VOW Player

VOW (Video Over World) player is an AVR (Augmented Virtual Reality) video player designed for watching and following along with instructional videos. It was specifically designed for watching Tai Chi or dance training videos.

Many dance or Tai Chi videos have you turn your head in specific directions which cause you to look away from the screen. With VOW player, the screen follows the direction you are looking at so you never loose sight of the Tai Chi or dance instructor.

Using an android compatible VR headset and your phone's camera, VOW Player displays videos on a semi transparent screen that follows your head's movements so you can follow along without ever loosing sight of the screen while still seeing the world around you. It plays all video formats and will even stream videos from YouTube.

When the app launches for the first time, it will display a drift calibration screen. This is to keep you from having to chase the file open dialog and the video control buttons. Just hold your head level and pull your headset's magnetic switch or push the button. You will need to hold your head as still as possible while it calculates the calibration value. If you ever need to recalibrate, you can find the button over the video display in the main viewer window.

VOW Player supports opening M3U playlists. You can list the videos one per line using the relative path to the m3u file. You can also use file and HTTP URLs in the playlist. Also. if you want to load a video from YouTube in a play list, just add a line "youtube: to the play list and it will load it directly into the player.

For example, to load the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQHils6GRP8, create a new play list called taichi.m3u and add the line

youtube:FQHils6GRP8

When you load the playlist, it will load the video from YouTube.

A google cardboard or cardboard compatible VR viewer that exposes the camera is needed to use this program. This is the one that was used during development and testing: http://www.jdoqocy.com/click-4813678-11046934?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lightinthebox.com%2Fritech-riem-iii-vr-3d-glasses_p4777712.html%3Fcategory_id%3D52640%26prm%3D1.2.1.0

NOTE: Users may experience some spatial disorientation during and for a brief period of time after use. This app is not designed to be used while doing everyday tasks. It is designed to be used to follow along with training videos for Tai Chi, dance or similar activities.

DO NOT USE THIS APP WHILE DRIVING OR OPERATING HEAVY MACHINERY