The 2024 Annual Conference on Immersive Technology and Sci-Fi LBE Space Development is about to be held, and the collection of demonstration cases for the new business format of the immersive sci-fi technology space has been initiated.
With the continuous development of technology, technologies such as VR, AR, and AI have changed the way people interact with the digital world.
The development and application of these technologies have provided a more immersive experience for entertainment and games, further promoting the development of the digital content industry, facilitating the formation of new business models, and causing a disruptive change in consumer habits. At the same time, it will also have a profound impact on traditional industries.
Image Source: "Jungle Exploration I: Return to the Jurassic" Offline VR Large Space
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that in 2023, 16 small industry categories with obvious characteristics of new cultural formats in China achieved operating income of 5239.5 billion yuan, an increase of 15.3% compared to the previous year, 7.1 percentage points faster than all cultural enterprises above the designated size.
Behind the market changes, policies are also continuously promoting the development of the cultural and technological industry. In 2021, the "Implementation of the Digitalization Strategy for the Cultural Industry" was written into the "14th Five-Year Plan" and the Outline of the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035. In 2022, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Implementation of the National Cultural Digitalization Strategy", listing accelerating the digital layout of the cultural industry as one of the eight key tasks to promote the implementation of the strategy.
On June 24, 2024, General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at the National Science and Technology Conference, the National Science and Technology Award Conference, and the Conference of Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He emphasized that a prosperous nation relies on a thriving science and technology sector, and a strong country is built on a powerful scientific and technological foundation. The Chinese path to modernization depends on the modernization of science and technology for support, and achieving high-quality development requires cultivating new driving forces through scientific and technological innovation. He proposed that we must fully recognize the strategic leading position and fundamental supporting role of science and technology, aim at the strategic goal of building a strong country in science and technology by 2035, strengthen top-level design and overall planning, and accelerate the realization of high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-improvement.
Under the multiple influences of policy promotion and market recovery, in 2024, new offline interactive experience forms led by LBE (Location Based Entertainment) immersive large spaces, such as "Jungle Exploration I: Return to the Jurassic" Offline VR Large Space, have emerged like bamboo shoots after a spring rain in front of the public. Cultural and tourism IPs from all over the country can be restored and sublimated in the immersive large spaces.
Image Source: Short Video/Local Life/Ticketing Platform
Among them, the highly concerned LBE immersive large space project "The Disappearing Pharaoh" is an immersive virtual reality experience lasting about 45 minutes, jointly created by the French VR/AR content brand Excurio and the archaeological team of the Giza Project at Harvard University in the United States, which took three years to complete.
In 2023, "The Disappearing Pharaoh" landed in Shanghai Xingye Taigu Hui, providing 80 sets of equipment on the spot, which can accommodate up to 60 people to experience simultaneously, and the daily reception of visitors exceeds 600 person-times. The average ticket price of the project is more than 200 yuan. According to statistics, during its opening period in Shanghai, "The Disappearing Pharaoh" attracted more than 100,000 visitors to the site for experience, and the project income exceeded 20 million yuan.
While this kind of "Ready Player One" experience scene is booming, it not only makes more young consumers like this new form of entertainment, but also brings more immersive large space experience projects into the public's vision.
Image Source: "The Disappearing Pharaoh"
In fact, the LBE immersive large space is not a completely new concept, and the industry is usually referred to as the "VR Large Space", which is a new offline entertainment mode derived from the traditional VR interactive experience. Users only need to wear a VR headset and enter a physical space of more than 100 square meters to experience various stories of different themes according to the plot movement.
In order to achieve this experience, the immersive large space adopts a variety of cutting-edge technologies, but these technologies still have a lot of room for improvement.
Spatial positioning technology is the core of the immersive large space. It precisely locates the user's position and posture by arranging positioning sensors in the space. However, in a complex environment or when multiple people are moving, the positioning may be inaccurate and the range is also limited. New algorithms and new technologies need to be developed to solve these problems. For example, the visual dizziness problem that exists in some experiences, especially when the screen is switched, requires improving hardware performance and developing correction algorithms to improve.
In terms of somatosensory interaction technology, currently, the headset mainly provides a visual experience, while devices such as handles and somatosensory suits used for operation and motion capture are less used in practical applications due to high costs and insufficient accuracy in capturing subtle movements. The limitations of these technologies affect the popularization and improvement of the VR large space experience.
At present, most offline VR large space projects are mainly based on puzzle-solving and cultural tourism themes. Different from the traditional script killing and escape room, the virtual space can provide special effects and a broader scene, bringing a unique experience to players. By setting up a complex puzzle-solving scene, players can be placed in a virtual space full of mysterious elements and experience the puzzle-solving process of finding clues.
