Maze of Labyrinthine Sensation
<Meijo University Faculty of Science and Technology Department of Information Engineering>

This project provides the player with the experience of bifurcation of one’s consciousness is presented using a nested structure in VR. Participants enter a maze board they hold in their hands and navigate the maze by tilting it. This nested structure of entering the maze board they control leads to a division of consciousness for the participants. There are two coexisting consciousnesses: one overseeing the tilting of the maze board and the other experiencing the maze from a first-person perspective. Both coexisting consciousnesses are oneself, each existing within one’s own mind, offering a novel conscious experience.

テレビの向こう側へ 
<The Graduate School of Information Science of Osaka University>

Do you think that television is something to be watched? In a time when people are becoming less and less interested in television, this project offers a new experience called “Interference with Television”. In this experience that interferes with the other side of the TV, visual and auditory information is presented by HMD, and a TV-type device provides sensory perception beyond the screen and tactile presentation in accordance with the images. The device will be used to nurture dead flowers. We hope that you will make full use of the water and sunlight on the screen to bring the flowers back to life. This project proposes further possibilities for the ever-evolving visual media, and the experience of being able to touch the world beyond the TV screen on the spot will provide new sensations to those who experience it.

お前は今から鵜だ ～長良川鵜飼での鮎まるのみ体験～
<Gifu University Faculty of Engineering, The Department of Electrical, Electronics and Computer Engineering>

In this project, visitors become cormorants in cormorant fishing, and are offered the experience of swallowing a sweetfish. The ayu fish is taken by moving the body as if bowing, and at the same time the device in the beak vibrates to reproduce the sensation of the ayu fish going berserk in the mouth. The device attached to the neck operates simultaneously with the animation of swallowing a sweetfish to simulate the sensation of swallowing a sweetfish.

RadiantVR: Immersive Heat Experience
<Department of Design, Graduate School of Design, Kyushu University>

In this project, we will provide an experience of feeling heat sources such as fire in the VR space as actual warmth and heat. The warmth and heat of radiant heat is realized by synchronizing the direction of the heat source in the virtual space with the direction of radiant heat from the lighting in the real space. Since the system uses light bulb illumination, the direction and movement of the heat source can be felt more naturally and over a wider area of the body than with existing methods using Pelsier elements. For safety reasons, we do not recommend this experience for elementary school students and younger.

VRボウリングローリング  

<The Graduate School of Information Science of Osaka University>

Have you ever thought about wanting to move a bowling ball that deviated from its intended path? In this project, we provide an experience where you can enter the bowling ball in a VR space and move it from the inside. Participants can sit in a chair and use their feet and hands to give the ball any desired direction and speed. Through visual feedback via an HMD (Head-Mounted Display), they will feel like they are moving the ball themselves. The participant will experience an illusion of their own movement caused by the rotation of camouflage patterns on the ball’s surface. Furthermore, by aligning the vector of the ball’s linear motion towards the pins with the vection of the ball’s rotational motion, we emphasize the sensation of being inside the ball.

Multithreader

<Tokyo Institute of Technology School of Engineering Department of Information and Communications Engineering>

In this project, it is possible to physically experience multi-threaded parallel processing within the human body. In the experience, participants engage in a game where they perform mental calculations while simultaneously pressing buttons according to separate instructions with their right and left hands. While participants understand the instructions, it is challenging to press the correct button at the same time as concentrating on the mental calculation. To address this challenge, a device takes over the button-pressing process and generates the sensation that the correct button is pressed as expected by providing tactile feedback to the fingertips and auditory stimulation, among other methods, thereby creating a feeling of “having pressed the correct button by oneself (sense of agency).” In consequence, a sensation of concurrently processing the three tasks occurs. Furthermore, the dispersion of consciousness across these three tasks contributes to the generation of the sense of agency. This project is expected to psychologically extend human perception and assumptions regarding multitasking. Now, let’s experience the sensation of computer processing by your body!

The Legend of Holy Sword – Proof of Concentration –
 <Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo>

This project examines more natural and effective concentration feedback only possible in VR through the experience of pulling out the holy sword buried in an altar by increasing concentration. Concentration is estimated based on the person’s biometric information such as brain wave and gaze. We believe that by presenting concentration in a multimodal way as visual feedback through the HMD, auditory feedback through the headphones, and force feedback through the traction of the motor and the vibration, the experiencers can naturally perceive their own concentration.

Drop Liquid

<Department of Integrated Information Technology, College of Science and Engineering, Aoyama Gakuin University>

This project offers users the experience of “liquid dripping on the face” without utilizing any actual liquid. When the device is worn with closed eyes, participants can feel as though “tears are streaming down” or as if they are “caught in the rain”. We postulated that the sensation of tears flowing from the eyes to the cheeks could be emulated by “dragging” a solid object along the same path. Our experiments verified that the feeling of touching a steel ball on a string closely mirrors that of liquid flow, leading us to propose an experience capitalizing on this similarity. Furthermore, as the project steers clear of using real liquids, there’s no mess or residue like real tears or rain to clean up afterward.

Megalo-me： 音を聴くための巨大な生命体

<Keio University Faculty of Environment and Information Studies>

This work is an experience in which the visitor inserts his/her head, hands, and feet into a beaded cushion that resembles a giant life form and contains a vibrating speaker and Peltier element, and as he/she gradually becomes one with the cushion, he/she becomes aware of changes in the sounds he/she hears and the scenes he/she recalls. During the experience, the vibration through the beads blurs the contours of the body and synchronizes the heartbeat with the giant life form, allowing the person to become one with the giant life form and immerse themselves in the sound space as something large and not themselves. The experience and knowledge recalled by feeling connected to a life other than one’s own body aims to virtually connect with the memory of the unknown.

From Laval Virtual

The Unclaimed Masterpiece

<ARTS ET MÉTIERS INSTITUT DE LAVAL>

Dear visitor,
This special mission has been assigned to you.
Take back what was once yours, enter the manor and steal the right painting.
You will have to face off the manor’s butler: Alfred. Careful, he is controlled by the ChatGPT 3.5 language model. He has the ability to lie, and will try to mislead you. The paintings you will see are all AI generated, find the one that seems right with the clues you will get from your conversation with Alfred.
The Manor is full of surprises, explore our Victorian Manor and have a chat with the AI butler !
Our app works in 7 different languages, come and try it !

From Metaverse Division