In June this year, Yantai, Shandong launched a 5G+8K ultra-high-definition video application landing experiment. Sharp and Yantai Mobile jointly used 5G+8K technology to transmit the beautiful scenery of Yantai seaside to the tasting site, bringing immersive experience to the audience.
The following month, the Fujian Provincial Radio, Film and Television Bureau organized an immersive high-tech video industry alliance exchange meeting. The meeting agreed to set up an immersive high-tech video industry alliance to create industry models and provide industry digital audio and video solutions based on application scenarios.
What exactly is immersive video that is advancing so much?
Immersive Video Concept
In September 2020, the Science and Technology Department of the State Administration of Radio and Television officially released the "5G High-tech Video - Immersive Video Technology White Paper 2020 Edition" to clearly define immersive video!
Immersive video refers to a video system and an audio system with three-dimensional sound that use naked-eye viewing to obtain an immersive experience and present a picture covering at least a 120° (horizontal) × 70° (vertical) field of view. Through video, audio and special effects systems, immersive video builds an audio-visual environment with a large viewing angle, high image quality, three-dimensional sound characteristics, a sense of picture enveloping and immersive sound subjective experience, so that the audience can get the surrounding information at the same time. The azimuth audiovisual information allows the audience to experience a high degree of immersion that cannot be achieved by a single plane video. The presentation forms include but are not limited to special-shaped display spaces such as dome screen, ring screen, and immersive house CAVE.
Ways to watch immersive videos
A truly immersive video has high requirements on the video viewing environment, especially the screen! A spherical, curved screen or immersion house is required to wrap the picture to the human eye. According to the visual characteristics of the human eye, when the image can cover more of the human field of vision, the horizontal field of view of the picture in the human eye is greater than 120°, and the vertical field of view is greater than 70°, which can make people feel a kind of immersive experience in immersive effect of the environment.
The first immersive video dome in Europe, which opened in July this year, is a domed immersion house that allows audiences to watch live sports, cultural events such as dance and music, and nature films in a video screen that completely surrounds them. The technology in the dome covers the entire surface of the dome with just two projectors, creating a seamless shared virtual reality experience.
Immersive video and interactive video, VR video
Some media often use interactive videos and immersive videos nested, and adding interactive plots on the basis of immersive videos can deepen the user's experience.
For example, in June this year, Hualong.com launched an immersive interactive video work "Party Member, Please Choose!" ". The work is based on the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech, and the "hidden" stories of the revolutionary ancestors on the hidden front as the line. Through high-frequency interaction and immersive experience, users can truly experience the revolutionary years and pay tribute to the centenary of the founding of the party.
In addition, VR video is often "mixed and matched" with immersive video!
VR video needs to wear VR glasses when watching, and its look and feel can also be called immersive.
For example, during the military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the low-latency, high-speed 5G network covered Tiananmen Square and both sides of Chang'an Avenue, and many media chose VR panoramic camera equipment for VR live broadcast. The Xinhua News Agency client has built a VR live broadcast matrix. Relying on VR+5G+8K, 12 cameras were used to transmit the unprecedented scale of the feast in real time in VR, providing the director to switch the viewing angle and freely choose different cameras for tens of millions of people to watch online. audience to create an immersive sense of presence.
It is mentioned in the "5G High-tech Video-VR Video Technology White Paper (2020)":
Through dynamic environment modeling, real-time 3D graphics generation, stereoscopic display viewing, real-time interaction and other technologies, VR generates a 3D simulation environment that simulates reality, and can construct highly subjective and realistic human sensory experience in terms of vision and hearing. The user interacts, influences and immerses the objects in the virtual scene with the help of the interactive device, and obtains the feeling and experience equivalent to visiting the objective and real environment in person.
In general, the three video types mentioned in the current 5G high-tech video, interactive video, immersive video and VR video are interconnected in the application process, and all three videos can achieve an immersive experience.
Immersive Video Applications
So, from the current point of view, where can immersive video be applied?
