If were going to talk about the future of virtual worlds, we need to start thinking about something entirely new. Take for instance Augmented Reality. In the typical sense, were printing markers or limited to the space that can be utilized. Moreover, we continually think in terms of virtual things having no real concept of the real world they are supposed to be embedded in. Spaceglasses, CastAR, etc come to mind. But in demonstrations like this one, we see an entirely new possibility arise that we hadnt thought about before. What if the virtual world were powering the real world seamlessly? What if that level editor where applied to real life like we so do in SecondLife and OpenSim? Interestingly enough, we now talk about changing the world in the most literal fashion. While such demonstrations here use things like PTAM tracking and an consumer grade 3D Camera (like the Kinect) with a pair of Vuzix AR glasses, and possibly in conjunction with an Android device or laptop to power it, the spark of imagination is there nonetheless. It simply needs to be made better instead of the lone work of a single person in Japan in their spare time as a hobby. When I think about Virtual Reality as a future, I see that we as a whole are in that group-think and cognitive dissonance mode of thinking. Iterating on past failures in the hope that this time itll break through like we imagine. But the reality of the situation is this - Would you sit at home with an Oculus VR headset if somebody handed you a headset that let you do what this video is showing? If you could walk around your house and build a Mario level in your kitchen to play, or have epic battles Final Fantasy style in the back yard? What will Oculus offer you in the event that something like Ingress puts you in the game for real and you can see those portals and the enemies pouring out before you, and its up to you and other people around you to fight them in real space? When I think about virtual reality, I believe we can change the world instead of marginally just changing our mind with a few iterative steps. I believe we should be running instead of still taking our baby steps. So the future of virtual reality to me, looks like advanced Augmented Reality powered by Virtual Reality in the real world. No reflective mats or gadgets/wands to interact... just our hands are good enough to reach out and interact. VR without Limits. The real world becomes your virtual world sandbox.
Posted on: Sun, 13 Apr 2014 20:57:50 +0000
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