VibroAxe
Junior Administrator
OK before I start here is a bit of a heads up on what this is and it isn't. It isn't really a review, but that seemed to be the best category to stick it in. If anyone has any better tag ideas then let me know. It is my observations, hopes, and thoughts on how the computing industry might progress in the future into the VR world. I don't have any training or such into any of the technologies mentioned but have been keeping a watchful eye out on the development of the VR industry over the last months/years. It's not based on any particular factual evidence, but I have tried to link out to websites when discussing something of interest.
The post started as an interesting thought on the whole subject of stability with regards to a few other discussions we've been having on the topic of VR. I was going to post it as a reply to HotStuffs thread over here but it started to grow and morph so I posted it here instead.
At the moment, a crash in a system is an inconvenience, damn'd annoying, but on the whole, not inconsolable. You just reach down, hit the reset button, curse and carry on. But extend this scenario a little way into the future and with VR we have a huge HUGE problem.
At the moment VR seems to be hand/eye and ear based. We have good VR headsets, x.1 surround sound headsets are getting better (see the audio effects post as well here.) and VR gloves with force feedback mechanisms are (very) slowly coming down in price: see A cyber glove with force feedback. Now a crash in this setup isn't much worse than existing system. Maybe you will get a blast of static through your headphones, a nasty light effect in your headset, or, worst case scenario, your force feedback gloves end up actuating a bit too much pressure and your hand might ache for a while. I think that this setup is getting closer to becoming reality. I'm not just pointing at the gaming industry, but that extra sensory perception given from VR could well help in many technological systems. I'm going to call this setup Partial-Immersion Virtual Reality (PIVR). The idea being that it is still obvious you are in the real world. You still feel the wind, and more importantly are in a semi fixed position.
Now, as I gaze a bit further into my crystal ball I want to look at the idea and technology of Full Immersion Virtual Reality (FIVR). The basic concept is an extension of existing VR technologies to allow you to act in the Virtual World as you can act in the Physical World.
First let's look at stability and crashing before jumping into what technologies are already out there and being developed. There are two types of FIVR as I see it. The first is a direct extension of PIVR and involves adding more and more hardware to an existing PIVR system to allow you to walk around and further interact with your environment (and in turn, it interact with you). The second more serious and FarFuture is direct stimulation of the nerves cells. I'm not suggesting that we will all end up with Matrix-like setups in our homes, jacking in just to check out the latest information on THN (more on this later) but through smaller systems to allow direct stimulation of the nerves rather than tricking the brain ala the matrix.
Now in the first case, a crash could have serious consequences. Imagine your running through a FPS game and your system crashes. Most of the available techs are going to cause some forms of injury as your body and the laws of physics try to keep you moving and the equipment you're in tries to stop you. Either severe muscle strain or perhaps something broken could put you out of work or even give you some forms of temporary disability. Now extend this to the second case. You are connected to a sensory network allowing you to touch and feel anything in FIVR, now, obviously this will need some forms of methodology to connect and disconnect from you without causing any inconvenience or pain, but what happens if this loses power without disconnecting, could you end up stuck in your chair untill power is restored or some helpful friend comes and lets you out.
I guess my point thus far is that crashes in the current world are not serious, and developers can get away with a 1 in 10000 occurance of a BSOD when running driver X and program Y is also installed. However, in the future this might not be the case, perhaps we should start preparing now.
Now lets wind the crystal ball back a bit and look at some of the upcoming ideas and solutions to help enable FIVR in todays/tomorrows world.
Smell-O-Vision
An olfactory sensor is an incredibly complicated piece of equipment. The human nose has stumped scientists for years and even now the Electronic "Nose" is still very much in it's early stages (or whiffs perhaps) (ECS - Sniff). Having said this however, a reeker, or a "Device to create smells" is even more challenging. But it is a different challenge. Many of you will remember Esters from basic Chemistry, and the fact that different Esters can be made to produce different smells. Well an effective reeker must chemically synthesize all of the smells you wish to experience. In order to have an vaguely effective sensor you need an awful lot of smells. No smell is far better than half a smell. The largest problem is the lack of a Primary smell. In order to make a cost effective solution this device then needs to use as little chemical as possible which is proving to be increasingly difficult. The guys at Temple University have created a device which can project the smells, but are still struggling on creating an effective range. Perhaps this is a big area in which electronic stimulation may solve an problem as yet unsolved.
Movement
Currently there are 3 entirely different takes on movement which I have discovered. The VirtuSphere project is basically a gigantic human hamster ball. The idea is that as you move forward in the ball the ball moves down and so you stay in the same place. The makers claim that you can run jump and roll in the ball and it will still keep up with you. The biggest problem with this system is that it's not exactly conducive to fitting in a living room. For a 6' person you need a couple of feet spare to allow jumping. therefore you are looking at at least a 10' sphere, and it's not exactly attractive either.
The next idea is from CirculaFloor The idea behind this is a set of movable floor tiles which move around with you and there is always a tile waiting for your foot, then as you move forward to the next tile, your current tile moves backwards. This to me seems far more user friendly however you are then given speed limits and I don't think they are conducive to jumping.
Finally is an idea of my own which I can't yet seen taken into FIVR, but I am pretty sure it is out there somewhere. Exoskeltons allow a user to have far more strength and stamina than normal. However reversing the idea, and an exoskeleton is effectively a large force feedback device. By raising the skeleton from the floor after the use enters, the skeleton can then stand freely, act much like a simulator in that by turning G forces can be simulated, and the user can still run, walk and jump as usual. I think that this could well be a more user friendly environment, due to the less space that it would take up for a greater amount of ability.
