105176Audience with a Hero - transforming the production of immersive encountersClosedCollaborative R&DISCFImagine being able to 'meet' your heroes, from sporting legends to witnesses of history. Using Virtual Reality, 'Audience with a Hero' will give audiences the experience of meeting an inspiring role model, who will tell their personal story and answer questions in real-time. 'Audience with a Hero' will allow audiences to 'meet' a role model and converse with them in an immersive space, using pre-recorded 3d content. Rooted in human relationships, the project will test and produce new methods for creating a powerful and engaging interaction within VR: transforming the way in which cultural/creative organisations can use immersive experiences to engage wide audiences with human stories. This will build on successful approaches taken by the National Holocaust Centre's award-winning Forever Project, which created life-size 3d projections of Holocaust survivors that could answer frequently asked questions from a pre-recorded bank of around 1,000 answers. The partnership will substantially advance technical/creative production approaches, allowing the UK to become a leader in the field of the creation of human 'presence' and engaging human stories in Virtual Reality. Integrating voice recognition, natural language processing, and elements of machine learning -- together with ultra HD pre-recorded content -- the project will create ground-breaking 'human' experiences which demonstrate the power of digital techniques for storytelling and engagement.