virtualreality
Latest
Stanford's virtual police lineup makes gangbangers cringe
Although the mere mention of "virtual reality" typically conjures thoughts of gaudy headwear and a fairly good time, Stanford researchers are taking the technology to a much more serious front. A newfangled $25,000 helmet can be used to take victims back to the crime scene, and moreover, can adjust 3D digital busts to give individuals a more accurate look at what the attacker may have looked like at the time of the incident. The virtual police lineup, as it's so aptly titled, enables a virtual world to be opened up in hopes of giving traumatized victims a chance at truly remembering what someone looked like. The weight, height, and basically any other physical attribute of the digital criminal can be altered to give folks a better view, and the wearer can actually approach the busts, inspect their figures, and check out the scar on John Doe's left arm as if the suspects were actually before them. Looks like ski mask robbery just came back into style.[Via Primidi]
Take an actual walk in virtual reality with String Walker
SIGGRAPH has certainly been the home of many virtual reality demonstrations, and this year yet another contraption that (partially) removes us from the world we know will be on display. Similar to the Powered Shoes and Virtusphere seen in years past, the String Walker is a "locomotion interface that uses eight strings actuated by motor-pulley mechanisms mounted on a turntable" in order to let users walk through virtual landscapes. Proprioceptive feedback allows the VR system to translate actual footsteps into the digital world, giving participants a reason to stroll around rather than just twiddling their thumbs. Reportedly, the biggest challenge was mastering the floor, which enables omni-directional walking that simple "treadmill-like" surfaces don't offer and in a simpler fashion than the "complicated" CirculaFloor. Next-generation DDR, here we come.[Via Gizmag]
The Geordi LaForge future in gaming is now
Spray paint the VR920 gold and you too can be the Geordi LaForge of gaming. Icuiti's VR920 was apparently the winner of the 2007 CES innovations award. The headset gives the feeling of watching a 62 inch screen from 9 feet away. It displays in 640x480, includes a built in microphone and head tracker. Whether you think it's cool or an absolute waste, it sure beats the heck out of the old-school VR sets that made you look like your grandparents returning from the eye doctor. The VR920 is not yet available.[Via TheElectricSistahood]
VR game helps addicts quit smoking
Game addiction might be a hot topic at the moment, but researchers at the University of Georgia are hoping a specially designed virtual reality game can help people get over a much more prevalent addiction: smoking. Patients in the study don a ridiculous looking VR headset and are placed in simulations of situations where they might be tempted to smoke, like a party full of other smokers or a tight traffic jam. With the help of a therapist, the smoker gradually learns how to handle these situations without lighting up. Does it work? One elderly smoker interviewed for the story had failed to quit with the patch and medications, but after the VR sessions found she could "be in a room with four or five people smoking and I don't light up." We have the opposite problem -- after years of playing Mario, it's hard for us to be in a room full of turtles without feeling the need to jump on their backs over and over. Related: Virtual reality student project aims to cure acrophobia [Via Game|Life]
Virtual reality student project aims to cure acrophobia
The Last Boss's Tom Fronczak (a semester away from a degree in game design) profiles a VR studio at the University of Pittsburgh's Medical Virtual Reality Center, which he and a small team of classmates will use to develop an acrophobia (fear of heights) sim to be used during habitual therapy sessions. Tom's group will be using Unreal Engine (1) to design a level, ideally representing an unfinished skyscraper. Players Patients will slowly ascend the floors of the building, eventually emerging into the open air, where they'll have to navigate up scaffolding to reach the top, grab the flag, and sprint back to base. Development time has be limited to ten weeks.Tom will continue to update The Last Boss readers on the status of his project during the coming weeks, and notes he's eager for feedback. Our advice: Don't look down!
Group promises dedicated VR "Neuronet," skepticism ensues
An upstart organization calling itself the International Association of Virtual Reality Technologies (IAVRT) looks to be out to bring back the VR glory days, recently announcing that it's planning nothing short of an entirely new network that'll be all VR all the time, existing alongside the plain-old, apparently not-suitable-for-VR Internet. According to the organization, this new network, called the "Neuronet," is possible as a result of the "massive overcapacity of fiber optic cable left over from the dot-com era," which makes it "feasible with minimal investment." To cover some of those other costs, IAVRT says it'll soon begin accepting pre-registrations for .vr and .cin ("cinematic virtual reality neurosites") domains, with the organization also planning on operating as an ICANN-like governing body. Not surprisingly, the announcement has been met with a fair bit of skepticism (to put it kindly), due in no small part to the complete lack of details on anyone involved with the organization, not to mention the little matter of practicality. The reBang weblog in particular has been doing lots of digging into the legitimacy of the group, and while not turning up anything conclusive, it has led to a wide range of speculation, even including remote possilibility that it's all an elaborate Alternate Reality Game (ARG). It looks we should know soon enough, however, with IAVRT reportedly set to announce "several major partnership announcements" in the coming weeks.Read - International Association of Virtual Reality TechnologiesRead - reBang, "Is Neuronet a Scam?"Read - CNET, "Virtual reality to get its own network?"[Via Slashdot]
Lacking human subjects, researchers torture virtual females for science
