Memory Capture & Virtual Tourism for the Benefit of Those with Physical Disabilities

Roy Sherrill is enabling the time travelers from the future to get a sense of presence at a number of different tech and cultural events around the San Francisco Bay area. Roy’s been shooting a lot of 360 videos from his wheelchair at a number of different VR events this Spring and Summer, and he thinks of his selfie stick with a 360-degree bubblecam as a “wizard staff” and “portal stone.” When asked to explain why he’s recording all of this footage he says, “I capture slices of reality one moment at a time and save it in a bubble so that I can project others into it in the future so they can get the sense of presence as if they’re there themselves.” He’s enabling future members of the Society for Creative Anachronism to have a more direct experience of history as it unfolds.

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Roy is doing a sort of virtual tourism that is enabling other people with impaired mobility to get a taste of the different experiences that he’s having. While some of the footage may seem mundane to us know, it’s this type of footage that will be a lot more fascinating to people 20-50 years into the future. One example of this is the documentary Heavy Metal Parking Lot (1986), which was shot before a Judas Priest concert in 1986 and serves as an anthropological study of the metal scene in the mid-’80s.

Roy is hoping to inspire others to start sharing 360 videos of adventures that he’s not able to go on himself, and that eventually he’ll be able to live out his sci-fi dreams of becoming teleastronaut and operating a scientific research vehicle on our moon or distant planet while immersed in VR as described by NASA’s Jeff Norris.

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Music: Fatality & Summer Trip