Motion Sensor VR Headset

Hello Virtual Reality freaks! It’s been a good year for our favorite technology; as we have seen in this blog VR has been invading our day to day lives in more ways than one, from resurrecting dead icons to training our doctors, and from the barracks to our living rooms!

Although traditionally we have thought of VR as a ways of enhancing leisurely visual experiences, most of the posts on this blog have been more centered on how it is making our lives better and how virtual reality can actually sharpen our real world skills. Nonetheless last week we went back to the basics, focusing on Sony’s VR headset for our personal use. As you recall this device essentially projects the same thing a TV monitor would, and the headset would simply serve to enhance your viewer experience.

This week I want to talk about something very similar yet much more sophisticated. There is another headset that’s designed for personal that has not yet hit the market. This headset is much more elaborate in that it has motion sensors that track the direction in which you are facing. The idea is that when you place the headset on your head you are immersed in a world in which you have to literally look around in order to view what is being projected, as opposed to just simply look at something that’s pre-recorded in an enclosed environment, as in the case with Sony’s unit.

The headset I am talking about does not have a name, it’s still a prototype. It was developed by Id software founder John Carmack, maker of famous video games such as Quake and Doom. The headset was being used to enhance and promote the launch of Doom 3 at the recent E3 Expo, the world’s premier video game convention.

Doom 3 is the third installment in the First-person shooter (FPS) series. The headset required users to look around in order to find enemies and to aim properly at their targets. The following article (Click Here for Article) summarizes how this is performed: “the HMZ-T1 offers a 45-degree viewing angle, creating the impression of a 3D screen floating in space in front of you. Carmack's device has a 90-degree viewing angle, almost fully encompassing your forward field of vision. It puts you inside the image”.

Although the buzz on this new headset will surely be about the potential it has specifically on video game enhancement, it will probably need to incorporate a broader use (like Sony’s version) in order to sell adequately. Nonetheless what I think is remarkable about this product is that it is incorporating much more sophisticated technology than I would have expected. I suspect, for example, that the military must be using something similar in the headsets they provide their soldiers for training. In order for soldiers to properly use their headsets to simulate combat situations they have to be able to look around and find their targets, as in Doom. If you haven’t read our articles on VR and military training I suggest you do.

Whether John Carmack’s headset or not sells well I cannot say. It really depends on price vs. value. Regardless of its impact in the market what we must really focus on is how far VR technologies have gone outside leisurely use. VR headsets have been around since I can remember, and only now are they becoming accessible enough to have in our homes. The wait has been worthwhile though as the functional development of VR will make the leisure version of it that much more enjoyable and useful for us when it reaches our homes in the very near future. 

Sony's New 3D Headset

While browsing youtube.com for all things virtual reality I came across this review for a Sony 3D headset:

This came out a few months ago and I’m surprised I just found out about this. Nonetheless this headset is quite cool. It essentially does the same thing as a TV and monitor; it projects images from things like cable boxes, computers, video game systems, Blu-Ray/DVD players etc. The difference is that the headset provides a very unique personal experience where you are essentially immersed into the environment of whatever it is that your watching.

If you watch the video review you probably noticed these guys were quite impressed with the performance of this unit. Personally I thought they were very nerdy and annoying but I still wanted to test the freakin’ thing out! The unit projects both 3D and 2D images, depending on what you feel most comfortable with, and the prospect of playing a video game such as Modern Warfare on this thing seems very intriguing.

Aside from the fact that this new product has a high “wow” factor to it, I find it to be quite functional for daily use. The first thing I want to point out is the price point; at $799.00 I think this is a reasonable price. Initially you might think this is high, but a decent sized 3D television will cost you a lot more and will not provide the virtual reality experience of these headsets. Although an Ipad may have more uses, you would think a 3D headset as sophisticated as this one would cost more, and yet this it is cheaper than many of the newest Ipad’s, depending on the model.

