Facebook's Oculus unveils 360-degree VR head tracking Crescent Bay prototype Rift maker Oculus is touting a new feature prototype that it has dubbed Crescent Bay. The latest headset to be developed by the face-clamping, Facebook-owned gaming company comes, we're told, with new display technology, 360-degree head tracking, expanded positional tracking volume, better weight and ergonomics and beefed up …
Or perhaps electrode helmets like in other VR sci-fis. I frankly don't know if we can sufficiently fool the brain without doing something too radical. Seeing as how the brain has to many sensory inputs to draw from: namely the entire nervous system which includes all the tactile neurons associated with out skin. Without full five-sense illusion, the potential always exists for Simulation Sickness.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05/22/oculus_boss_true_virtual_reality_is_a_decade_or_two_away/
Here are the full comments by Brendan Iribe:
"We will be able to put it on a pair of glasses, have face-to-face communications, we may be able to have a conference like this where we're all sitting at home or in the office, and your brain will think you're there," he told delegates at the Imagination Summit 2014 at Stanford University on Wednesday. "To do that is going to require another few decades of work – we're at the very beginning; we call this Day Zero. The dream of sunglass VR where we all believe we're there is still a decade or two away."
No suggestion of a direct electrical connection to the brain, just a smaller and faster product... and a pretty conservative timeline given what Google Glass could fit in a frame in 2012.
I think this is still tongue-in-cheek:
Japan’s Health Ministry Fears Summer Lesson Will Destroy Population, Begs Sony Not to Release Game
Announced at Sony’s Tokyo Game Show press conference, Summer Lesson is a virtual reality game where it appears you will tutor a Japanese schoolgirl using Project Morpheus. If this is released, public officials fear Japan’s population will hit zero before 2100.
...
“There is no turning back if this game is released,” explained population scientist Akita Osamu, “Japan’s population is already under attack and Summer Lesson will be the finishing blow. It is already affecting Japan as we speak. I am currently single and I have already pre-ordered this game earlier today. I will die alone and that is perfectly fine with me and Nahoko which is the name of the girl I have chosen for Summer Lesson.”
Even Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe personally went out of his way to beg Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai to prevent the release of this game. Unfortunately, Hirai said that it was out of his hands arguing that Japan would eventually fall victim to a game like Summer Lesson and believed it would be most honorable if Japan did it to themselves rather than having a game from the American Oculus Rift do it.
Have you *seen* this game? It's creepy as hell! You're in this young girl's bedroom, and she's constantly covering herself trying to keep you from peeking at her boobs or up her very short skirt.
it was only a 30 second video that I saw, but it completely creeped me out.
Why? Are you deaf?
Personally I look at that, and think how front-heavy the thing must be. Most of the electronics is in that ski-mask bit. Not to mention, you're either got it on blocking your vision, or got it off completely. So if you need to quickly look at something, tough.
I would've thought perhaps a design more like a hard hat, with (perhaps beefier) headphones and having the mask part flip up would be a little more balanced on the head.
The homebrew NASA ones that they use for some of the ISS EVA training have a huge 4lb counterweight on the back of the head. They look seriously uncomfortable.
Actually, if you look at it, it seems "the electronics" is basically a cell-phone on the front. It's rounded like one. It's probably a lot lighter than the NASA gear.
"So if you need to quickly look at something, tough."
It shouldn't be too difficult, or expensive, to fit a small USB camera to the front and have a small swith that you operate to have 'real external view' fed to the front screen. Can I patent this idea if I draw some suitable diagrams with appropriate waffle annotations?
"It shouldn't be too difficult, or expensive, to fit a small USB camera to the front and have a small switch that you operate to have 'real external view' fed to the front screen."
Even better, the two views could be superimposed when needed. Considering just how adaptable the brain is, I bet it would be no trick to juggle the perception of that annoying "real" person trying communicate along with one's 3D VR porn at the same time. Worth a try, anyway...
"It shouldn't be too difficult, or expensive, to fit a small USB camera to the front and have a small swith that you operate to have 'real external view' fed to the front screen."
Well this is just a sci-fi story waiting to happen!
How do you know if the switch actually worked, or if it just started it's real purpose - matrix-style enslavement!
My thoughts are also along this line. At the very least, switch between outside/inside/overlay.
It might help to better diagnosis eye conditions, by allowing continuous testing over many hours rather than once in a while.
There are people with degraded eyesight that could greatly benefit from some augmented reality, for example, reading signs or other printed material.
The fact that the technology is driven by a commodity portable computer, rather than special hardware, is the really cool part.
P.
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