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A new technology might change the way people watch movies in the theater. Instead of watching a film on the screen, you would enter the scene and watch the action take place all around you.
This is what Virtual Reality, or VR(虚拟现实), and 360-degree video promise to give audiences. The idea is to make you feel like you are in the movie. Online websites like YouTube and Vimeo already offer some VR films. Both professionals and amateurs have made these kinds of films. To watch, people wear expensive headsets(耳机) that cover their eyes and ears.
There are less costly ways to see VR films. Many people use their smart phones, placed in special cardboard boxes. Then they hold
them up to their eyes to watch. The boxes can be taught from Google for $ 15.
People are experiencing the technology in many places. South by Southeast is a media and technology meeting held every year in Austin, Texas. This March, people put on headsets there to watch part of a funny crime film shot in VR in Baltimore, Maryland.
But with 360-degree filming, there is a problem. If audiences looked away from the main action on their headset and “turned around”, they could see the crew(工作人员) shooting the film.
To solve this problem, they made the film a “mockumentary”, in other words, a fake documentary(假的纪录片). In this way, making the film became part of the story.
VR headsets are also being used to view films that allow people to travel around the world without leaving home. A company called YouVisit has films that can be used to advertise trips. It can also help people who cannot physically (身体上地) travel, but want to feel the experience of going places.
One company, Japanese NHK Media Technology Company, showed their 8K resolution 3-D, or three dimensional film. The sound system for the film used 24 speakers. As music played around the people, images appeared to jump out of the screen in sharp detail. But this high technology comes at a high cost. A company spokesman said the video and sound system costs $500,000 to set up. That is more than average movie theaters would pay.