VR Researchers Manipulate Human Visual System To Create An Infinite Corridor In a Fixed Space (roadtovr.com) 63
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Road to VR: This video showcases a new redirected walking implementation project that creates an "unlimited" virtual corridor in a space just 5 x 7 meters in size. Redirected walking (RDW) is a technique which aims to maximize the physical space of a virtual reality play space by tricking your senses. Or, "strongly modifying spatial perception" so that your mind believes, for example, that you're body is traveling in a straight line where in reality, it's traversing a carefully calculated curved course to keep that play space small. At SIGGRAPH last week, a project developed in part by Unity Product Evangelist and Education Lead Yohei Yanase at the University of Tokyo was present, featuring a new "Visuo-Haptic" VR experience which claims to create the illusion via an infinite virtual corridor within an actual physical play space of just 5 x 7 meters in size.
"It works by strongly modifying spatial perception, all while avoiding the typical "reorientation" manipulation methods that most often cause VR motion sickness," states a press release, "And it's designed to let multiple people experience it simultaneously, without risk of bumping into each other. Modern techniques like this could represent the next phase in VR navigation, merging virtual with physical environments to extend the comfort of VR sessions and extensibility of virtual environments."
"It works by strongly modifying spatial perception, all while avoiding the typical "reorientation" manipulation methods that most often cause VR motion sickness," states a press release, "And it's designed to let multiple people experience it simultaneously, without risk of bumping into each other. Modern techniques like this could represent the next phase in VR navigation, merging virtual with physical environments to extend the comfort of VR sessions and extensibility of virtual environments."
After watching the video... (Score:4, Funny)
All I can say is that the users are going around in circles.
Re: (Score:2)
From the inside, the hamster wheel ... (Score:1)
... looks like a career ladder. :)
Old saying around here.
THX-1138 (Score:1)
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or Holodecks.
Re: THX-1138 (Score:4, Insightful)
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Holodecks don't use matter transportation tricks for the walking, they make you walk on the same spot, like a treadmill.
old news? (Score:2, Informative)
Well-known problem in the real world (Score:1)
Hikers and other outdoorsy types know you always pick a fixed and distant point to walk towards because using closer landmarks (or none at all) always results in walking in a circle. This is primarily because our legs are different lengths, but also because humans are really bad at judging small subtle changes over time.
It's kind of cool they found the minimum radius, but otherwise this is nothing new.
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Hikers and other outdoorsy types know you always pick a fixed and distant point to walk towards because using closer landmarks (or none at all) always results in walking in a circle. This is primarily because our legs are different lengths
That sounds like something off Brass Eye.
3-Demon (Score:1)
Back in the late 80's, when it was already a rather obsolete system, I ran 3-Demon on an IBM-PC Junior.
3-Demon is a wireframe 3-D version of Pacman. It runs pretty good on a PC-XT, but one of the amusing things about playing it on a PC Junior (which among other things lacks a DMA controller) is that the game severely slows down if you turn to face a particularly long corridor.
3-Demon creates an infinite corridor in a fixed space. With 128K of RAM and no DMA controller (among other limitations).
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3-Demon creates an infinite corridor in a fixed space.
No, it doesn't. I played that game a lot. It gave a wireframe representation of a 17 x 19 map. The longest corridor was 17 long.
Here is a video of 3-Demon. [youtube.com] Thanks for reminding me of this game, I loved it.
2016 ??? (Score:1)
This is literally a major editor fail. This article is from 2016.
No Thanks (Score:1)
Can you just make 2d cartoons hand drawn again? Cuphead was better than all of 3D until now.
Redirected walking (Score:5, Informative)
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Slashdot: If it's old news, they'll be the first to bring it to you!
not really.. (Score:2)
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Really? If a 5x7m space were enough to freely roam through a vast game world from end to end, I'd certainly prefer that to having to teleport between points that I could then explore within the limits of a 5x7m box.
Of course, I wouldn't want to explore the world with my hand constantly on a wall, which seems to be an important part of this trick. Without that it sounds like the minimum radius is ~22m, or a 44x44m space, probably considerably larger since at any moment you might decide to turn away from th
Curved Space (Score:2)
The example is a bit odd and actually, trivial , but it does resemble the idea of VR in curved space (Riemann manifold), like what you have in General Relativity.
What about a treadmill? (Score:2)
I swear I saw something about using a treadmill that can move in every direction as a solution to VR movement in a confined space...
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Lots of options, but mostly very sub-optimal. I've seen
- the giant "gerbil ball" models (a nuisance getting in and out of, and you pretty much require wireless VR, which isn't here yet.
- the "running in a bowl wearing slippery shoes" model, which is considerably more affordable and doesn't mind wires, but requires an abdominal harness to keep you from falling on your ass, which also prevents a wide range of natural motion (no crouching or bending over too far)
- and various actual powered treadmills, which
Better summary (Score:1)
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Considering that they say the minimum radius is 22m (i.e. a 44x44m space) without the haptic feedback, I'd say an almost 9x reduction in radius is a bit more than "somewhat" smaller. The extra 2m are, I assume, the width of the hallway, and not directly relevant to the minimum "straight" radius.
Still, I'm having a hard time imagining a lot of compelling VR experiences that require you to keep one hand on the wall at all times.
No bumping into each other? (Score:1)
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Why must they? Unless you actually want them to be able physically touch each other, there's no need for them to be anywhere near each other physically when they encounter each other virtually.
Required Mythbusters Reference (Score:2)
The problem with VR (Score:2)
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Um, considering that it basically renders you completely blind to the real world, I'd venture a guess that nobody but a complete idiot would use it in public - with the exception of in an arcade where everybody around you is already a self-professed dork anyway. Or at work, where it's a valuable tool, and $#@! what you look like.
Scooby Doo (Score:2)
Finally explains Talosian illusions (Score:2)
Ah, so *THIS* is how the Talosians kept Captain Pike from bouncing off the walls of his cage. I always wondered about that.