mirr

mirr is an XR communication experience that embodies the concept of “selfie experience in the age of AR glasses” and “immersive photo communication experience.” mirr offers a mixed reality platform where people are able to pin their selfies in space and add virtual decoration around the photos.

The mirr project was part of the cooperative research project with Hakuhodo DY Holdings and aimed to validate the potential of immersive communication experience using AR cloud technology.

The mirr project started to demonstrate an AR glass experience at the 3rd-anniversary event of Shibuya Cast. However, due to the impact of covid-19, the original plan had been modified and the concept had changed into a VR experience.

In the mirr experience, users can pin their photos to a digitally reproduced model of Shibuya Cast in a VR space, decorate them with virtual items, and take ‘selfies’ with a virtual camera. Also, users are able to share the same virtual space based on the stored location ids and enjoy interactive communication with friends via the virtual space.

After the examination of virtual text communication by SPATIAL MESSAGE, we set ‘virtual image communication’ as a next stage of the cooperative research project with Hakuhodo DY Holdings.

Taking into account cultural uniqueness of Shibuya and Harajuku, we have decided to choose selfie as a theme of the research project and carefully planned a new form of communication experience with selfie as a medium of spatial interaction.

mirr is an early use case of ar in VR. The pandemic of covid-19 resulted in shifting of the stage from ar to VR because AR experience needs a physical space and gathering of people.

As a solution for the difficulty in offline testing, we reproduced a real environment in VR and tested the core elements of the mirr experience in virtual Shibuya Cast.