It’s September once again and that means bizarre British weather and another round of Trainee Research Technologists embarking on a two year training programme at BBC R&D. As an introductory project, this year’s trainees were challenged to combine an HTC Vive, a Virtual Reality (VR) system, with BBC Redux, an electronic archive of broadcast BBC programmes.
With some cutting-edge VR equipment, access to petabytes of video, and a two week deadline the trainees were let loose to see what new ways of exploring BBC content they would come up with. The demonstration they put together, and fittingly coined VRchive, was an impressive mix of different technologies that not only showed the trainees' abilities but also hinted at their diverse backgrounds.
Upon entering the exciting world of VRchive, users wearing an HTC Vive headset find themselves transported into an abstract world, standing on a platform, surrounded by over ten thousand colourful cubes representing programmes. Based on associated metadata, the programmes are clustered by actors and directors, and stacked chronologically, in order of first broadcast. Background music is generated in real-time to reflect nearby programmes’ mood; how funny or serious, and fast- or slow-paced they are. Using the Vive's handheld controllers, users can navigate through the cloud of cubes which, when touched, turn to reveal more detailed programme information. Other interaction features include audio cues, and cubes exploding into colourful particles. The users can press the trigger on the controller to select a programme to watch, teleporting them into a viewing room. Video playback and room lighting can be manipulated using the controllers. This project was the first time any of the trainees had worked with either 3D graphics or VR and they have learned a lot about the technologies and tools involved.
Given the extremely short time scale and the impressive outcome, we can only guess what amazing technology the seven will help develop once they are assigned to real R&D projects.
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Profiles of our intake of trainees and graduates from in 2017 | in 2016
Our graduates on their experience at BBC R&D One Year On - in 2017
See what our trainees did for their introduction to BBC R&D in 2016 | in 2013
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