Reliving moments of our lives may sound like the plot of Netflix’s Black Mirror, but new technology will soon have people stepping into a captured memory.
Wist is developing a smartphone application to record unforgettable moments that will be uploaded to a virtual reality headset, allowing users to interact with their once-lived experiences.
The program captures the 3D information of the footage to transform each shot into an immersive world.
The VR app, called Vivid, is available for iOS as a beta but pairs with a Quest VR headset and allows users to invite friends to join them in their memories.
The VR app converts footage captured with a smartphone and uploads it to a virtual reality headset so you can relive memories
The VR app mirrors the storyline of Black Mirror’s The Entire History of You, in which people access memories via an implant that records everything they see.
With the technology, they can rewind, zoom in, and review scenes from their everyday lives.
Vivid, on the other hand, shows memories you capture on a smartphone.
Wist founder Andrew McHugh said this is possible thanks to sensors and software in modern smartphones with 3D sensing technology.
“Getting the right combination of this new technology allows us to capture: spatial moments in time that you can step back into,” Hughs shared in a Medium post.
“And the right design and engineering makes this as easy as shooting a video. We can make a Pensieve real.”
To relive a memory, users record an experience with the Vivid app, which collects information necessary to turn the 2D footage into a 3D world, reports FreeThink.
The VR app mirrors the storyline of Black Mirror’s The Entire History of You, in which people access memories via an implant that records everything they see
You are transported into the virtual world while still being in your own home. The display shows a play button to activate your reminders
Users can also pause the experience with the press of a button
“During capture, we store color, depth, device position, tone and scene information,” McHugh told Freethink.
“Depth is captured using the LiDAR sensors on the iPhones and iPads on the Pro models.”
The smartphone app can also display the 3D recordings without VR glasses
The app and program are still in early stages showing broken videos and missing parts of the scene.
However, Wist wants to improve the app before it is officially rolled out.
The concept was also created by a developer who recreated his experiences recorded with Snapchat Spectacles.
Lucas Rizzotto wore the glasses for a year, filming his daily work every day and using the footage to create a VR “time machine” that allows him to relive any experience he wants from 2019.
Rizzotto used Snapchat Spectacles 3 glasses with two cameras built into the frame that can record video in stereoscopic 3D.
He created a video detailing the construction process of the VR “time machine”.
Equipped with an Oculus Rift S t VR time machine and clad in a Nintendo Power Glove for visual effect only, Rizzotto recorded his first time warp to be shown on a giant screen for viewers to watch.
“I’m in a tree eating a bagel,” Rizzotto said, laughing that this was his first moment back in time.
“Watching yourself living your life as an outsider is really affecting,” Rizzotto explained in the video.
“You get a glimpse of who you are that you just can’t get any other way. I learned a lot of things about myself just by watching it and the project as a whole made me realize that as a person I’m often very hard and mean to myself. The guy I was watching was just…doing his best.”