Click Here to see pricing on Amazon.com

The second thing is that one of these bad boys can be quite useful. If you have a significant other with whom you share a bed you probably have fought for control over the TV at some point, or you may have wanted to fall asleep while your partner continues to watch TV, which can be annoying. With this headset you can both stay in bed and watch different things if you so choose; in fact you probably will be fighting over the rights to watch TV over the headset. This applies to any situation in which one person wanting to use a TV or monitor will bother someone who does not. This headset provides the intimate experience that earphones provide when listening to music ( although the headset does not have the benefit of being portable, like earphones).

In retrospect this is just another example of how Virtual Reality is becoming more integrated into our daily lives. Technology that we used to read about in magazines and see in movies is now available for purchase. How long will it take before you own a piece of the future?

Virtual Reality Contact Lenses

When you mention Virtual Reality to most people the first thing that will probably come to their mind is a clunky helmet that covers your face and projects life like images. Although this may be a primitive image of how people perceive virtual reality, this technology usually requires some kind of heavy and large hardware in order to function. Consider some of the other topics we have discussed in this blog such as helmets for the military, holographic projectors that transmit life like images, TV screens and large controls that simulate an operation, among others; each one requires a heavy piece of machinery in order to function.

Nonetheless this may change in the very near future as various companies are trying to develop contact lenses that enhance our visual capabilities as human beings and have the capability of projecting virtual and computer generated images. If developed properly this particular advancement in technology can have a huge impact in how we live our lives; the amount of computing hardware we use and have may become increasingly obsolete.

The most important factor in developing such sophisticated eyewear is that humans will be able to see things better than what their natural capacity allows. Aside from correcting defective vision, digitally enhanced contact lenses could enhance our ability to focus and zoom on things. Theoretically humans can have “eagle vision”, or potentially something even better.

But more than enhancing our natural vision these contact lenses can replace a lot of things we consider essential today; the first thing that comes to mind is your smartphone and tablets. These units have increasingly become part of our lives due to their portability and the amount of functions they provide. We can browse the internet for instant information, view movies, read books, answer emails and phone calls etc. With a “virtual reality” contact lens you could theoretically transfer most uses of a smartphone directly to your eye. To write emails and phone calls you could simply incorporate a small microphone somewhere on your body so as to give commands. You could also project movies and read books through the contact lens. These are just some of the functions that smart phones have that we could see being transferred to a contact lens, but the potential for it is definitely there.

Another potentially important use of digitally enhanced contact lenses is for the military. In order to not go into much detail of the potential benefits of this type of technology in the military, simply try to remember the terminator movies. If you recall the Terminators had a very cool computer vision that gave them data regarding their targets and environments which gave them a competitive advantage over regular humans. Essentially soldiers would have “Terminator Vision”.

Most of this technology is being tested today and should be market ready for 2014. We must consider that this technology may have to go through some trial and error before it is incorporated in everyday life or even in the military, but the potential benefits could significantly alter how we live our lives moving forward.

Click to see article on development of Contact Lenses

Virtual Reality for Surgery Training

Does anyone remember the board game by Milton Bradley “Operation”? If you don’t then you’re probably not a child of the 1980’s and 1990’s; this game essentially tested the sensitivity of your hand when picking out plastic organs from an electronic board with the form of a cartoon man. If you happen to touch the sides where an organ was placed an electronic buzzer would go off signaling that you had failed in your attempt to remove whatever part of the body you were designated. Here’s a video to refresh your memory:

Even as a little boy I wondered to myself if this game actually meant something with regards to maintaining a calm hand when executing delicate maneuvers and if this could actually help real doctors.

The reason I bring this up is because today doctors and doctors in training are using virtual reality to simulate the real thing. Please watch this next video to see exactly how:

Reuters Video on Doctors Using Virtual Reality to Simulate Real Life Surgeries

This here is real ground breaking stuff people! You would be surprised at the amount of operations that students and apprentices perform on regular people under the watchful eye of a senior doctor. You’re not aware because you’re asleep during the operation, but this is actually quite common. As a patient this can be very unsettling because not only is your health at stake, but many times we are paying a premium for recognized doctors to perform particular surgeries on us.

