With the creation of our Virtual Reality experience for Multiple Sclerosis patients, we've been on the lookout for immersive 360 videos that folks wanted in the product. But how did we know what MS patients wanted? Simple, we asked. And they replied. So we went to work by crafting the HUB, the room that patients can use to port to and from different experiences.
The first 360 we placed into our experience was from Oceans 360. Oceans 360 is an organization dedicated to bringing the health of our Oceans to the forefront through 360 VR immersion. The organization, directed by Steve Mandel aims to eliminate:
Plastics and other waste from the oceans
Overfishing and marine life sustainability
The effects of global warming on coral reefs and all ocean life
Their work with stunning 360 shots of our oceans has led to our use of their videos in the technical testing phase of our MS project with Swedish.
After the success of Oceans 360 in our trial, we then populated the HUB with experiences that folks asked for.
Ultimately we are creating an experience focused on the Pacific Northwest, meaning that we will not be using the Oceans 360 diving video in our final product; it's still a beautiful video though. Check out a clip from our experience below that features a short clip from Oceans 360 as well as 360 video recorded in the Cascades (WA).
As a reminder, our #VR4MS experience consists of three different types of experiences. The first, relaxation, has a few 360 immersive environments such as the lake in the Cascades experience. There is a spectrum of how tame these experiences can be. Other experiences will have much more movement. An experience similar to the diving footage you see in our tech demo can help to give a user 'VR legs' by allowing them to get used to minor movements in Virtual Reality. The other two types of experiences in our VR for MS project allow for creativity and adventure. We'll have more information on those experiences shortly. For more on our MS project and all things XR, follow our channels below! For more Oceans 360 check out their gallery here!