3D, desensitization, and new expectations

The new 3D graphic technology allows you to experience more sensation compared to 2D movies. With the depth perception, you get a sense of presence and recognize more details in the "environment". Moreover as this technology is relatively new, it makes you cheer for its inventor, while you are enjoying the adrenaline rush... for a little while. Then it blends into the movie, becomes part of it. What you are left with though, is an overall heightened threshold for a new set of sensations (we also call that arousal, but usually to refer to violence in media effects studies)

The more you get sensation from media, the more you get desensitized overall. Conventional thrilling techniques become limited as you are now introduced to different sets of feelings with 3D: Those you can not experience even in real life. (I am pretty sure that you would not ever see a nail flying towards you in glowing colors/slow motion in real life. Even if you did so, you would not think "cool!" but something else). You get this weird luxury of enjoying a made-believe danger.

The audiences' increased expectation of heightened sensation will have implications on the future of the media technologies. It will be like Disneyland in the neighborhood movie theater. Today the "soaring ride" in Disneyland is an amazing experience. You do not have the 3D glasses, though. You only feel, see and smell. Tomorrow, we will be seeking the "all in one" experience any time we go to a movie.

I am looking forward to witnessing where the next available technology will take us.

Movies in 3-D

Ever since I got out of the 2D version of the movie Final Destination 3D tonight, I have been thinking about the 3D technology in movies.

I have to see it again in 3D! I will do that tomorrow. But before I do, I would like to brainstorm a little bit.

Obviously, the movie was made for integrating the 3D technology. The images that the main character was "seeing" were designed so that something (sharp) was flying towards your face almost constantly. (There was even a reference to watching a 3D movie in the movie!)

Technologies that become available and popular can encourage the movie industry to change the ways they write the scripts, edit the movie or integrate the visual effects.

What would a 3D movie do to you? And mind you there are a bunch of them out there. It surely would heighten the senses. In Dreamworks' Monsters vs. Aliens, or Disney/Pixar's Up, it is to give you more excitement and joy. The colors look brighter, and the audience feels almost right in the room. I wonder whether in a horror/thriller movie like Final Destination, 3D takes the fear and disgust to the extreme, or would these 3D effects work as an excitement in itself. Does it matter if it is a sharp hook or a funny bug flying onto your face in terms of creating excitement? I am thinking, if I am watching an intensely violent and horrifying scene, a 3D effect would not only intensify the story, but also have an additional effect; an effect of its own.

It does not make much sense to experiment on oneself, but I have to see the movie in 3D tomorrow and identify what I felt...

Capturing the game screen

I am trying to figure out a way to capture the players' game screen for my dissertation. The traditional method is to have them play the game and locate a video camera over their shoulders. However, this is not the most ideal, since the presence of the camera might affect their playing and the quality of the screen recording will not be as high.

I came across with an article on a usability testing program called VULab. It looks very neat, where you create a pre test, allow people to play with a website and give them a post-test. Unfortunately, when I have created a demo experiment, it did not save the screen for me :(

A friend of mine recommended me Adobe Captivate 4. Just like creating a demo, I can make the gamers record their game with that program.

Still searching for the best way to capture their game screens...

Using GPS-phones in tracking behavioral patterns

Indiana University is running series of studies with GPS enabled cell phones. In the project Space-Time Analysis of Adolescent Health-Risk Behaviors the researchers have used cell phones to track adolescents. There is also a link to their article.

The idea can be applied to tracking young people in their homes to see where they spend most of their time in the house, consuming media. It would give more controlled data on how much time they spend in their rooms or in the living room. In case each family member was tracked, we could tell how much time the members spend alone and together with the media.

Unfortunately, the GPS units are not that precise yet. They work better outdoors. But with the way technology is improving, it should not be too far away.