July 31, 2020 Software Open Access

BreachingVR v2.0.2

Kovács, Artúr Barnabás; McIlvenny, Paul

BreachingVR

This release is a simple working demo in VR of the inverting lenses tutorial exercise by the sociologist Harold Garfinkel. You can now experience the inverting lenses tutorial exercise from the comfort and safety of your own home (in lockdown perhaps). A user wearing a virtual reality headset can vertically invert their visual perception of the physical world around them (via the camera pass-through) or invert their perception of a virtual world in which the user can pick up virtual objects and use virtual tools. Enrol a friend to give you instructions. Very disorientating. Some people may get very sick 🤮 very quickly!

Requirements

An HTC Vive Pro VR headset and controllers installed with SteamVR on a VR-ready laptop with Windows 10.

Download

• Download the release build from GitHub, unzip it to a convenient folder, and run the breachingVR.exe file.
• Use the keyboard to control what you see in the HMD
  • Switch between virtual scene and physical camera with the RETURN key on the keyboard.
  • Flip or revert the image with the SPACE key.
  • Use the left and right ARROW keys to adjust for the camera pass-through images not being aligned.

Notes

• More background on the inverting lenses tutorial exercise can be found on the GitHub repo README and in the BreachingVR journal article in QuiViRR.
• This demo works with the HTC Vive Pro VR headset. It may work with other headsets compatible with SteamVR, but the real world demo is dependent on the external camera feed from the HMD.
• If you have any bug reports or fixes then add an issue and/or pull request.