From Virtual Reality to Metaverse

Historically, 360° visual immersion in an artificial environment has long been a human desire and a technological challenge. The Lumière brothers' Photorama, created in 1900, offered complete 360° photographic reproduction on a cylindrical screen surrounding the spectators. An artificial experience, such as a boat trip from Marseille to Constantinople, was also realized around 1900 with Hugo Alesi's Maréorama: passengers were on a real boat, resting on a mobile platform that created a rolling and pitching motion. . They observed arrivals at different ports on large scrolling paintings. Since the early 1990s, virtual and augmented reality techniques have been developed for professional use (B to B (Business to Business) market, commercial activities between two companies) in France and worldwide. Over the last fifteen years or so, they have come into everyday use, mainly in the industrial, healthcare and vocational training sectors, although not all companies have embraced them.

Parallel to this was the development of video games, starting with the evolution from 2D to 3D games around 1985. As early as 1995, video game companies such as Nintendo and Sega were keen to exploit virtual reality by offering visiocasques (immersive headsets), such as Nintendo's Virtual Boy. But this was a commercial failure, as the small screens of the time didn't have sufficient pixel density. It wasn't until the huge smartphone market, generating low-cost screens with fairly high pixel density, that companies such as Oculus and HTC Valve were able to offer visiocasques in 2015 with partially satisfactory resolution and at a relatively affordable price (B to C (Business to Consumer) market, commercial activities between a company and a private individual).

This technological evolution, aimed at the general public, has opened up new uses and, indirectly, prompted all companies to, at the very least, think about the uses of virtual reality ("VR", initials of Virtual Reality) and augmented reality ("AR", initials of Augmented Reality). A new artistic sector has emerged: "interactive cinematographic works" (or "VR films") where the user can act in the artificial environment. To put it simply, it's no longer a question of "telling a story" as in cinema, but of "bringing a story to life", with the user as an extra, an extra, a secondary character or the main character. 360° video is a special case of immersing the user in a real environment filmed and observed with a visiocasque. In this case, the user remains a spectator, but is physically immersed in the film scene. Again thanks to the...