Toward More Believable VR by Smooth Transition Between Real and Virtual Environments via Omnidirectional Video

In conventional virtual reality systems, users usually do not perceive and recognize the experience as reality. For example, users of a virtual disaster simulator know, consciously or unconsciously, that the presented disaster is not real, which inherently limits the training effect. To make the virtual experience more believable, we propose a novel real-virtual transiton technique that preserves the sense of “conviction about reality” in a virtual environment. This is realized by spatio-temporal smooth transition from the real environment to the virtual environment with omnidirectional video captured in advance at the user's position. Our technique requires less preparation cost and presents a more believable experience compared to existing transition techniques using a handmade 3D replica of the real environment. In this article, reported are the concept of our technique, a prototype system and a preliminary user study that has shown the effectiveness of the technique.