VR to the ER: Metaverse Early Adopters Prove Accident Prone (wsj.com) 74
Tally includes broken vases, dislocated shoulders, injured girlfriends; "Why don't you go to the gym like a normal person?" WSJ: A few hours after Toby Robicelli first strapped on the $300 virtual-reality headset he got for Christmas, the Baltimore teenager, who was playing a shooter game called "Superhot VR," lost his balance and fractured his kneecap. "We set it up around 2:00," said Toby's mother, Allison Robicelli, of the tech gadget, "and by 8:00 we were on our way to the ER." She fainted when she saw his leg, she said, and Toby, 14, is now using crutches. Sales of VR headsets rose more than 70% last year from 2020, according to International Data Corp., to 7.9 million units. Demand is driven in part by rising hype around the metaverse, a term proponents use to describe a future 3-D version of the internet, comprising virtual worlds where people will get together to work, learn and play. With interest in the devices growing, so is their reputation for being a source of pain and embarrassment.
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...and the injuries really do nearly always have a better story behind them. "I tore my meniscus and got a bone chip in my knee when I slipped cutting down 100' poplar trees in a rain/windstorm" sounds WAY more BA than "I broke my knee because I strapped a computer to my face and lost track of which way was up."
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"I was using a chainsaw while my uncle raised me up in a front-end-loader to cut branches away from the power lines and slipped. Two cracked ribs and a busted leg. Not even the worst injury this week!"
Telling that story to the bros while hi-fiving and the girls are asking each other why they seem to live longer then men.
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The problem is that you need to set things up to do VR. Don't just stand in a room with a computer strapped to your head. Strap yourself in first, get a waist harness, put down some padding, etc. Spend as much on that stuff as others would spend on a home gym.
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If I'm going to go to all that work and expense, why wouldn't I invest in something more... real? I mean, for a few thousand dollars I can get a car fit to be rallied (entry-level, obviously), or an ORV of some sort (quad, snow machine, dirt bike, mountain bike, whatever suits your fancy), or regular street bike, or firearm and a range membership, small boat, whatever.
The difference is, some are real experiences that fully engage all the senses, while VR is, and always will be, just a computer strapped to
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"The difference is, some are real experiences that fully engage all the senses, while VR is, and always will be, just a computer strapped to your head. It's a cheap imitation of life... why would I want that? "
Because you're 85 and in a wheelchair in a retirement home?
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When I'm 85 and in a wheelchair in a retirement home, I probably won't want to strap a computer on my head and dance around in a padded room... I'll be much more likely to sip a glass of whiskey and play cards, or go for a roll outside. And before you say a retirement home won't let me have a glass of whiskey.... any retirement home I'm ever in will, or I'll find a way to sneak it.
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Because you're 85 and in a wheelchair in a retirement home?
Is he in the wheelchair because he was doing VR and subsequently broke his hip?
Re: Buy a mountain bike, or play tennis, or go ska (Score:1)
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You do realize I was replying to a post where the author said "Spend as much on that stuff as others would spend on a home gym." ?
That said, even for $299 I can think of a whole lot of things I'd rather spend the money on. For $299 I can get a serviceable (though maybe not fancy) bicycle and go for a ride out in the real world, which still sounds like a huge improvement over strapping a computer onto my head in a padded room.
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Someone please wake me when VR headsets are subsidized by the medical industry to "create more business" for them. :-]
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Thanks for telling everyone else what to do with their life....
Didn't know it concerned you what they do in theirs....but aparently it does.
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COVID or not, we still have 10 months of winter per year to deal with up here in Canada.
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"It is mainly the USA and Canada that still suffer from Covid hysteria. The rest of the world seems to be moving on already."
Where I am in Europe every shop, every business requires masks, and real ones, not the surgical crap or scarves.
Also no entry to bars, cafés and restaurants for unvaccinated people, only boostered people are let in.
Unvaccinated people have to do a PCR-test every day at their cost before being allowed at work.
