Virtual Reality makes leap from Sci-fi to Sony and Microsoft

It appears that Virtual Reality is making a comeback into the modern world via the Sony or the Microsoft gaming console. Remember the movie about VIrtual Reality "the Lawnmower Man?"

www.youtube.com...

Will the benefits outweigh the drawbacks? What say you, ATS?

"The potential for virtual reality extends far beyond gaming. In the medical field, it has been used to provide a risk-free space for students to practice surgical procedures. Clinics have been using it to treat soldiers with PTSD. HBO used the technology to promote its fantasy show "Game of Thrones" with a virtual glimpse of Westeros. Eventually, sports fans could find themselves on the 50-yard line, watching football games happen around them thanks to advanced new cameras from Next3D. The most obvious application for virtual reality, however, is video games. Oculus Rift was initially promoted on Kickstarter as an incredibly immersive way to play first-person shooters like "Doom 3" and "Hawken."

www.nbcnews.com...

reply to post by lostbook


It excites the hell outta me. Occulis Rift gaming, flying simulators and Google Earth. Imagine being able to cruise down the streets of Egypt or climb a pyramid all in VR.

At the price of gas in the upcoming years it would not surprise me if it becomes the only affordable vacation!

I love it. Its about time VR gets some proper development. should have been already in heavy development 15 years ago, but whatever, I guess they needed to milk regular graphics for as long as possible before next stepping it.

What was said about vacationing on the cheap is a great idea also. Why travel over to X to visit Y when you can slip on some fully immersive high def VR and explore alpha century or fly a dragon through some mythical land...go into some tavern and meet up with your friends while discussing which adventure you will go on next together while everything is as detailed as if you were in a real tavern...all while sitting at home in your comfy pants.

I don't think it will replace the urge to actually go places, but imagine the ability to go on a fantastic vacation every day after work. For the average working joe, this will be an amazing possibility that otherwise would have never been in the cards for them in reality.

go visit Egypt tonight and crawl through the tombs, or hell, go visit a sim where the pyramids are being built..by aliens of course

V-world here we come.

reply to post by lostbook


The field is probably so advanced that we wouldn't recognize it. Superpower militaries likely have VR that would blow our socks off, and then image the socks in such reality that we could put them back on without them being there!

I'd put a fan in front of me, put my glasses on,and go find some mountain top in skyrim to hang out on for a while...lol

This is something I have been seriously waiting for,
for a long time.

I imagine there will be fast growing community games like 2nd life.
Something like this in VR where you can basically build your own world would be freaking awesome!

Neverwinter Nights VR edition!
You could really mess with someones head!

*drool*

I once wrote a story about VR in 1979.......

Really should'a done something with it as the vision I had of the future people would have paid to read.

Basically my stories point was "If you could have any reality you wanted; why you pick this one". With this type of technology I can easily see an addiction that goes way past crack or heroin. Think about it, you could spend your entire life in VR, all you need is a brain. The body? No longer needed except to keep the brain alive. How to support such a habit?

I was going to give more clues to the story but I just decided to write it again. Maybe it will get picked up somewhere. Back then it was so far past what people were thinking it would have flopped unless I collaborated with Asimov.....

True virtual reality is still a ways off. When that arrives you will not be able to distinguish wheat is real and what isn't. Sort of like that movie Inception, everything from movement to imagery will be controlled by your mind alone. Very cool idea for sure. Maybe that is how the new internet 2.0 will be after the one we have now gets strictly regulated by governments and corporations.

kushness
True virtual reality is still a ways off. When that arrives you will not be able to distinguish wheat is real and what isn't. Sort of like that movie Inception, everything from movement to imagery will be controlled by your mind alone. Very cool idea for sure. Maybe that is how the new internet 2.0 will be after the one we have now gets strictly regulated by governments and corporations.

This is what I think also. Virtual Reality will be the next evolution for the Web.

reply to post by kushness

And maybe if you are fantastically wealthy you can just go into VR and never come out again..... As long as the brain lives.

And what will become of the world at large? True VR will be the crack coc aine of the future.

I want an oculus rift so bad. Especially now that they are working on HD versions. Flight sims with oculus rift? I'll never leave the house lol

If you think the sony and occulus rift are good, well check out some of the kickstarter funded projects. This comes from two former engineers at Steam (inc).

How two Valve engineers walked away with the company's augmented reality glasses
www.theverge.com...

