Whatever happened to virtual reality?

[jackal]

We had films like "Lawnmower Man", "Jonny Mnenomic" and "Virtuosity" - to name a few. It was all the headlines in the early 90's.

Sooooooo....... what happened to VR? Why do I still have to look at a screen? Why can't I be right there in the action as we were promised.......and why at times when we are single can't we have "Virtual Valeries the twins version".


Seriously though it seems to have died a death, is it because computer processing power has not advanced at the rate we expected?

I genuinely thought in the early 90's that by now, we'd be able to don a helmet and learn to fly virtually (or something like that).

 

[CooperUK]

It's already happened - and so good perhaps you didn't notice.

Did you eat the blue or the red pill?

 

[jackal]

It's already happened - and so good perhaps you didn't notice.

Did you eat the blue or the red pill?

Both

 

[John]

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Seriously though it seems to have died a death, is it because computer processing power has not advanced at the rate we expected?

I think computing power has advanced exactly as expected , its Moores Law , or something like that .

 

[pRot3us]

If I recall correctly there were issues with headaches and potential eyesight damage due to the fact the eye doesn't have to focus to clearly view distant/close objects.

 

[Woodywizz]

I often surf the forums whilst using my home-made virtual reality headset. Here I am, whilst in the adult-DVD forums, trying to get to grips with Jenna Jameson.

[URL=http://imageshack.us] [/URL]

 

[WibXL]

I think that the main problems with it was the price and the fact that a lot of people suffered from motion sickness whilst using it.

 

[Jaap74]

the scientist that actually developed a proper working "virtual woman", who does anything you want, is still in bed with her and hasn't bothered to make another

 

[Knyght_byte]

i remember playing the virtual reality mech game in trocadero basement in london a number of times, that rocked!

computing power now could easily handle the graphics/physics up to a certain quality level.......as mentioned its partly down to some folks not agreeing with it, bit like folks who see rainbows on DLP projectors etc, but an even bigger factor is that you are still limited to your body staying in one place.......if you want to roam as a character in a FPS type game then you'd need to be on a platform that can move in any direction without you geographically moving.......thats where most of the expense would come in, it would also be very cumbersome and take up room.....not to mention consume a fair bit of power to be touch sensitive to your feets pressure application.....etc...and stuff.....shall i wibble on some more?..lol....sorry, been a long 4 weeks back in work after 8 months off....heh

 

[WibXL]

I seem to remember a while back on some techy program that they had a device that had been designed to allow architects and home buyers to be able to explore a building in an almost virtual reality type enviroment. The user would stand inside a huge ball which could rotate in any direction whilst remaining on the spot and the graphics were provided by many projectors on the outside which would shine on the surface of the ball to give a 360 degree view.

It was all a little boring to be honest until they showed Doom running on it. I suppose that the ball control could be integrated with a VR headset but again size and cost would be the problem but it might help with some of the motion sickness as you would be moving.

 

[Londondecca]

Before VR we were promised the paperless office and that still seems quite remote

 

[braiden]

According to the BBC, VR has just been used to recreate OBE's (Out Of Body Experiences).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6960612.stm

Matrix hear we come!!!

 

[pjclark1]

Did nobody see "Strange Days"

 

[jackal]

I think that most of the issues above could have been resolved (e.g. motion sickness), it just seems the desire to pursue the technology disappeared. Just think of all the potential applications, such as CAD, Exploration, Medical not just gaming/entertainment.

I am just surprised it fell by the wayside without even a sigh - shame really as I never even had a go on the early ones mentioned.

 

[WibXL]

I think that it is used in an industrial way but it never really took off for entertainment.

 

[DVD-Man]

The computing power is there, Intel have a 20Ghz CPU but want you and me to the buy the 5,6,7,8.............and 19ghz versions first.

Liam

 

[mrm3]

The computing power is there, Intel have a 20Ghz CPU but want you and me to the buy the 5,6,7,8.............and 19ghz versions first.

Liam

Really?

What if we agree to buy them all now but I want 0% interest.

 

[partyweb]

Really?

What if we agree to buy them all now but I want 0% interest.

They would probably have 0% interest in that too.

 

[Mr.D]

Its one of those applications that sounds great in theory but sucks the big one in real life. The best human machine interfaces work by giving you the bare information you need without any extraneous garbage.

A unix style command line is stil by far the best way to move and manipulate lots of files : most long time computer users even disregard windows type enviroments.

What we may see in coming years is physical telemetry coming to the fore. Imagine you wear a heads up display that overlays information on top of the real world. People carrying RFID business cards that tell you who they are as you walk past them. Walk around a shop and you can access information ( a bit like a website) just by selecting a product in your physical eyeline.

Imagine hypertext but as a physical manifestation in the real world.

 

[dng007]

i remember playing the virtual reality mech game in trocadero basement in london a number of times, that rocked!

Yeah, I remember them too. Huge grey machines, usually in group of 4. Think there were two or three different 'games', though the only one I can really remember was some tank shooting one. lol, at the time they seemed amazing!

If memory serves a few years later there was some Craig Charles hosted 'virtual reality' gameshow using pretty much the same technology.

 

[PoochJD]

HI,

This is an easy question to answer:

Virtual Reality was virtually useless, and so has become virtually extinct. There! Job done! Next question, please.


Pooch