Assignment: VR/AR News of the Week has closed for the season with 92 entries, all of which we’ve seen at least briefly in class. Some of the stories will be looked back in 5 years and be considered accurate, prophetic, powerful. Others will be looked back in 5 years and be considered off-track, clueless, and ridiculous. PLEASE SELECT YOUR TOP 4 OF EACH.
Promising
1. New wearable skin lets you touch things in VR and and be touched, too
Most of the VR contents have been confined to the audiovisual experience. Only a very few number of them include sense of touch; and yet, tactile sensation in VR environment has been no more than electronic vibrations. According to the article, this second skin can “actually make you feel are touching something real.” I am not sure if this wearable skin will be introduced to the market in 5 years; if so, it will definitely create no little excitement in the VR scene. I agree to the journalist’s opinion that “touch is the last piece needed for virtual reality’s true killer application.” The emergence of “touch” in VR will undoubtedly make our experience more rich and immersive.
2. Create An Entire Home Gym With Oculus Quest
There are a couple of problems when you try to set up home gym. It takes a lot of space, equipment not cheap, and once you get bored with your treadmill or rowing machine–it will give you a headache. Workouts in VR will remedy these disadvantages; they not only require less space, but also are cheaper and far more versatile. The writer of this article notes that “virtual reality headsets deserve serious consideration as an exercise tool.” I also believe this VR fitness will become more and more widespread as the price of standalone headsets (i.e. Oculus Quest) becomes cheaper.
3. Phone-based VR is officially over
After its first introduction to market in 2016, Daydream, Google’s phone-based VR cardboard headset contributed to lowering the entry barriers of VR experience. This article explains why companies decided to discontinue their phone-powered VR services. “Mobile VR was good for short experience,” said the spokesman of Google, “but it had clear limitations.” I think their decision to give up the mobile VR was right, because the course of development is definitely heading to a wireless, standalone equipment. Mobile VR did everything on its part, and is now making way for more powerful successors.
4. Sifting Reality From Hype: What 5G Does (and Doesn’t) Mean for VR & AR
This article gives its reader rich information and context about what 5G is and how it can or cannot impact the development of VR/AR experience. 5G, in short, provides greater bandwidth and lower latency than current mobile networks does. What this means for VR/AR is that, according to the writer, it will enable immersive video streaming and cloud-rendered VR/AR gaming, which are only theoretically possible as of now. And yet, this article points out that “possibility doesn’t always mean viability.” Even if 5G can revolutionize the immersive media, whether people are willing to open their wallet is a whole different question. I think this article has a keen-eyed insight because it is not only showing the rosy future of VR but also considering realistic issues about its market value.
Not Likely
1. Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida: ‘The Human Brain Is Getting Used To’ VR
Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida said in an interview that people are beginning to overcome the dreaded VR simulation sickness. Simulation sickness is a syndrome similar to motion sickness, often experienced during VR exposure. Although a number of researches proved that there is a kind of “adaptation effect,” their result varies strongly between individual studies. I think the recent upgrades of equipment quality may account for a larger portion of this effect, instead of people’s brain actually getting accustomed with immersive media.
2. Facebook’s Latest Purchase Gets Inside Users’ Heads—Literally
Facebook purchased a start-up called “CTRL-Labs” that “uses a mix of machine learning and neuroscience to allow people to manipulate computer interfaces simply by brainpower.” It is remarkable that Facebook, which is often accused of getting inside of its users’ head, actually turns its eyes to this technology. Even though the entire process is supposed to be exclusive to a user, I do not think people will be willing to give someone a direct access to their brain, regardless of how “helpful” it can be. Customers will not let technology intrude into the last bastion of their privacy.
3. Is the world ready for virtual graffiti?
The developers of Mark AR describes their app “the world’s first augmented reality social platform.” It might be the first one, but I think it has some severe limits: this type of platform heavily depends on the size of users. I am skeptical about whether this app can attract enough users in the first place to utilize its full potentials. This article writes that “the idea of wandering around a city, finding the random tags people have left behind, is fascinating.” It might sound fascinating, but in its early stage, people will not find it very interesting as there is nothing much to see.
4. Russian dairy farmers gave cows VR goggles with hopes they would be happier and make better milk
Regardless of whether cows with VR headsets are going to make better milk, this idea is just entirely impractical in many ways. First, I hardly believe someone designed a headset specifically for cow-eyes. If these farmers are just showing their cows VR video set for human-eyes, it will just make these cows confused and even more stressed. Second, let’s say cows somehow produce better milk. Will its benefit outweigh the price of giving VR goggles for every cow? There are many more reasons I can give, including ethical issues too. In short, I hope this news is just another fake news.