Real World Third-Person with Multiple Point-of-Views for Immersive Mixed Reality

Abstract

Technologies of Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) are increasingly applied in urban construction and smart cities. As one of the high fidelity revivification methods, the purpose of these applications is to provide a better immerse experience over the combination of realistic and virtual interactions. Numerous methods and models are adopted to simulate real life scenarios. Regularly, first-person perspective (1PP) is a spontaneous way to revive reality virtually, and this is also what most manufacturers do. In a different way, we tend to verify the feasibility of a new perspective for VR, AR or MR: a third-person perspective (3PP) with multiple Point of View (PoV) from different fixed cameras. We implemented an immersive AR environment for users to control or view themselves in a third person perspective. They are able to switch among different perspectives in different angles, including a first-person view. We developed a simple game based on this environment and conducted user study with this implementation. The result shows that people will generally be intrigued and willing to pay for a new MR experience (like 3PP) if the process is effortless and pleasurable. The most welcomed thing is the ability to switch perspectives during a VR or AR experience. This environment can be extended to real world services such as interviewing, dating and picnic, etc. or future smart cities services that use VR and AR, such as VR traffic management, VR communities empathetic planning and AR navigation, etc.