Google’s Daydream player
When we first got Google’s virtual reality headset at my house, called the Google Daydream, I can’t say I was too excited. But then I tried it. I downloaded BBC’s The Turning Forest, grabbed the controller, and put on the headset. A man who sounded vaguely like Martin Freeman narrated a fairytale-like story that took place in a beautiful digital forest. The short tale is complete with a fantastical beast, an interactive forest, and all tied together with an entertaining plot. It got me thinking: what’s traditional book publishing going to do with this technology, if anything?
Ever since Facebook bought virtual reality and tech company Oculus for a staggering $2 billion in 2014, virtual reality, or VR, has remained at the forefront for tech nerds, engineers, and investors. The key word here is investors. $1.2 billion was invested in VR in Q1 of 2016 alone.
Before we move on, a quick background on this technology.
- Oculus announced their plans for Rift, their VR headset in 2012.
- Google Cardboard, a VR viewer literally made of cardboard, was released in 2014 and is still available from the Google Store for $15. It works with virtually any smartphone.
- Giroptic, the first VR camera, received full funding on Kickstarter on July of 2014. Consumers can now order this camera directly from their website.
- YouTube (a Google-owned entity) launched 360 degree videos on their site in March of 2015. (Users do not need a VR headset to enjoy these videos.)
- In November 2015, The New York Times sent 1.2 million Google Cardboard devices to their subscribers to promote their own VR channel.
- Rift was released it in May of 2016 with an introductory price of $599.
- Google’s Daydream VR viewer was released last November for $79. It requires certain Android phones to work.
This timeline shows that VR accessibility is ramping up. While some VR viewers – like the Rift – carry a hefty price tag, the Google Cardboard can either be made at home or purchased for $15 with no shipping directly from the Google store. Beyond the viewer, all any user needs is a smartphone. That means content creators have work to do. In an interview with Engadget, co-founder of the aptly named Virtual Reality Company Robert Stromberg talked about the participatory aspect of storytelling in VR content: “It’s kind of a hybrid – a cross between observer and a participant.” One of Stromberg’s first major projects was in connection with book-turned-film The Martian. Stromberg feels as though there’s a place for longform narrative in VR settings. “The Martian started out as a 12-minute experience, which ended up being 20 to 28 minutes depending on what you did with the interactive component. What we realized is that people didn’t have a problem in an environment for that long.” Interesting that he brings up in an environment since, after all, any VR experience is going to be a solitary one. No matter how interactive it is, it’s something the user does alone.
Here is where I see some of the unique overlap of VR and book publishing, because what else is a uniquely solitary form of entertainment? Reading a book. Last fall, Dan Berkowitz wrote for Digital Book World how filmmakers are drawn to VR but realize “the hurdles and the possibilities in how they are able to create and tell stories…movie-going tends to be a communal experience, whereas watching a film on a VR headset is a singular experience.” Berkowitz goes on to surmise that perhaps readers are the exact type of person to best enjoy VR as they’re both solo entertainment experiences.
Another piece of the VR and publishing puzzle is determining where the writers fit in to this new technology. In Robert Stromberg’s previously mentioned interview he said “VR is a cross-pollination between what you might consider a live performance and cinematic storytelling….We’re ready to tell stories, but how do you do that in VR?” Well, as writer Helen Klein Ross wrote for LitHub last October, her suggestion for getting good content is to hire some writers: “Without storytellers, the medium of film might have fizzled out as its naysayers predicted, a wild ride that audiences would only take once. If VR is to move beyond shrieks and sweaty palms, storytellers must play an integral role in its development.” Ross posited that writers are the perfect folks to take up the mantle for write for VR programming: “The Author’s Guild cites a 30 percent decrease in annual income for authors since 2000…Could VR be the equivalent of a modern WPA project, putting writers back to paid work?” There’s many reasons why this could and should work from Ross’ point of view, and a lot of that simply has to do with how VR is different from film. “Much of what works in film doesn’t translate to VR. Filmmakers spent decades creating visual vocabulary audiences would understand…But cuts, pans, and zooms are too jolting in VR, at least for now. Most VR storytelling tools haven’t yet been discovered.” It seems VR is in dire need of more writers who aren’t from film backgrounds to ensure effective storytelling in this new platform
So how is the publishing industry already combining physical books and VR? Don Leper from Bookmobile found three different ways that the industry is using VR technology to tie into traditional publishing. The results: a Disney coloring book and VR app combo that brings the child’s colored-in design to life; a computer application that works in conjunction with The Guinness Book of World Records that allows readers to see how they stack up against the tallest man in the world, among other records; and lastly a book called Between Page and Screen that requires a corresponding VR app to actually read. But outside of commercial publishing, there’s another way that VR makes a lot of sense, as Leper points out: textbooks. “Bosch, a major auto parts manufacturer has used VR to train service techs to install and service its products: for complex physical objects, VR provides learning prospects unavailable in 2D media,” Leper notes. Here the VR experience can combine the benefits of a textbook and a 3D model.
There is also an existing VR experience for reading called the Chimera Reader. It’s simple. Any epub files on the user’s digital device (most likely a phone) will automatically be added to Chimera’s library where users can read the books in – you guessed it – a VR library. Readers can settle themselves in a room by the sea, an old library, a university-esque library, and so on. This sounds nice, but what’s wrong with someone’s own personal library? Chimera Reader sees their VR app as a place for readers to really focus: “We see the Gear VR as a doorway into a private realm, where users can go to really focus on the content at hand – in this case, books.” Could a virtual world cut off from other digital distractions promote reading? Chimera Reader seems to hope so.
This isn’t the only augmented reality reading experience out there. Peter Brantley, Director Online Strategy at UC Davis, covered the rise of VR opportunities at last year’s London Book Fair for Publishers Weekly. Several different digital initiatives were showcased at last year’s London Book Fair including Oolipo and Editions at Play, which is made by Google. Oolipo is a smartphone app that creates immersive stories with text messages, voicemails, and Instagram posts right within the app that help tell the story. Oolipo isn’t virtual reality, but their immersive and interactive storytelling inches closer to VR than most traditional storytelling. Similarly, Editions at Play is home to experimental digital books best viewed on your phone. They offer a book that loses its memory, one that travels the world, and so on. They also encourage readers to submit their ideas for books to the site. Brantley admitted that there are obstacles for publishers to make their entree into VR publishing, but reminds readers that trying to avoid obstacles was one of the main reasons Kindle was able to take the industry by storm in 2007. He reasons that since there are preexisting technologies to support augmented reality books – like the ubiquitous smartphone or the aforementioned and cheap Google Cardboard – production departments should be able to experiment with augmented or virtual reality technologies.
There’s no clear path of how publishing could or should take advantage of VR technologies, but there are certainly a lot of opportunities to be considered. Whether it’s an increase of what’s already out there – augmented reality reading apps like Oolipo or paper books with VR components – or simply getting talented authors to lend their talents to writing stories for VR content, it seems like something for publishing to keep an eye on this year.
