There is one thing in the article that I'd like to clear up. Spending too much time in VR does not always result in nausea. My wife is a VR artist, and she has spent many multihour stretches in VR working on a piece; one stint lasted 9 hours with only a few short breaks. The primary cause of nausea is low video frame rates in the headsets. Higher frame rates (90 frames-per-second) or higher are much better. Frame rates will increase before too long.
Also, today's VR headsets have a fixed focal distance. A new technology called varifocal displays allows things to appear as if they are varying distances from your eyes rather than the fixed distance of today's headset screens. This will also help reduce both nausea and eye fatigue.
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As a casual user of VR what I find most annoying is the screendoor effect. Once headsets can eliminate the pixel lattice and deliver high enough resolution to each eye, the effect is not complete. When that happens, it will be so good that you will really feel in another world. Even the latest and greatest upcoming headsets are far from achieving this. Art projects in VR are really a great use of the technology, imagination is the limit here. I highly recommend to readers to get exposed to this technology soon, it will be huge for the future of content delivery.
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Homo Sapiens won’t be forever satisfied viewing Cyberia thru portholes. One day, like fire, HS will take the plunge into Cyberia and never look back.
I'm surprised that Alejandro G Iñarritu's Carne y Arena wasn't mention in this article, it has been the most praised VR installation and the one that, to my opinion, is years ahead of anything that has been done regarding VR. Differently from many VR experiences, this is not only an artistic and technical achievement but also an emotional ride. I hope that Mr Birnbaum or anyone interested in VR can have the opportunity to see it some day...
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Love this. As a VR gamer, I've enjoyed the artsy "experiences" as much or more than the traditional games. Bring it on.
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VR will always have a problem penetrating the masses so long as it requires large and cumbersome apparatus' such as the Oculus, etc. The tech has a considerable distance to go, if it gets there at all. Perhaps when/if a form of hi-tech contact lens is developed? In any case VR is one thing, but AR (Augmented Reality) is another, probably more realistic, expectation to have regarding the future of all of this. Regardless it presents a fascinating look at what might possible doesn't it?
John~
American Net'Zen
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@John These problems will be solved. In fact, I already know of two companies working on VR contact lenses...
VR headsets are not that expensive these days. The Oculus Go is about $200. There is some pretty cool “non-gaming” content out there, but not enough. A chicken and egg sort of problem.
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The tragedy of VR is that many people have the wrong idea of what it is, and some think that it is merely another variety of 3D TVs, so they dismiss it prematurely.
To me, true VR means an audiovisual display system that can create the illusion of a virtual object that seemingly exists independently from the system. For example, when I see a ball in an Oculus Rift, the Rift can track my head movement and show me a correct perspective of the ball in realtime. It does this so accurately that my mind is fooled into perceiving there "really" is a ball in front of me.
True VR is sufficiently convincing to trigger involuntary responses even though I am fully aware that the virtual objects I am seeing do not truly exist. I remember the first time I tried an Oculus Rift and was standing at the top of a tower in VR, and I wanted to "step off" the tower yet I had a little bit of difficulty doing so, even though I was aware that I was physically standing on level ground at an electronics store.
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According to this article, virtual reality (VR) is still in its infancy. That's really not true. The Link Trainer...VR to help pilots fly an airplane...was first developed in the 1930's. And in 1976 I used a driving simulator in a public high school driver's training program.
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@W, I'll certainly agree with that. A more exotic use of VR was to help biochemists design molecular keys to unlock cell signalling pathways. A drug can bind wherever it is designed to work only if it "fits" part of a protein. Scientists could "feel" how well certain drug molecules would stick or be repelled. One that I believe is used a lot are VR models of building designs. Architects can walk through proposed buildings to see better how they might work. My knowledge of this field is at least a decade old, so I hope others can provide more modern examples.
Also, being either a member of a startup company or a modern art collaboration requires a certain nonchalance about where your next paycheck is coming from. Birnbaum is both. Hope his group does well.
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