For Brazilian Emmy Winner Boost Virtual Reality Technologies Pandemic – 04/17/2021

The epidemic shook people’s daily lives and prompted many people to rethink the future. Suddenly, the technologies that had proved promising no longer made sense during the lockdowns and mass production had to be made to meet the demand that increased during isolation.

The epidemic shook people’s daily lives and prompted many people to rethink the future. Suddenly, the technologies that had proved promising no longer made sense during the lockdowns and mass production had to be made to meet the demand that increased during isolation.

Clyde Klok is the Los Angeles-based RFI reporter

South by Southwest (SXSW), a collection of festivals in the interactive, film and music industries that has been taking place since 1987, in Austin, Texas, had its first virtual release in March, with events continuing through April 18th.

For the first time, people from all over the world were able to virtually go to Austin theaters, even at very reasonable prices. If tickets previously cost more than $ 1,700 plus travel and accommodation, then this year, with less than $ 200 and the comfort of homes, dozens of conferences, workshops, movie releases, exhibitions, shows, and even parties were accessible.

From her office in her Los Angeles home, production company Fernanda Martins, who received an Emmy Award in 2020 for their “A Linha” experience, followed the event and highlighted the changes Bringing the epidemic to the virtual reality (VR) sector.

With the pandemic, devices like Oculus (from Facebook), used for people with virtual reality experiences, have sped up sales in markets like the US and China, for example.

“Two months before Christmas, in the US, I no longer have Oculus to sell because it was a pandemic style. Everyone started communicating via virtual reality and what they talked about a lot this year was about how to produce volumetric capture. The topic that was discussed a lot was the metavers, which are These are alternate realities that people find themselves in. Minecraft, for example, is a metaverse, ”says Fernanda.

According to Fernanda, the trend is that virtual reality glasses are becoming more and more available, but in Brazil, it may take a few years for prices to drop. The producer is betting that this virtual reality technology will someday replace smartphones. But, for that, they’d still have to change a lot of the format.

Change in focus

Companies making products in virtual reality, after the start of the pandemic, had to put aside the development of rooms and collective interactive experiences used in parallel with the promotion of great Hollywood movies, to invest in the end-consumer at home.

It remains unknown what the return of shared spaces will be like, for rooms that are already in large centers – a type of cinema where people enter using virtual reality devices, to have virtual experiences and participate in different types of stories. The unknown is still when people are willing to stay in locked rooms and share their cups.

Fernanda says that during the event, it was reported that China has already successfully recorded this overall return, mainly due to the fact that the rental price for these rooms has decreased and, therefore, tickets can be sold cheaper.

SXSW itself has proposed several new trials. The virtual environment simulating the streets of Austin, through VRChat, was one of the highlights of 2021 for the Brazilian producer.

With her glasses, she was able to participate in events, parties, concerts, and walk around town. But it was also possible to walk around the human body. ” [experiência] Where it entered the body instead of the corona and it split into people. It’s amazing how you see and have an idea of ​​the proportions, the size of what’s inside the body, where it goes and the speed at which it doubles.

“You can see all of this, it’s very powerful,” he says. Fernanda says the greatest uses of virtual reality, until then, have been in medicine, to train doctors, and in the military sector. But with the pandemic, content has rapidly evolved for entertainment in the home, as people begin to use it to get to know each other and communicate.

One of the challenges, even, is to make Internet conferencing more interactive with the help of virtual reality, which would avoid, for example, transforming the appearance in today’s meetings via applications such as Zoom, Meet, Skype, and others. Others, where, according to research, people end up looking at themselves at the computer, not at the camera or at other people. With virtual reality, in addition to a face-to-face, handshake will be possible.

Empathy machine

Fernanda remembers that virtual reality is known as the “empathy machine” and it can bring about changes in the real world. SXSW provided clear examples of how technology can be used to make people feel like others, but never forget that a good story is needed to create that connection.

The producer cites a painting by artist and film director Gabo Arora, who released the movie “Clouds Over Sidra”, about violence in refugee camps in Syria, which is part of the global movement “VR for Good” (Virtual Reality for Good, in free translation). ). Volunteers from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) took to the streets with virtual reality glasses and shared the film in more than 40 countries.

The response of those who watched it in virtual reality was overwhelming. One in six immersive subjects donated to the program, which is double the normal collection rate. In the lecture by documentary filmmaker Noni de la Peña, who works with immersive journalism, La Peña cited a project stating that 40% of homeless youth in the United States are from the LGBTQI + community rejected by the family.

The journalist brought the virtual reality experience that shows this situation on the streets to a diverse audience. “The most conservative, prejudiced and homophobic people supported the cause because they put themselves in the shoes of these people. So virtual reality as a machine that people feel is a very powerful thing.”

“When you put on your glasses, you are no longer a spectator, you are part of the story. There is no longer that distance between you and that rectangle that we call the screen, which is something that happens in other space and that you are just a spectator. So it is impossible not to establish a relationship with something. Happens, “says Fernanda.

The sky is no longer the limit

Hundreds of other experiments and devices were introduced at the event. Among them, walls, like headphones, block out all outside noise, glasses that make you eliminate objects or people from the visual field, as well as countless devices that allow an individual to have their health checkups at home with the help of custom wristbands. Or toilets.

The producer also noted that entertainment apps have reinvented themselves during the pandemic. “Tiktok has allowed Fleetwood Mac’s success to return after more than 40 years. When no longer restricted by geography, the world of gaming and audiovisual artists allow them to find new space to interact with their fans. Concerts and shows are in progress in gaming environments. Rapper Travis Scott made a show in” Fornite has grown to millions of fans and increased its revenue by 25%, including selling clothes for virtual use on characters, ”he concludes.