Former Valve hardware engineer Jeri Ellsworth and programmer Rick Johnson spent over a year working on the project at Valve, and have been putting in six days a week, 16+ hours a day on the project ever since. "We believed in it... that this is going to change the way that people interact with computers and play games," says Ellsworth. "This is what I'm going to build come hell or high water. It was just a no-brainer that when we were not at Valve... we just had to do it." They formed a company, Technical Illusions, to commercialize the tech. This weekend, they flew down to Maker Faire to show their crazy prototype to the world for the very first time.

It's called CastAR, and it's nothing like Google Glass or the Oculus Rift. The idea here is to project a miniature virtual reality, which you can see and interact with in three dimensions, into the real world.

BTW I want Jeri to be my sugar-momma. She is VERY well known to the homebrew hacking community and an excellent example of women in STEM professions.

Valve fires Jeri Ellsworth, who was developing Steam Box game controllers
www.theverge.com...



Personally I see this innovation being much more accessible to the crowd who wants to involve others in their experiences. The current VR from Sony or Occulus completely destroy the sense of community which many gamers embrace (see LAN parties: en.wikipedia.org... ). This tech also greatly reduces the sense of nausea encountered with most VR tech.

BEST OF ALL THIS IS A PRODUCT WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN FUNDED BY THE PEOPLE! HUZZAH!

Occulus is pretty cool from what I have seen of their developer packs, but I have to cheer for the woman who introduced me to this hack:

Jeri makes flexible EL displays
hackaday.com...

She also gives some great tutorials to give folks an idea of what being a creative person in the STEM is like
hackaday.com...

-FBB


EDIT
I should note that in that video you do NOT need the wand or the reflective paper, there is an attachment which eliminates the need for that.

Imagine just plugging one of these into your phone and and playing flappy birds or w/e (candy crush?) in 3D while draining your battery less than it would while playing from your phone.

FYI total fan-boy of this!

reply to post by Mamatus

And maybe if you are fantastically wealthy you can just go into VR and never come out again..... As long as the brain lives.

And what will become of the world at large? True VR will be the crack coc aine of the future.

That's exactly what this book is about

I cannot wait for this technology. Ive always wanted to fly like superman, and VR will let me realize my lifelong dream.

I also think true VR will have to be a mixture of a few things to work properly and like FriedBabelBroccoli mentioned above, I feel augmented reality will play a part in it or it will be an earlier version, sort of a precondition to VR. AR will have to be perfected before VR works the way it really should.

Imagine Fallout, Assassins Creed, Metal Gear solid, and GTA with VR integration. holy sh¡t that would be f*cking awesome.

kushness
I also think true VR will have to be a mixture of a few things to work properly and like FriedBabelBroccoli mentioned above, I feel augmented reality will play a part in it or it will be an earlier version, sort of a precondition to VR. AR will have to be perfected before VR works the way it really should.

Yes, I highlight the AR because it simply has magnitudes more applications than VR (or the first person as commonly understood).

The AR can be used for business meetings. Imagine GoToMeeting but instead the presenter is actually there in seemingly 3D speaking directly to each individual allowing each member to have a personal view of the info being presented. Or in Air control towers allowing traffic controllers a more detailed view of flight paths. Factory workers being fed info on products to increase performance, etc.

Community gaming from board games to DoTa or League of Legends all from a personal point of view without the immense processing power (ie: cost), components (lcd screens), and isolation (ie: VR darth vader mask).

Augmented reality simply has FAR more potential to benefit the communities and industries which will drive its development. The virtual reality is a dream for gaming, but that is really about it . . . it does not have the immediate social benefits AR does. The only way I see VR pulling ahead is in an increasing isolated populace which is increasingly dissociating from the reality around them . . . well with the way the world is heading that is a strong possibility.

-FBB

reply to post by lostbook


This is not a good tech to be releasing, were becoming less and less social. Soon were be like that film with bruce willis where no one leaves there home and walks round using robots, everyone one will forget about the problems of the planet( pollution ect)
We need to stick together not drift apart, im all for tech that helps in the right places but this is just madness.

reply to post by lostbook


I remember playing a virtual reality arcade game in a massive gaming centre in London when I was 12, I remember even then not being hugely impressed though I did have fun. I have wondered why it was never developed further

It will really kick off when yu can control things with thoughts better. It can already be done on a simple level (Up, down, left right etc) but as things get more focussed, the games will become more immersive. That and the ability to "jack in" to a virtual world like in William Gibson's books.
That's when you'll have people not leaving their houses for weeks at a time.

That would be awesome for games, I can only immagine the first person shoter in that!