The cultural tourism theme is also an important content direction of the VR large space project. Taking "The Disappearing Pharaoh" as an example, players can enter the interior of the Egyptian pyramids through VR equipment to understand the real structure, origin, and historical stories of the pyramids. This kind of experience is difficult to be provided by traditional cultural tourism projects.
As more and more consumers enter the VR offline large space, although the technical experience has begun to be recognized, other problems that exist have also gradually emerged.
First of all, there is a certain degree of homogeneity problem in the content end. Most of the VR large spaces launched this year are themed on cultural tourism, but some projects lack the planning and production experience of "film and television + VR", resulting in consumers finding that many plots seem to be "changing the skin" after experiencing multiple projects, and the content fullness and experience are insufficient. Although domestic manufacturers are aware of the problem and actively exploring new solutions, due to the constraints of factors such as hardware and interaction logic, a breakthrough qualitative change has not yet been presented. In addition, there are still many excellent cultural and tourism IPs in China that need to be explored.
Secondly, the refined operation of the offline space also brings challenges to the content operators. For the content operators, the VR large space is an emerging product, and both the space location and the long-term continuous operation are very demanding. Although there are excellent examples such as "The Disappearing Pharaoh", this is only an individual case. How to make the landing of the VR large space more industrialized and standardized is also a subject that requires long-term efforts in the industry.
Image Source: "Jungle Exploration I: Return to the Jurassic"
In order to efficiently solve the pain points existing in the LBE industry at the current stage and promote the healthy and orderly development of the industry, On December 12, the "2024 Immersive Technology and Science Fiction LBE Space Development Annual Conference" jointly hosted by the Zhongguancun Science Fiction Industry Innovation Center and the Cultural and Technological Innovation Service Alliance, and co-organized by 36Kr, will be held in "Beijing · Shougang Park". We will invite relevant leaders, technical experts, scholars, and head enterprise managers to jointly discuss the current situation of the industry, sort out the context of technological development, and explore the future of the LBE industry.
From now on, we will also launch a "2024 Immersive Science Fiction Technology Space New Business Model Demonstration Case Collection" for the entire industry, and the final selected demonstration cases will be announced at the annual conference.
Please scan the QR code on the poster to participate in the demonstration case collection registration:
Case Declaration Channel
Introduction of the Organizing Unit:
Zhongguancun Science Fiction Industry Innovation Center is an important measure for Beijing to concentrate on developing the science fiction industry and an important space to gather all elements of the science fiction industry. The center focuses on incubating and accelerating the core technologies of the science fiction industry, playing a bridging role in connecting the three key elements of the science fiction industry: key technologies, original talents, and scene construction, improving the independent innovation ability of the science fiction industry, and forming an "industry service chain of "quasi-research institute + incubator + accelerator + industrial cluster". The center was announced and established at the 2021 China Science Fiction Conference. The establishment of the center has received strong support from the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission, the Zhongguancun Administrative Committee, and the Shijingshan District. It is operated by Beijing Zhongguancun Tongli Technology Service Co., Ltd., realizing the three-level linkage of the city, district, and enterprise, and working together to create a new innovative ecosystem for the science fiction industry.
Cultural and Technological Innovation Service Alliance is to implement the requirements of the "Outline of the National Cultural and Technological Innovation Project" on "strengthening the close combination of industry, academia, research, and application, and building a cultural industry technology innovation strategic alliance with technology innovation-oriented enterprises, cultural comprehensive service operators, and backbone cultural enterprises as the main body". In 2014, under the advocacy and promotion of the five ministries and commissions of the State Ministry of Science and Technology, the Central Propaganda Department, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Culture, and the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television, the leading domestic cultural creativity and design services, R & D support and technology services, investment and financing and operation service fields The research institutes, enterprises and other entities, in accordance with the purpose of "cross-border innovation, integration and development", were registered in the civil affairs department as an industrial innovation service platform with the qualification of a social group legal person (registered name: Zhongguancun Zhongheng Cultural and Technological Innovation Service Alliance).
Introduction of the Co-organizing Unit:
36Kr is committed to building a comprehensive business service system with the media as the flagship. With the mission of "letting some people see the future first", through the information, methods, values and services conveyed by the media, it connects and serves start-up enterprises, TMT giants, traditional enterprises, institutional investors, local governments, individual users and other new economic communities, accelerating the full flow of the four elements of information, talents, funds and technology, and promoting the rapid, stable and sustainable development of the new economy. On November 8, 2019, 36Kr officially landed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, with the stock code "KRKR".
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