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Tag Archive for AR

Touchy Feely Technology

May 28, 2015 future, Writing Comments Off on Touchy Feely Technology


http://phys.org/news/2015-05-device-sensations-prosthetic.html

 Touch capabilities in AR/VR are the last piece to fall into place, and they’ve been one of the trickiest.  We’ve made our runs at things like force-feedback gloves that vibrate in response to what you see in the world, but broader sensations like hot or cold or texture are still a little ways off.  One of the key components has always been the bulkiness of the equipment, trapping big fat gloves and boots to your hands and feet on top of the VR helmet is just a little too far for many people.

And that’s really one of the sticking points, I feel.  Does your user-base want to cover themselves in sensors in order to get an immersive VR experience?

This technology here, there’s something interesting.  It’s talking (or a high level) about being able to deliver sensations directly to the nervous system.  It’s talking about being able to communicate cold or hot or soft or rough directly, without needing to have a physical, external analog.  Right now it’s an implantable, but it might not have to be in the future, which means our VR has the potential to do away with all the extraneous hardware.

 

 

Old Dinosaur, New Tricks

May 2, 2015 future Comments Off on Old Dinosaur, New Tricks

http://gizmodo.com/its-microsoft-build-day-2-live-streaming-hot-1701224950

What the h*ll, Microsoft!

After dancing the dance of the dinosaur’s graveyard for decades now, you give us this.  The HoloLens.

There are a metric *ss-load of VR devices and Apps in the works right now.  Everyone is hunting the killer app (I think VR App companies outnumber hardware companies by, like, 20 to 1).  Everyone is hunting the one cool thing that will finally make VR and AR mainstream products.

Microsoft may have done just that.

The key difference in what Microsoft is pitching is not the one coolest game you’ll ever play (like Magic Leap’s video) or the ultra-minimal camera on ur face (the public perception of Google’s Glass).  Instead they are showing us an integrated world.  They are pitching a lifestyle, one limited to inside your home to be sure, but a functioning, useful product that integrates your screens with your life.  You have the option of attaching stuff to your walls, to having apps and objects appear and disappear in-situ, rather than carrying them with you all the time.

And I think this is the big perceptual difference.  Having VR elements situationally popping into and out of existence requires a kind of constant mental engagement.  It makes you want to put the headset down and go to the kitchen for a soda, just to get a break from all the micro-attentions.  But by having those apps and objects stay static, have them fully integrate with the environment around you, like actual physical objects, you give the user the ability to walk away at any time, then come back to find everything where they left it.  It allows the VR to be a part of your life, rather than a novelty item.

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