Virtual Reality Out of Body Experience

Background

This project was the result of a tangent conversation in MI 291: Understanding Virtual Reality Experiences. We were discussing virtual reality (VR) out of body experiences and I thought it would be fun to try that experience myself.

My goal was to walk around Michigan State University's campus looking at myself in a third person perspective, like in video games such as Fortnite.

How I Did This: Persistence!

After searching online for a premade version of this experience, I did not find anything readily available. At this point I began thinking about what I needed to make this a reality. I spent weeks watching YouTube videos to figure out how to develop the VR environment. This video from Theta 360 Developers was helpful to me.

What I Needed To Acquire

Once the programming side of things was ready for an initial test, I began thinking about the hardware side of this project. I bought a 360 degree camera to project a 360 view of the world into a 3D digital sphere that I would be inside of in VR. Then I needed a safe way to attach the camera to myself. I bought a compatible selfie stick and waist strap for the camera.

What Went Wrong

After a few weeks of troubleshooting I realized that the VR headset I was using, a Meta Quest 2, was incompatible with a driver I needed to livestream video from my 360 camera into the headset.

The Solution: Reevaluation!

Due to the 360 camera driver issue, I decided to create a proof of concept before working on my original goal. I chose to utilize a PC VR setup instead of standalone VR because in the short term it worked!

Results

I was able to successfully demonstrate my proof of concept at a lab party held during the 2022 International Conference On Meaningful Play at Michigan State University.

Future Work

I continue to strive toward my goal of walking around outside looking at myself from a third person perspective without using PC VR. To be continued! 😀