Since this practice is quite common we can at least trust that students and apprentices that participate in our surgeries have been well trained. The real interesting thing about this particular technology is that a doctor doesn’t have to wear a helmet to simulate the operation; he has handles that accurately represent what is used in real surgeries, and these handles or controls are connected to a system that transmit a virtual  3D image to a TV of the inner parts of our bodies. The person with the handles can then virtually operate via the TV, like a video game. The handles actually provide resistance when managing the organs within the game that simulate their real life weight.

Not only does this make us feel that our doctors and surgeons are better prepared to perform surgeries but it also reduces the need for “guinea pigs”. The video mentions that doctors either learned on the fly with real patients or were provided with animals with which to practice surgeries on before they had this system.

Maybe the developers of this technology used “Operation” as influence, because virtual operations seem to be a more sophisticated version of the original board game. Nonetheless medicine has found a very efficient and effective way to train their surgeons. We can now feel safer when “we go under the knife”, and for animal rights activists this has to be considered a victory for them as many animals will be spared the label of “guinea pig” 

Meeting with Avatars

Avatar, the first movie in history to generate more than $2 billion worldwide in gross sales, was also famous for creating an utopia so enchanting that many audience fell into depression once they returned to the real world after watching the film. What if we were to tell you that avatars do exist in the real world? And that a company has found a way to integrate avatars to our world in order to provide a more substantial impact than merely teasing our minds with the magic dust of science fiction.

Avatar: the 2009 James Cameron movie

The company, ProtonMedia, has developed a software called Protosphere in which life science organizations can use avatars in a virtual conference space to conduct various meetings and group collaboration around the world. Each user is represented by an avatar, connected to a SharePoint profile, blog and wiki. Protosphere allows simultaneous meetings to occur across time zones, thus expediting the most time-consuming process in the drug development phase in which work is passed around between work sites that may be several time zones apart. 

ProtoSphere: Engaging global communication and collaboration via avatars

This virtual work place has many applications that extend beyond overcoming the challenges of simultaneous global communication. According to ProtonMedia, Protosphere is also used across the product life cycle wherever knowledge transfer, collaboration and learning are critical to successful outcomes. Therefore, the use ranges from collaborative research and development, virtual clinical trials, sales training and enablement and project teaming.

Protosphere touches upon a core discussion in today’s IT community: is IT really changing our world? Or is it merely creating new means that provide a more efficient space to convene knowledge via platforms? In the case of Protosphere, it provides an example which bridges the two sides of this argument. Even though Protosphere changed the way that conference meetings are normally conducted through the use of virtual reality technology, the software is nothing more than a new tool that collects knowledge more efficiently to help companies achieve higher productivity. With Photosphere, companies can reduce substantial costs associated with employee travels and can transfer savings into R&D projects, etc. However, ProtonMedia’s use of avatars in the software design raised an interesting point- that human interaction is necessary to enhance engagement level in a virtual setting and acts as an irreplaceable component of virtual reality.

So, it’s like avatar but not J   

Holograms: the music industry Holy Grail?

On May 10, 2012, BBC broadcasted in their website an article where Brian May, Queen’s guitarist, revealed that Freddie Mercury, who is dead for 21 years, would make an “appearance” during the show “We Will Rock You”, at London’s Dominion Theatre.

This performance would celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the Queen’s musical “We Will Rock You”, that is on scene since May 14, 2002, in West End, London. According to Brian, they pretend to give their fans a “live performance” using holographic techniques, and some sort of optical illusions. Among other things, he stated that the “2Pac show” in Coachella music festival wasn’t a pioneer project in terms of holographic entertainment, because the musical’s production team was working for quite a while on the performance of the charismatic singer and entertainer and the idea of having Freddie on stage was a really old one. He also mentioned that the “2Pac show” was kind of an unfortunate event for them, since they were working for so long on Freddie’s unprecedented appearance. Nevertheless, he was confident about the output and even mentioned "People will come out saying, 'did we actually see Freddie?’".