Entertainment
In the "Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Digital Cultural Industry" issued by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2020, it is mentioned:
Guide and support the application of technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, 5G+4K/8K ultra-high definition, and drones in the cultural field, develop products such as holographic interactive projection, drone performances, and nighttime light and shadow shows, and promote existing cultural content to immerse content migration and transformation to enrich virtual experience content. Support cultural relics units, scenic spots, theme parks, park blocks, etc. to develop immersive experience projects with cultural resources, and carry out services such as digital exhibition halls and virtual scenic spots. Promote the integration of immersive business formats with urban public spaces and characteristic towns. Develop immersive tourism performances and immersive entertainment experience products to improve the digital level of tourism performances and offline entertainment. Develop the digital art display industry, promote the application and innovation of digital art in key fields and scenarios, and better inherit the spirit of Chinese aesthetics.
The application of immersive video in cultural tourism mainly focuses on immersive amusement parks and immersive performances.
Immersive Amusement Park
The earliest immersive amusement park concept came from Disney, and in 2014, an immersive experience called "Phantom Forest" was made. The project applies the lasers, lights and projections of multimedia art to "supernaturalize" the real landscape, integrate local legends into the tour and play, and turn the visit into a game.
In addition, there are immersive restaurants and immersive theaters.
Immersive restaurant
The immersive restaurant uses multiple VR virtual devices and 3D videos to project on the wall, so that various virtual pictures can be accurately placed in the customer's dining environment through VR technology, so as to achieve multi-angle and multi-dimensional images. articulation, and most of the commonly used content are landscapes, plants and animals.
Immersive Cinema
Immersive cinema can also be called immersive projection. It is a mature and highly immersive virtual reality system. It organically combines high-resolution stereoscopic projection technology, 3D computer graphics technology and sound technology to produce a The fully immersive virtual environment increases the immersion of watching movies.
Art
In recent years, immersive art exhibitions have become a hot topic in the art circle and attracted a large number of audiences with their fresh and interesting art forms.
The meaning of immersive art comes from Immersion, which was first used in the field of drama. It is a new exhibition mode integrating brilliant lighting, psychedelic music, performance performance, pioneering experiment, 3D film, and scent installation.
Educate
Under the wave of educational informatization and educational intelligence, the immersive teaching model has gradually attracted the attention of the educational community. For example, the "Cognitive Immersion Room" jointly developed by IBM Research and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute allows students to be in virtual scenes such as restaurants, shopping malls, and gardens in China, and practice Chinese conversations with AI robots, which greatly improves students' proficiency. Learning interest and concentration, the learning effect is multiplied with half the effort.
The innovative application of immersive video teaching in the education and training industry in China has achieved fruitful results. In the kindergarten stage, AR+ somatosensory interactive technology can provide children with fun-filled gamification teaching, such as: simulation practice of living habits, cognition and exploration of scientific and natural knowledge.
In the primary school stage, AR technology can provide primary school students with a simulated scene learning experience, such as the reproduction of historical scenes and the experience of dangerous safety scenes.
In the middle school stage, AR+VR technology can provide virtual experiments for middle school students, such as: chemical experiments, physics experiments and biological experiments.
Game
With the development of game technology and the improvement of players' needs, the future game will move towards an immersive experience, that is, the integration of human and landscape.
Players realize virtual reality and augmented reality experiences through external devices, as if they are integrated into the real game world, and can also obtain corresponding physical perception.
And VR games are very interactive and immersive, and its body recognition and action recognition can greatly increase the fun of the entire game. We can watch an NBA game or a World Cup football game through VR live broadcast and VR glasses. This kind of virtual reality makes people feel immersive.
Epilogue
Estimated data of the global video cloud traffic market in 2019. From 2017 to 2022, the overall video traffic and CDN market growth is very optimistic. By 2022, the traffic of the entire video CDN may have reached the order of magnitude of 252EB. Among them, the proportion of video has increased year by year to 2021. It is expected that the proportion of the entire video will exceed 80%. With the birth of 5G and the development of ultra-high-definition video and low-latency video, the immersive video business will usher in a major outbreak period and become the main force of video development.
In the "5G High-tech Video - Immersive Video Technology White Paper (2020)", it is mentioned that immersive video and other applications of high-tech video, such as VR video, have certain technical commonality... and at the application level VR video, interactive Video and immersive video can also complement each other. If the immersive video service will become the main force of video development, then 5G high-tech video will also replace the traditional video playback mode and become the mainstream of the future video industry!
Post time: Apr-06-2022