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I’m standing on the top of the Juche Tower in the heart of Pyongyang. It’s a beautiful sunny day, and the city sprawls out along the banks of the Taedong river below. To my right is Mansu Hill and its 22-metre tall statues of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. To my left is the city’s atom-shaped Science and Technology Centre, its central atrium dominated by an enormous missile.
A blue dot appears, and I stare at it for a moment. Suddenly I’m in the lobby of the Pyongyang Hotel, where one Tripadvisor user complains that “the staff are quite unwilling to talk to Westerners”. Another blue dot later, and I’m on the waterfront in the early morning watching elderly women dance.
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This is Pyongyang VR – a virtual reality experience that gives a glimpse of life in the capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, arguably the most repressive country in the world. It’s the creation of Marcus Olsson, the co-founder and CEO of Swedish startup SceneThere which produces custom 360-degree video experiences – from a virtual tourist map of Malmö, to conversations with inhabitants of the Gereba favela in northeastern Brazil.
“360-degree video has the potential to make you feel like you’re there, but to us it always felt a bit limited in the sense you weren’t able to move around and have agency of your own situation,” Olsson tells WIRED. “So we developed a platform which makes it possible for you to interact, and you can stay longer – you can explore a certain space at your own pace.”
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Source: wired