Dynamic VR Auditory Awareness

The HTC Vive was arguably the leading VR platform in 2017, most notably due to their innovative ability for room scale interaction within a virtual space. This novel experience came with a risk though: the inability to perceive the physical space you are in. The Vive implemented a functionality called Chaperone boundaries, which displays visual bounding walls and activates a passthrough camera in your virtual world when you reach the edge of your predefined space. Leveraging Harman's JBL Everest Elite headphones and their Ambient Aware functionality, I created an experience prototype which augments the chaperone functionality even further to allow the real auditory world around you to fade in along with the visual. This addition of modifying the user's auditory world along with their visual world allows for a much more holistic blending of the real and virtual environments.

This experience was shown at IFA, SF TechCrunch Disrupt, CES, and many other tech shows, in addition to receiving a writeup by Engadget.

A simple yet compelling experience.