Back in the 1960s, the hot new research was Stanley Milgram's tests on human behavior that involved subjects who thought they were administering electrical shocks to female victims for failing to answer test questions correctly. Some participants could hear their "victim" scream in response to the fake shocks being administered, which would sometimes escalate to lethal voltage levels. Turns out, the tests were unethical due to the stress levels and deception involved -- even though nobody was actually getting shocked to death -- but the research was valuable for its insights into human behavior, especially that nasty "yes, I will shock someone to death for misquoting the Gettysburg Address" behavior we hear so much about. Now the experiments have been recreated by Professor Mel Slater of Catalan Polytechnic University, but he's replaced the fake "real" torture victims with real virtual victims. Capiche? Apparently participants in the study ended up acting quite similarly to the original subjects, with sweaty palms, rising heart rates, and a similar quantity of lethal voltage applications. So until such nastiness upon virtual women is deemed unethical, it looks like scientists have a new way to monitor human behavior in extreme conditions. Will no one stand up to defend the ones and zeros? [Via Medgadget
DIY project merges VR goggles with RC airplane
Those crafty Canadians, they've invented everything from the beloved BlackBerry to medicalbots. Well, let's add another really sweet creation (DIY-style, this time) to the mix: a radio-controlled airplane with an on-board wireless pan-tilt camera that's linked up to a pair of VR goggles to show what the cam sees. When the terrestrial-bound viewer wears said goggles and moves his or her head, the plane-based cam will adjust accordingly -- if the viewer looks up, the cam looks up, and if the viewer looks to the left, the cam looks to the left, et cetera. Just check out the video linked below, for an amazing aerial tour of the "Club de golf Royal" in Bromont, Québec (near Montreal).[Via digg]
Virtusphere brings together VR, hamsterball technology
We here at Joystiq are all about the virtual reality technology, but the current state-of-the-art in hand-waving leaves us a little wanting. Enter the Virtusphere, a 10-foot tall, 400+ pound hollow steel sphere with sensors that translate every step into in-game movement. The Russian-made device, which has apparently been in development since at least 1996, uses a head-mounted display and handheld controller to allow free, immersive exploration and viewing of a 3D world.The device seems targeted primarily towards military and police training uses, but the possibilities for gaming are obvious. Just the idea of using this thing for some Super Monkey Ball or even American Gladiators-style Atlasphere matches gets us all excited. What game world would you like to explore in a giant, virtual hamsterball?[Thanks bassbeast]
Xbox and P5 glove modified to help stroke patients
Researchers at Rutgers University don't seem to have lost any of their homebrew skills, taking an Xbox and an Essential Reality P5 gaming glove to create a low-cost alternative to traditional virtual reality rehabilitation systems -- systems which can cost up to ten times as much. This project uses some custom-made software to deliver exercises designed to help stroke patients regain hand movement, with one "game" consisting of wiping "dirty pixels" off four vertical bars, while another asks the patient to make a fist fast enough to scare a butterfly off the screen. Of course, the system isn't quite up to snuff with the more expensive options -- it has poorer accuracy and no force feedback, for instance -- but the researchers say it could still be a boon to clinics that can't afford the pricier gear and could even potentially be further modified to allow for home-care with monitoring via an Internet connection.[Via BoingBoing]
Researchers test telepathy in virtual world
Those mad scientists at the University of Manchester are at it again, first repairing broken bones with inkjet printers, then simulating velociraptor attacks, and now trying to determine once and for all if telepathy is real -- using virtual reality, of course. About a hundred individuals are expected to take part in the experiment, which'll also test if telepathic abilities are stronger between people that already know each other. In the tests, two subjects will be placed far apart from each other, on different floors of the building (to avoid cheating), each donning VR helmets and gloves that plop then into a virtual environment. One of the individuals is then presented with an image that they're supposed to concentrate on and interact with, while the other is shown four items, from which they must pick the other person's object. We give this about an 80% chance of being inconclusive, a 10% chance of it proving that telepathy is real, and a 10% chance that things go completely haywire, giving everyone involved super telepathic abilities.
Powered Shoes take virtual reality input to new level of nerdy
We can't say you're going to look like a total stud walking around in your new "Powered Shoes" virtual reality gear, but if you're like us and studliness was never an option, then why not throw all fashion to the wind and strap on a bit of VR gadgetry? The basic premise is the motorized rollerskate wheels, which allow you to stay in place while walking, and track those movements to a simulation or game. Once you get everything up and running you can blaze along at a whole 2 feet per second, which might make virtual world even more boring than this one, but it's the principle of the thing, no?[Via MAKE]
Iowa State's C6 VR room upgrading to 100 million pixels
Iowa State University has just announced a $4 million overhaul of its so-called "C6" virtual reality room that will enable a total of 100,000,000 pixels to be displayed on all six 10-foot by 10-foot surfaces in the room, and supposedly make it the most realistic environment of its kind in the world. In use since June of 2000, C6 has served a role in projects for fields as diverse as urban planning, cell biology, and mechanical engineering, and is currently being funded by military grant money to develop a VR room which would enable a single operator to remotely view and control a squadron of unmanned planes. To give the refurbished room an impressive sixteen times the resolution of its current iteration, researchers at the school's Virtual Reality Applications Center are hooking 24 Sony digital projectors up to an HP server stuffed with 96 graphics processors, as well as adding eight channel surround sound and motion tracking software. Iowa State students looking to break into the room at night for some absolutely sick FPS action can do so this fall.[Via ZDNet]
Play against your pets in virtual reality
If you've ever wanted to play something more meaningful than "Fetch!" with your pets, this research project might prove just the thing. A collaboration between the Emerging Art and Architecture Research Group and the Mixed Reality Lab, Singapore, Mice Arena allows your hamster to chase you -- in a virtual reality.By using a tank with an elastic floor, which is manipulated to reflect the digital terrain, pets can experience the virtual world first-hand. It's an interesting idea, though we're hard pressed to see a practical side to it. Still, the researchers are hoping for "unexpected results", so you never know -- we just may learn something after all.[Via Engadget]
