New Approach To Virtual Reality Shocks You Into Believing Walls Are Real (vice.com) 59
A team of researchers from Germany's Hasso-Plattner Institute is trying to find an effective way to trick the mind into thinking a virtual object or wall is real. They have developed a new device that "sends little electric shocks to sensors on your arms that stimulate your muscles whenever you press against a wall or try to lift a heavy object in virtual reality," reports Motherboard. From the report: The team's main goal was to create this illusion as cheaply as possible. Their contraption, seen in the video above, consists of little more than an electric muscle stimulator stuffed in a backpack, the sensors, and a Samsung GearVR device accompanied by motion trackers. In other words, if you've been turned off by the clunky headsets of the contemporary VR experience, this probably won't do much to win you over.
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That will be when it helps you make decisions better than you do without it. What kind of decisions are better made with a VR headset on your head vs. having one or more 2D displays in front of you? Training/simulation seems to be an almost established niche, but beyond that I can think of anything.
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Training/simulation seems to be an almost established niche, but beyond that I can think of anything.
Gaming and 3D modeling are the other obvious ones.
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Good point, though I think it's a specific subcategory of 3D modelling where viewing in VR would pay off. It would have to be some case where stakes are high and you can catch in VR something that you can't on the screen and it makes all the difference. Don't quite know what that is though (but sounds niche).
I'm less convinced re gaming, VR is optional there.
Been using these for years (Score:2)
I'm a repairman in the Matrix and I take care of all you Copper tops. We been using these things for years. Work perfectly, no one can tell they are jacked into a bathtub.
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I'll be shocked when I can believe the virtual reality business is a real thing instead of just hype.
Just wait until VR Porn popularizes it.
Walls of Flesh (Score:2)
Re: Walls of Flesh (Score:2)
It turns out that regular shackles are a lot cheaper and don't take batteries.
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Forget walls: how about virtual shackles? I can see it now: a gaol where all the prisoners just sit on a single room wearing VR headsets.
And being made to re-experience crime, this time as victims.
Re: The saddest part (Score:1)
Like making it feel physically impossible to jump on to railway lines Infront of an oncoming train? With transport, where big heavy objects are moving fast, having an additional barrier would be excellent. There are protective possibilities that are valid.
Giving you the tactile ability to sense and manipate objects in virtual reality would also make it just that much more useful.
It could end up being some next level matrix shit, and all kinds of bad things are possible but that is the nature of the world, i
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Like making it feel physically impossible to jump on to railway lines Infront of an oncoming train? With transport, where big heavy objects are moving fast, having an additional barrier would be excellent. There are protective possibilities that are valid.
You honestly believe virtually jumping in front of an oncoming virtual train causes any damage?
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...you honestly believe jumping in front of a train is murder?
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I want the wall hack code so I can get the high sc (Score:2)
I want the wall hack code so I can get the high score.
Re:The Wall is real but not the best (Score:2)
now get off my lawn
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Dark Side of the Moon
freaking
Next Up: Virtual Reality with Consequenses (Score:2)
Be sure to read the fine print in the EULA.
But you can't lean on it. . . (Score:4, Insightful)
But you still can't lean against that virtual wall, or set a real object down on that virtual table -- things I've attempted while using the Vive, with predictably humorous results.
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in vr that sends these signals you would be leaning against a virtual wall. i guess in theory your sensation would be real but simulated by electrical input thats supposed to felt.
Well, VR can't imitate leaning against a wall regardless sensation unless it can adjust your body's center of gravity in a way that your body can be tilted without falling down. Or you would just be falling "inside" VR wall when you attempt to lean against it.
product name (Score:1)
stimulate your muscles whenever you press against a wall or try to lift a heavy object in virtual reality,"
"Virtual mime".
I don't know about believing the walls (Score:2)
But there's no arguing about the shocks being real.
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Didn't they already make this product for dogs?
Invisible fence or something?
So if it is good enough for your dog, let's do it for people too? Or something?
Re:I don't know about believing the walls (Score:5, Informative)
That depends on what you consider a shock. The original article never used the word shock. Shock is a term that vice.com decided to use. If you read the original article http://plopes.org/project/hapt... [plopes.org] it says the electrical stimulations are not painful. Their devices simply stimulate certain muscles to simulate the weight or hardness of different objects.
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Agreed that it's a bad description. But the original also points out the weaknesses of their approach. It's a lot easier to give a third party the view of the person in the VR experience being perfectly constrained by walls than it is to give the person themselves that, for two reasons: one, protracted stimulation (aka they're feeling a wall) draws attention to the stimulation itself (tingling), and two, because it's done by activating opposing muscle groups, the force feels inverted, like someone's pulling
Side effects (Score:5, Funny)
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No. Their devices do not cause painful shocks. They provide electrical stimulation of specific muscle groups to simulate objects.
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Alternative Side effects (Score:1)
They're already failures (Score:4, Insightful)
Do it properly in R&D. Then see if you can do it cheaper or otherwise reduce costs through scale once you know what you're doing. By focusing too much on cost upfront, you will miss important avenues of research.
These people have already failed.
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These people have already failed.
Get a grip. Not all R&D is about creating something perfect. Not all results of R&D can be scaled and cheapened due to production.
An incredibly large portion of R&D is focused on cost. Producing something that is priced out of the market on arrival for something which has a goal of being in every household is what would be a failure.
There are FOUR lights. (Score:1)
The headline sounds suspiciously like an interrogation technique.
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They are Germans, after all.
Men must of created this... (Score:2)
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Stick your head through the wall! (Score:2)
One of the more interesting problems I've encountered with the Vive is. . . What happens when you push your face into a wall?
First I have to say, this is *extremely* counter-intuitive to do at first. Pushing my face into a wall really doesn't come naturally at all.
In some games (or not-exactly-games, like realities.io) you can see what's on the other side of the wall, and you can get glimpses of things you aren't really meant to see -- which can be fun and useful. In other games the display just fades to
Les Nessman lives again (Score:2)
Good'ol Les - used to mark his virtual office using masking tape. But electroshock -- oh what an idea.
For you younger folk: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
It won't work (Score:2)