Can Tv/Movie tastes be a possible indicator for viewer’s gaze while watching Vr pieces, and how can this passive viewing be turned into interaction?

Jon Poulter
Class: Intermediate Game Studies: Critical Making - Fall of 2018
Instructor:

This was a research project conducted for my Intermediate Game Studies course.

After showing friends and family a plethora of VR content, I witnessed dichotomous viewing trends among them when watching passive narrative content. I was fascinated and curious to see how this variability in viewing could be proved, categorized and possibly used as a form of passive interaction in future VR projects.

I wanted to see if we can use viewers’ agent choice of frame in the 360 view to incite non-linear narrative experiences unique to their viewing behavior. This proposed concept is purely a passive form of interaction, viewers aren’t aware their gaze has an impact and it doesn’t impede/inhibit narrative progression through pauses like Quick Time Events that require input. In VR there is always input, viewers are always choosing where to look. So why not use this to invoke narrative branches? I call this Responsive Cinema.

Feel free to read my full report here. Any and all feedback is welcome.