Five senses theater: A multisensory display for the bodily ultra-reality

Abstract

The present paper describes a multisensory virtual reality (VR) system built for the exploration of the bodily ultra-reality. First, we introduce a new term ‘ultra-reality’ which was advocated by a government committee to explore future media technology in Japan. The ultra-reality has been recognized from both the aspects of the super-reality and the meta-reality. The author proposed a hypothesis that the ultra-reality has its base on the VR (the second reality), and it is embodied as rational and emotional entity built on pieces of rendered reality. The ultra-reality is the third reality grasped at the cognitive level rather than perception level. The author placed the forth reality hypothesis where the self-body is virtualized by projecting information backward from the body input to the brain. The dynamic virtual body illusion is the objective of the research to create in which the self-body makes a part of VR media to duplicate experience of other person. We consider that multisensory presentation plays a principal role for this bodily ultra-reality. To provide a framework for realization of the ultra-reality, we introduced exhibit prototypes of the multisensory presentation system. The five senses theater system, the FiveStar, provides multisensory stimulations to the user for the creation of ultra-realistic experiences. The contents of the exhibits were the mixed reality bodily experience, the interaction with CG creature, and the virtual first-person trip to the tourist sites. The multisensory display devices that were used to create the bodily ultra-reality were described to show the method and characteristics of this hypothesis.