Let’s face it, the promise of some Star Trek-like virtual reality “holodeck” has been a sci-fi dream for some time now. The idea of stepping into an über-interactive world of some sort has seemed so appealing and yet so … just out of reach. Not that people haven’t been stretching their virtual arms in pursuit of that wondrous step-into-play dream.
You may have heard of a device called the Cybersphere that some creative types are experimenting with. It’s actually a big air-suspended translucent ball, featuring images projecting on it from outside projectors, that people can climb into and walk around in. As the occupant moves, the images change to give a sense of an actual world around him. The problem has been that the device’s creators haven’t gotten to the point of actually offering much more than a quick jog in one of these things. And, well, who can afford a gazillion dollar hamster wheel for their living room anyway?
Then there’s the Oculus Rift, an upcoming virtual reality headpiece. It’s a potentially cool goggles/headphone combo device that was crowdfunded via Kickstarter. It looks a lot like what we’ve seen show up in sci-fi flicks for a while now, and it’s already gotten some gamemakers to jump onboard with a few software ideas. But the effectiveness of a true consumer version of the thingamajig is still yet to be seen.
I recently spotted a Popular Science magazine article by Bryan Gardiner, however, called “Game Changer.” He believes that the dream of total game immersion may be just a few steps away. And it’s all tied into a piece of equipment that’s already been around for a few years: the Kinect sensor. OK, current Kinect owners are probably rolling their eyes right now, but it’s the new-and-improved version of the Kinect—that’s a part of the soon-to-be-released Xbox One—that this guy is talking about.
With the new Kinect, reams of information will flow from the gamer. … A high-speed 1080p camera can detect minute movements, including eye blinks, wrist twists, and muscle flexes. Using a combination of the camera’s color feed and the active infrared, the Kinect can also pick up fluctuations in a gamer’s facial blood flow to estimate heart rate.
What’s all that info grabbing got to do with a holodeck? Not all that much right now, but it’s Gardiner’s contention that it’s a big leap forward in helping software developers get where they need to go for fully immersive play. For the first time, instead of a gamer simply watching and reacting to a game, the game can watch and react to the gamer. Software can potentially be designed to detect changes in a gamer’s heart rate, positioning or other physiological tells, and actually change the information it feeds back to the guy or gal in the heat of play. So, if for example, a player leans forward or his heart begins to race, the game he’s playing could actually ratchet up the intensity another notch or send him or her in a completely different direction.
That’s some pretty cool beans. It’s not holodeck-level stuff quite yet, but it’s moving in that direction. All we need now is for someone like Star Trek’s Lieutenant Commander Data to incorporate bits of all of the above into one neat little package cheap enough to install in our basement, and we’ll be there. Anybody out there working on a fully functional humanoid at this point?
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