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Unvaccinated people have to do a PCR-test every day at their cost before being allowed at work.
Things like this just prove that COVID causes a lack of common sense.
1. People that still think a vaccine is bad for them.
2. I, as a vaccinated person, still have to wear a mask everywhere. Why? Because I can still carry/transmit COVID. OK, so... why do only unvaccinated people have to get the PCR-test? And get banned from bars,etc.?
I really keep meaning to write down all the dumb rules and idiotic things people have done over the past two years. I could fill a book and publish it in a few years t
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Yeah! If he wanted to just run around and shoot people, he should do what any other teen in the US does and go to school.
Wow, nailed it [cnn.com].
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At least your injuries will have a cool story behind them.
No, not always. I tore my rotator cuff tripping over a curb.
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"Just go outside already!"
Indeed.
Fall from a real building with a jump-board instead of a fake one.
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The Lancet has an occasional, about-New-Year, series of "excuses for injury" stories - injuries to the penis from vacuum cleaners (or the rectum, from tyre inflators) keep on "coming to the top of the pile". When the excuses start appearing there, the technology can be safely considered "mainstream".
Story icon (Score:3)
Shouldn't that foot be in a cast?
wiimote (Score:3)
This is why the wiimote has a strap. This is not a new problem. People do dumb things, its not technology's fault.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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Don't worry. There are plenty of other reasons to be outraged at Zuck and to distrust Meta.
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A hundred million years ago or so, when I was in high school, the computer lab teacher had a sign on his desk. "To error is human. It takes a computer to really foul things up!"
We've just hit the point where the computers are helping us enhance our clumsiness, instead of just our general stupidity.
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In our school computer lab, we had a poster of a monster eating a floppy disk that read "Always back up your data, or your data will meet a horrible fata!" There were others, but that's the only one I remember.
If anyone knows anything about those posters, who made them or where I might find someone selling them, I'd love to get a copy of them for the computer lab here.
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This is why the wiimote has a strap. This is not a new problem. People do dumb things, its not technology's fault.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
It is if the "dumb thing" is simply using the technology as intended.
I don't have much experience with VR games. But if the game incentives vigorously moving around while obstructing the user's vision then accidents are somewhat inevitable.
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> if the game incentives vigorously moving around while obstructing the user's vision then accidents are somewhat inevitable
Umm, maybe you should understand and be prepared for what using VR entails and make an appropriate space for it. Just like the guy in the video I linked could have just put on the strap. If you strap a vision blocking device on your head and you start flailing around and you break something then you only have yourself to blame.
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The wii strap prevents you from losing your balance?
Jokes aside there's a lot of technology which goes into protecting users in their home. The latest Quest 2 Guardian (which it demands you setup when you first put on the headset in a new environment) now not only maps out walls but also furniture so you don't trip over your couch when in VR.
It can't do much about animals or kids coming into the room though.
Teenagers are already adicted to screens, VR? (Score:1)
I blame the parent there.
I have on occasion allowed children and teenagers to use my VR system. It was quite instructive how addictive it is to undeveloped brains, even in its current, primitive form. There's no way I would let a teenager use VR for any length of time. Their brains are already addicted easily to screens and the instant gratification that comes from modern, immersive games.
I started using a computer when I was 6 years old, but it was quite a different thing back then. I spent my time explo
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Oh my. I previewed that before posting and still got it wrong. I meant to say computing as a child did *not* do me more harm than good. It was a positive, good thing! For the record. Sigh.
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Don't forget that we were limited by the hardware too back then (512KB RAM, segment/offset architecture, floppies, etc). It required serious creativity to stay within the limits of the hardware and quite a few people got really good at it. Nowadays, you want to allocate 2GB RAM or use 2TB of disk space? No problem. Just allocate and waste those system resources.
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It's sick, isn't it?
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Luxury, I say.
