MotionXR

Summary
MotionXR is a speculation on the implications of how we might socialize, mingle, interrupt, produce, and design shared experiences as technologies advance. This platform imagines a future that allows one to enter a virtual scene by synchronizing their body movement with the scene creator.

Team
By Jessica (Jessy) Escobedo, Ruoyong Hong (Eli), Justeen Lee (Zhendong Li)
External Actors:
Joanna Burke (lead), Ian Coleman, Lianne O’Shea, Sarah Blandy, Tim Copacz, Brent Hortz, Jordan McIntyre, Dominic Lee, Jessica Troiani, Alex Bankier

Context

This future will exist when mass adoption of this technology exists; MotionXR imagines and speculates scenarios of cultural assimilation. Extended reality (XR) currently refers to the merging of existing technologies, AR and VR. For the purposes of this project, we’re defining XR as an imagined future that does not exist today, but is based on the trajectory of AR and VR technologies where they require no headsets and body tracking is perfected.

Project Overview

The emergence of AR/VR technologies have demonstrated massive potential of how their applications change the way we live in the future. It’s not hard to imagine there will be no need for tethered VR headsets to see VR contents, no boundary between AR and VR, or detailed full body tracking becomes prevailing assumptions. In addition, even though there are ongoing debates about the difference between AR, VR, and MR, they will all inevitably combine and contribute to XR, extended reality. Then, we ask ourselves to speculate how we share those great virtual experiences in our everyday social interactions, as we progressively transition to that future. Inspired by human movements, we propose MotionXR, a new interaction model and platform based on motion and rhythm for future extended reality.
MotionXR is a speculation on the implications of how we might socialize, mingle, create, interrupt, and coordinate shared experiences with extended reality (AR, VR, MR) in the near future. This platform that allows one to enter someone else’s virtual scene by synchronizing his/her body movements (motion and rhythm) with the scene creator.

In order to sync into a Creator’s virtual world, first, a Creator needs to be within one’s field of view. Then one (Follower) can begin to imitate the Creator’s moves. Once the specific body movements are synchronized, the Creator’s scene will render in real-time in both people’s views. If the Follower stops or fails to replicate the same movement, they are out of sync, and the Follower will exit the creator’s virtual.
In this first iteration, there is no limit to the amount of syncing instances that can occur-- one can sync up until the creator of the scene decides to quit rendering their scene. With Unity3D, 360 video, and motion capture actors, we created functional prototypes to demonstrate how one synchronizes to three different virtual worlds of Creators on a street, and unintentionally synchronize to virtual worlds as a result of a passing crowd’s similar body movements. Also, we made short two films to show two additional implications of this platform: how a Creator may attract a crowd to follow and imitate his/her movements and how this platform may lead a Follower to an unintended destination.