{"id":8917,"date":"2018-06-01T09:09:24","date_gmt":"2018-06-01T15:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.altethos.com\/?p=8917"},"modified":"2018-06-01T09:09:24","modified_gmt":"2018-06-01T15:09:24","slug":"pushing-boundaries-virtual-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/altethos.com\/pushing-boundaries-virtual-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Pushing the Boundaries of Virtual Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Reality is increasing in popularity with a projected <\/span>171 million users<\/span><\/a> in 2018.\u00a0<\/span>Although VR has made some great strides, there are still plenty of areas of exploration and innovation to be examined. With these areas of research there are people dedicating their time on all fronts pushing the boundaries and bringing VR outside the box. \u00a0It is this type of ethos that creates breakthroughs in using technology to connect people. This exploration last year took me to the <\/span>ix symposium 2017<\/span><\/a> entitled Embodied Spaces where they focused on making virtual reality a broader full body experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pushing the boundaries of VR
\n<\/b>The ix symposium put on by <\/span>Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 des Arts Technologiques<\/span><\/a> gives a platform for innovators and creators to showcase how they are leading in areas of development of VR, dome, and other experiential uses of technology to embody the experiences. For the sake of this blog post, I will focus on VR.<\/span><\/p>\n

VR, like many things excels in certain areas and lacks in others. The places where VR excels are in gaming, previsualization, helping reprogram tramas (<\/span>such as PTSD<\/span><\/a>), and demonstrating and proving concepts. Others are exploring uses for movies, artworks, virtual travel, and meditation. \u00a0We are still trying to figure out this technology and see where it lands. Some have made it their mission.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Tolerance<\/strong>
\n<\/span>One of the main limitations of VR at this point is the problem of fatigue. I spoke to the researchers at <\/span>eleVR<\/span><\/a> whose focus in on the study and experiment of immersive reality with a focus on VR and AR. Their main areas study include exploring increasing time spent using the technology and to \u201c<\/span>understand how to expand computational interfaces beyond fingertip-focused to become <\/span>body-conscious <\/span><\/a>and thicken computational spaces from the flat land of screens to fully three-dimensional environments.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One researcher in particular, M. Eifler, caught my attention. She had begun using VR years ago and was extremely vulnerable to motion sickness and fatigue. She spent the next few months building a <\/span>yoga regimen<\/span><\/a> for building tolerance for VR. She was able to build her tolerance from just 3 to 5 minutes to 5 to 6 hours. She would often spend a large portion of her work day in VR having meetings and working.<\/span><\/p>\n

Movement<\/strong>
\n<\/span>In the search for movement solutions in VR, many people have been creating all types of contraptions to heighten the body mind experience. Movement should become a lot easier with new wireless VR headsets, but one still wants to be safely moving in real space while moving around the virtual environment. <\/span><\/p>\n

One solution I tried at ix was the treadmill. There are <\/span>several VR treadmills<\/span><\/a> out there that offer safety for a single user experience. For my treadmill experience, I had to sign a waiver and there were a couple staff nearby watching to make sure I didn’t fall off. My favorite part in the game I was immersed in had me walk across a beam with images of nothing but clouds on either side. I quite literally began to wobble a bit as I tried to find my \u201cbalance\u201d on the beam. Of course I knew I would not fall off, but part of my brain was convinced that I needed to balance on the imaginary beam otherwise I\u2019d fall to my demise.<\/span><\/p>\n

More recently, I sat in a robotic pod. My eyes covered with VR, sound coming from speakers in the pod located near my ears, and a joystick in either hand as I rode a roller coaster and shot at dragons that looked a lot like bats. The experience was 8 minutes long and as the pod moved up and down, left and right to mimic the visuals of the roller coaster. It was an intensified version of my previous VR experience. Admittedly, as a person who can proudly stand up while wearing VR and experiencing a roller coaster ride, and loves the thrill of jumping out of planes, \u00a0I was on the verge of feeling sick from too much movement.<\/span><\/p>\n

VR in a Dome
\n<\/b>By now you probably know that one of my favorite environments is a digital dome (See <\/span>The Rise of the Digital Dome<\/span><\/a>). The dome is a group virtual experience that breaks down a lot of the limitations of VR:<\/span><\/p>\n