Virtual Reality technology is technology that immerses you in an entirely digitised space separate from our reality. Predominantly this extends to visual and audio immersion but is in development for full sensory immersion, including touch, smell etc.

Brief History:
Virtual Reality has been around for less than 100 years and as such is still in the key stages of its development. In fact virtual reality as we understand it today, has only been in high level development since 1968, with the release of the first VR head mounted display. Due to development being confined to areas with high funding it is often associated with military practice and gaming, meaning its involvement in the performance industry has been even more recent due to lower funding and the financial cost of VR technology. The potential uses and ideas for VR in performance are at only just beginning to unfold.

Technology:
VR virtual environments can be divided into two groups, headsets and CAVE’s. CAVE’s are room size environments where the visual scape of the immersive world is created using projection or large LCD screens. The Headsets are hardware that are mounted directly to your head and cover your eyes displaying the virtual world through lenses.

Examples of Different types of headsets:

• Meta Quest

• PICO

• HTC Vive

• Playstation VR

As mentioned above these have been predominantly developed for gaming however due to open source software and development packages available it is possible to create your own applications and uses for the headsets.

Limitations:
Cost - one headset will cost at the lower end around £300-£400. When you scale this for the typical theatre audience you would need hundreds of headsets. If you substituted for a CAVE you would have all the equipment to set up the projection/LED environment. Neither option is cheap.

Technology - to develop VR applications you often need a VR compatible PC which is another added cost and may not be accessible.

Knowledge - to develop anything more than a static video you will be looking at adding encoding skills and 3D modelling etc. which is a high level skill set.

Audience - you need to assume a zero knowledge base for audiences, you would have to teach those coming to use the equipment how to use it.

Augmented reality differs from virtual reality in that it combines the virtual and real world together. Virtual elements are overlain to add extra dimension. This can still be incredibly immersive in a headset or it can be through a phone.

Brief History:
AR was in development alongside VR for a long time as they were seen as similar but as definitions for them developed they began to become separate if not similar fields of research. The first few examples of AR technology are in aircraft heads up displays where flight information would be shown on the glass windows so the pilots could read the data without looking away from the flight path.

Technology:
As with VR there are headsets that create augmented reality. Some of the more modern VR headsets have an AR function allowing image pass through of the real world. However AR is accessible on a lot more platforms including mobile phones, and Mojo vision is developing AR contact lenses. Advanced projection mapping is often cited as a form of Augmented reality as well.

Examples of Different AR Devices:

• HoloLens

• Mojo Lens - Contacts

• Magic Leap 1

• Mobile phone applications - Pokémon Go!, Google Maps, etc.

Limitations:
Cost - developing AR outside of a mobile device is very expensive the most affordable AR headsets are around £10,000

Projection Mapping is the art of using projected material on surfaces other than a flat screen to ensure the video fits the shape of what it is being displayed onto. The video is pre mapped by software before being sent to the projector and then displayed.

Brief History:
Projection mapping has been around for a similar length of time as VR/AR. The first use being cited at 1968 at Disneyland animating the faces of busts. As mentioned above it grew out out of the field of augmented reality as in some forms the boundary between projection mapping and AR is blurred. It has scaled up over time from being singular projections to now being a complex infrastructure of multiple projectors working together to create intricate visuals on building, or sculptures of any scale.

Technology:
Obviously the predominant technology used is a projector however the software used to develop the mapping varies. Isadora is a commonly used software that can be used for many different video and audio manipulation purposed including Projection mapping. QLab also has it's own integrated projection mapping software. For particularly complex shaped it's possible to develop models n separate modeling software e.g. Maya before loading it into your preferred projection mapping software.