Goldsmiths SEE VR Lab will host a 48-hour interdisciplinary hackathon at the School of Computing’s new hub in the Caroline Graveson Building, as part of the Asymmetric Reframed Reality (ARR) research project led by King’s College London.

About the challenge

In this hackathon you will be part of pioneering the new medium of ARR. The challenge you will address is to design and prototype an immersive or spatial experience that gives a real physical interaction a new meaning. The reframing could be from negative to positive perception for one person or a contrast in perceptions of the same interaction for two or more people. You are invited to explore your own approaches to reframing, with example design directions and inspiration provided as starting points for exploring different possibilities. 

We will provide VR headsets and a selection of haptic devices for use during the event.

Get started

We invite you to be part of the first exploration of a new concept in immersive experience – Asymmetric Reframed Reality (ARR). 

ARR draws on the powerful psychological concept of Reframing, which is used in cognitive behavioural therapy. It changes how an experience is interpreted to achieve a different emotional response to the same physical event. An extreme stretch of a body part, for example, might feel like discomfort in one context and an achievement in another. Immersive technologies can change the perceptual scene (most usually using visual displays and haptics), and so can provide a potent means to achieve reframing in real time. However, the dominant immersive technologies of today focus on distancing the user from their actual surroundings, either by completely substituting something else (most VR) or by adding extra content (most AR). 

Our aim is to enable people to cooperate together in a shared activity, yet at least one of them to perceive it totally differently. Specifically, we invite you to explore how to achieve a change in an aversive situation which requires cooperation and participation, for example, undergoing a painful medical procedure, so that it is perceived positively by everyone involved. Importantly, we seek not to simply distract the person with a sufficiently powerful stimulus or scenario, as this takes them away from present reality. Instead, we want to explore ways to remain present, engaged, and able to cooperate in a shared interaction, whilst at the same time completely changing the perceived experience so the emotional response is the opposite of expectations. 

The challenge of ARR is to achieve replacement and congruency at the same time – the immersive world should be different from the real exchange going on, in order to achieve reframing, yet crucially needs to remain precisely aligned with it, so that the subject can continue to participate without loss of presence.

Please make sure you complete the application form below. Your registration will not be considered complete until this form has been submitted:

https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/aPS6e6znap

Registered participants will be invited to an online induction on 22 October. The 48-hour hackathon runs from 14:00 on 4 November to 14:00 on 6 November. Visit our website for the full schedule, registration and more information: https://www.scivr.co.uk/arr-hackathon

• Creativity of reframing interaction design
  The experience must change the meaning or interpretation of a real physical interaction, rather than simply distract from it.
• Originality
  The idea should be novel and present new and surprising ideas.
• Technology
  The technology should play a meaningful and appropriate role in creating and supporting the reframed experience.
• User Accessibility & Immersion Quality
  The experience should be intuitive, engaging, comfortable, and immersive for its intended users.
• Impact
  Potential for real-world application in healthcare or creative field. Design something playful that could make a real impact in real life.