My first computer came with 2KB of RAM. Later I bought a 16KB RAM expansion pack, that made the computer run SLOWER!
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Haha. Yes I misspoke there. Despite BASIC, it did me more good than harm! I don't think I've ever met an actual programmer who was harmed by BASIC .
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I suspect those who modded that comment down were not parents and haven't seen first-hand the problems this stuff is causing. Seriously. Phones are enough of a problem. say no to Meta's version of the metaverse. (Actually say no to Meta period.)
Wolfenstein VR By Alternate Worlds Technology (Score:2)
Does any one have the rom's / HDD for that game?
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We get to witness another VR AR product implode (Score:2, Troll)
Aside from niche use cases VR and AR are effectively dead before they even launch.
The user base of these products always plateau out to something so trivial that it's not worth supporting anymore. VR is like a honey trap for big tech CEO's. It pretends to offer an unexplored land of riches and wonders. But in reality it's just a giant whirlpool sucking in money.
We are many decades away from any sort of technological interface that will enable a seamless experience in a VR like setting. Goggles and sticks
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The goggles and sticks are awkward at first but you do get used to them.
Twisting and pushing virtual buttons and dials using the controllers is definitely a thing you have to practice.
But is it worth all the effort? Is it fun enough to do this all the time? Would you really play more than, say, ten hours of this every week?
And ask yourself: when is the last time you watched a 3D movie? Why aren't you watching 3D movies more often? Is it the cost of the equipment? (you need a TV and player supporting 3D, goggles, and some movies, do they even have them on streaming?) Are there just not many movies? (maybe they're too troublesome to make, maybe not enough people care to watch them?) Then
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Costco sells crap it can buy in bulk for cheap and sell at just less than the other guy. They usually have a restock deal with the supplier as well. So if it doesn't sell they just return it.
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I truly have to agree,
VR is just taking longer to die off than 3D Movies, and curved TV's did.
But some CEO will dump tons of money into again and again. As the pot at the end of the rainbow is just so damn temping. But right now that pot of gold is just a shiny illusion.
Yes there is going to be the odd person that is "super" into it. It's likely they can't really see that the masses are just flat out rejecting VR. The sales of headset are rising but they are simply trivial in number compared to the pop
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Aside from the (more obvious) game use-case, I imagine being able to have a massive "desktop" in around me and just work on whatever whenever. I'm not sure how a video call would go with my team though - if we're all using avatars, then there's little point having video switched on at all.
Over the years people have experimented with "3d desktops" - they've never worked out, mainly (IMHO) because a mouse is 2D and so is a monitor. When relieved of those constraints, a 3D desktop where you push a window away
Fool's story (Score:2, Interesting)
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It is pretty easy to get into it and drop to your knee to take cover and shoot only to find your knee crushed under your own weight into some hardwood flooring.
Really? I've never been that immersed in a VR game. Nor have I had the motion sickness a lot of my friends complain of.
I can't imagine how immersed someone would need to feel to forget they're in a game, even after spending more than half an hour admiring a single scene in Half-Life: Alyx on more than one occasion.
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It's all about responsible use (Score:3)
As long as you stay within the safe zone (the software clearly alerts you when you get to the edge), there is zero risk of being hurt aside from what you can do swinging your arms around in a meadow. Although I personally prefer weightlifting, it's actually pretty good exercise, particularly the way it can detect when you squat. This article is pure anti-VR clickbait.
Oh Well (Score:1)
Get woke, get broke
The current wave of VR got off on the wrong foot (Score:2)
Swivel chairs have always been the objectively most suitable movement platform for home use of VR. Yet headsets have lacked support for it.
If Occulus had launched with a rotating coupling and ceiling/frame cable mount for swivel chair use it could have set a good trend, instead it set a crippling trend.
Finally (Score:2)
Eventually someone will sue....... (Score:1)
It depends on the user (Score:1)
Notice it was someone who just purchased it? (Score:2)
worlds-tiniest-violin.gif (Score:2)