Thats about it for the moment, If people found this interesting then I will extend the concept into VR and software with some more ideas I have in future articles. But if not then I guess this is a one shot piece. Hey, I enjoyed writing it!
Vibs!
The post started as an interesting thought on the whole subject of stability with regards to a few other discussions we've been having on the topic of VR. I was going to post it as a reply to HotStuffs thread over here but it started to grow and morph so I posted it here instead.
At the moment, a crash in a system is an inconvenience, damn'd annoying, but on the whole, not inconsolable. You just reach down, hit the reset button, curse and carry on. But extend this scenario a little way into the future and with VR we have a huge HUGE problem.
At the moment VR seems to be hand/eye and ear based. We have good VR headsets, x.1 surround sound headsets are getting better (see the audio effects post as well here.) and VR gloves with force feedback mechanisms are (very) slowly coming down in price: see A cyber glove with force feedback. Now a crash in this setup isn't much worse than existing system. Maybe you will get a blast of static through your headphones, a nasty light effect in your headset, or, worst case scenario, your force feedback gloves end up actuating a bit too much pressure and your hand might ache for a while. I think that this setup is getting closer to becoming reality. I'm not just pointing at the gaming industry, but that extra sensory perception given from VR could well help in many technological systems. I'm going to call this setup Partial-Immersion Virtual Reality (PIVR). The idea being that it is still obvious you are in the real world. You still feel the wind, and more importantly are in a semi fixed position.
Now, as I gaze a bit further into my crystal ball I want to look at the idea and technology of Full Immersion Virtual Reality (FIVR). The basic concept is an extension of existing VR technologies to allow you to act in the Virtual World as you can act in the Physical World.
First let's look at stability and crashing before jumping into what technologies are already out there and being developed. There are two types of FIVR as I see it. The first is a direct extension of PIVR and involves adding more and more hardware to an existing PIVR system to allow you to walk around and further interact with your environment (and in turn, it interact with you). The second more serious and FarFuture is direct stimulation of the nerves cells. I'm not suggesting that we will all end up with Matrix-like setups in our homes, jacking in just to check out the latest information on THN (more on this later) but through smaller systems to allow direct stimulation of the nerves rather than tricking the brain ala the matrix.
Now in the first case, a crash could have serious consequences. Imagine your running through a FPS game and your system crashes. Most of the available techs are going to cause some forms of injury as your body and the laws of physics try to keep you moving and the equipment you're in tries to stop you. Either severe muscle strain or perhaps something broken could put you out of work or even give you some forms of temporary disability. Now extend this to the second case. You are connected to a sensory network allowing you to touch and feel anything in FIVR, now, obviously this will need some forms of methodology to connect and disconnect from you without causing any inconvenience or pain, but what happens if this loses power without disconnecting, could you end up stuck in your chair untill power is restored or some helpful friend comes and lets you out.
I guess my point thus far is that crashes in the current world are not serious, and developers can get away with a 1 in 10000 occurance of a BSOD when running driver X and program Y is also installed. However, in the future this might not be the case, perhaps we should start preparing now.
Now lets wind the crystal ball back a bit and look at some of the upcoming ideas and solutions to help enable FIVR in todays/tomorrows world.
Smell-O-Vision
An olfactory sensor is an incredibly complicated piece of equipment. The human nose has stumped scientists for years and even now the Electronic "Nose" is still very much in it's early stages (or whiffs perhaps) (ECS - Sniff). Having said this however, a reeker, or a "Device to create smells" is even more challenging. But it is a different challenge. Many of you will remember Esters from basic Chemistry, and the fact that different Esters can be made to produce different smells. Well an effective reeker must chemically synthesize all of the smells you wish to experience. In order to have an vaguely effective sensor you need an awful lot of smells. No smell is far better than half a smell. The largest problem is the lack of a Primary smell. In order to make a cost effective solution this device then needs to use as little chemical as possible which is proving to be increasingly difficult. The guys at Temple University have created a device which can project the smells, but are still struggling on creating an effective range. Perhaps this is a big area in which electronic stimulation may solve an problem as yet unsolved.
Movement
Currently there are 3 entirely different takes on movement which I have discovered. The VirtuSphere project is basically a gigantic human hamster ball. The idea is that as you move forward in the ball the ball moves down and so you stay in the same place. The makers claim that you can run jump and roll in the ball and it will still keep up with you. The biggest problem with this system is that it's not exactly conducive to fitting in a living room. For a 6' person you need a couple of feet spare to allow jumping. therefore you are looking at at least a 10' sphere, and it's not exactly attractive either.
The next idea is from CirculaFloor The idea behind this is a set of movable floor tiles which move around with you and there is always a tile waiting for your foot, then as you move forward to the next tile, your current tile moves backwards. This to me seems far more user friendly however you are then given speed limits and I don't think they are conducive to jumping.
Finally is an idea of my own which I can't yet seen taken into FIVR, but I am pretty sure it is out there somewhere. Exoskeltons allow a user to have far more strength and stamina than normal. However reversing the idea, and an exoskeleton is effectively a large force feedback device. By raising the skeleton from the floor after the use enters, the skeleton can then stand freely, act much like a simulator in that by turning G forces can be simulated, and the user can still run, walk and jump as usual. I think that this could well be a more user friendly environment, due to the less space that it would take up for a greater amount of ability.
Thats about it for the moment, If people found this interesting then I will extend the concept into VR and software with some more ideas I have in future articles. But if not then I guess this is a one shot piece. Hey, I enjoyed writing it!
Vibs!