Freddie Mercury, singer, songwriter and entertainer

Brian May also announced that the Hollywood star Robert de Niro would make a special appearance, since he is one of the show’s producers, and he is also associated with this unique show.

Ben Elton, Robert de Niro, Brian May and Roger Taylor

As you all probably know, Brian May is the Queen’s famous guitarist who, in the early 70s, started the band with Roger Taylor, the band’s drummer, and Freddie Mercury, the lead singer and "one of rock's greatest all-time entertainers", according to Allmusic.

We believe that this unprecedented performance opens a completely new chapter in the music industry and raises some questionable issues? Is this the holy grail of music, the juice that leads to immortality? Will the expression post-mortem make any sense in the future? What kind of opportunities does it creates for music producers?

Wouldn’t you buy a ticket for a concert where Ray Charles is in the piano, Bob Marley is in the guitar, Elvis Presley is singing and Michael Jackson is dancing?

Check here the BBC article...

Holographic Projections: the future?

Remember our first article? The one with a digitally recreated hologram of 2pac? If you do remember, then you will recall that, in our reflection on the potential for this type of technology, we mentioned that this could be very helpful for things like business conferencing and communicating amongst friends as an alternative to current forms of video conferencing, such as Skype.

Well, apparently someone was listening because today we logged into WIRED and found the following article:

3-D Video Pod Delivers 360-Degree, Holograph-Like Projections

So TeleHuman is a cylinder that transmits real time videoconferences in 3D as well as a 360-degree view of the opposite party.  The unit has two main components: a cylinder with a special display with an internal projection mechanism, and a set of cameras that track and capture your position as you communicate with whomever is on the other end of the conversation. TeleHuman uses Kinect technology (we are assuming their referring to Microsoft Xbox Kinect) and distortion correction to transmit the users movements. This includes 10 different sensors placed adequately to replicate your position from a 360-degree perspective.

The TeleHuman is so sophisticated that it can supposedly allow users to make eye-contact (something that seems impossible to do on current standard video conference units and programs) as well as an accurate depiction of where people are pointing.

Director of Human Media Lab and Professor of Human-Computer Interaction Roel Vertegaal explains the utility of TeleHuman by saying that “when you think about preserving human communication, it’s more about what you leave out rather than what you add. With this system, we’re trying to leave out as little as possible”.

Professor Raul Vertegaal. Photo:Ariel Zambelich/Wired

We can certainly understand Mr. Vertegaal’s idea, and it makes a lot of sense, but apparently including as much reality as possible comes at the expense of image quality and the users visual convenience. Your image is transmitted within the cylinder. Although the image may appear holographic, it is not. The current technology allows only for low-res images and requires the use of special glasses for 3D imaging. If you look at the demonstration video in the bottom of the article you can really sense that what is projected has rather low image quality, despite its innovative nature.

We must take into account that TeleHuman is very new, and it’s purpose brings together a variety of recent, important technologies such as motion sensoring, virtual/augmented reality and improved visual communication that are currently being used in the business world, video games and digital imaging. Although TeleHuman may be too primitive right now to serve a purpose in any particular thing, the article mentions that doctors may use it to make physical examinations without the presence of a patient and it can be used for sports instruction; it has already been used effectively for yoga instructions. We believe that if developed properly it can be used for more day-to-day things like business meetings, conferences, and inter-personal communication (as mentioned in the 2pac article).

Nonetheless, we don’t believe this will revolutionize the way we communicate with each other, simply because it is not a convenient technology for daily use.  Since there is no hologram the cylinder is currently “life size”, standing at 6 feet and 5 inches, which takes up a lot of space. Also most people prefer non visual communication for daily conversations, either because internet speed is too slow to support video, they don’t want to go through the hassle of formally video conferencing another person, or because they simply feel more comfortable without having the visual aspect while talking over the phone or computer.

If you think about how often you use the camera on your phone or computer versus traditional phone calls you know that video conferencing is a niche. At the end of the day technology like TeleHuman can enhance videoconferencing within that particular niche, but it likely won’t alter traditional forms of communicating.

Watch the video...