Rabbits can see behind them, but what if humans could? With ‘Eyes on our Back’ Morris van Antwerpen and I experimented with this alternative reality. 

We made two rabbit masks, each containing a VR frame. Inside this VR frame, we placed a smartphone that had a live connection to the GoPro Camera on your back. At the VR frame’s top, we added three LED lights (green, orange, and red). These LEDs were linked to an Arduino and a heart rate sensor that was attached to the user’s earlobe. I programmed the heart rate sensor to display red for high heart rate, orange for slightly higher and green for normal. This way, the user knew their heart rate stage while experiencing ‘Eyes on our Back’.

We noticed, when testing this design, that people were clueless with the mask on. This result was expected, however it was interesting to see how disoriented the most advanced animal in the world can be.