is immersive and compared to 3D viewed on a desktop that is non-immersive.

For 3D you always can have 3D in the desktop where you can interact with the 3D e.g. rotate. Therefore conceptual 3D eg seeing 3D DNA can work in desktop. 

For AR the 3D needs to be site specific or having the size in respect to reality e.g. in IKEA AR app where you can place the new virtual furniture in your room, or some shoe retailers having an AR shoe app for customers see the virtual shoe model on their feet without actually putting the shoe on. In education , you experience an AR of a 3D human body standing in front of you. You can feel the presence and the height in respect your your height other objects heights in the room. 

 I see that the AR application today is a long way from your future vision of AR...