The Void, the virtual hyperreality that invades the United States

You put the helmet visor and you immediately turn into a rebel who fights with Empire soldiers or a lava monster, while you go from a spaceship to l & # 39; other.

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The android C3PO (or Citripio) invites you to type a code and your hands covered with white armor through the Digital magic strive to obey. You cross the robot R2D2 (or Arturito) and you touch it. Your companions are advancing with you in this hyper-realistic digital labyrinth, also converted to inter-lateral spies.

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And when a submachine bullet hits you, you feel a (small) electric shock.

The Void is a new form of entertainment from "hyper-reality" that fuses films in virtual reality special effects, advanced technologies and physical sensations, product with everyday tools and imagination.

In their premises in Anaheim, California, the visitors wear a heavy vest equipped with sensors and a software put on a helmet and enter "The secrets of the Empire ", all conceived in partnership with Lucasfilm Mother House of" Star Wars "and affiliated with Disney .

The Experience of The Void Involves "all the senses, from sight to hearing through touch, even temperatures and l & # 39; smell told AFP John Kirkpatrick, director of marketing.

I really had the impression of being in the movie, I was part of the rebels. It was awesome and you can really feel the agents shooting at you, I was surprised, explained Sean Oshima, a 29-year-old technology consultant.

– The studios benefit –

The Void also created a narrative tour around the movie "Ghostbusters", and another on a haunted house that plans to offer Halloween, the day of the dead in the United States. United United

The company has operations in the United States, Canada, Dubai and London, and expects to develop a rapid international deployment.

This concept of attraction in shopping malls, in multiple cinemas and in amusement parks is developing at a high speed: Jeremy Bailenson, of the Laboratory of Virtual Human Interactions of the University of Stanford, author of "Experience on Demand" He badured AFP that they were expecting a boom in the years to come. Appointment in particular to a competitor of The Void, Nomadic.

Other virtual reality attractions: A movie, "Alien: Descent," was recently proposed by Fox at The Outlets in Orange; an ImaxVR center was opened in Grove, Los Angeles; an attraction on "Jack Ryan", a series about a CIA badyst adapted from Tom Clancy's novels, was recently unveiled at San Diego Comic-Con … New ways of promoting for studies.

Unlike video games, perceived as isolating actors from reality, advocates of virtual reality believe that immersion in a universe, interaction with participants and the limited duration of experience promote socialization, and even empathy. "Carne y arena", a short film by Oscar-winning Mexican filmmaker Alejandro Iñárritu, takes the viewer to the California desert on foot alongside migrants crossing the border on foot, who are harbaded by police, dogs, injuries, etc.

Imagine a teacher or student immersed in a world, instead of learning more through a textbook. We can interact in a space, we scrutinize and even place ourselves in the times we study, explains John Kirkpatrick.