Clipmarks | Immersive virtual reality Clips

Augmented Reality, Soon in your cellular...

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:30:50 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Interesting.

The Metaverse Roadmap Overview, an exploration of imminent 3D technologies, posited a number of different scenarios of what a future "metaverse" could look like.

The four scenarios -- augmented reality, life-logging, virtual worlds, and mirror worlds -- each offered a different manifestation of an immersive 3D world.

Of the four, I suspect that augmented reality is most likely to be widespread soon;

moreover, when it hits, it's going to have a surprisingly big impact.

Augmented reality (AR) can be thought of as a combination of widely-accessible sensors (including cameras), lightweight computing technologies, and near-ubiquitous high-speed wireless networks -- a combination that's well-underway -- along with a sophisticated form of visualization that layers information over the physical world.

Imagine holding up an iPhone-like device, scanning what's around you, seeing various pop-up items and data links on your screen.

That's something like what an early AR system might look like

Clip Source: www.openthefuture.com

[Video]

Tags: augmented reality, computing, virtual worlds, metaverse

Virtual Unreality (Part 1)

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:24:10 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: This speculation about virtual worlds, besides being fun, reflects on the very deep question of Freedom, freedom of the mind, that is. What is freedom? How much freedom can we really take? How are we going to be if and when we become free. Continue to the second part of this clip...

Clip Source: superconcepts.blogspot.com

Since the early 21st century, the residents of the virtual world Second Life have been working hard to recreate real life as accurately as possible.

But virtual worlds are created by us – so why limit ourselves to reality? We could create entirely new realities.

By realising that we are free of the rules of real life, the doors are open to incredible new possibilities.

Virtual Concepts

Immortality

In Second Life, you cannot die.

Perfect History

It is entirely possible to record every action you perform in your virtual life

All of your memories can be put into the virtual world by means of screen grabs, videos and saved conversations.

Teleportation

Distance is not a real concept in virtual worlds, so can easily be circumvented.

Nanotechnology and the non-existence of the laws of thermodynamics

Tags: virtual reality

Virtual Unreality

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 10:37:31 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: virtual worlds are created by us – so why limit ourselves to reality?

Clip Source: superconcepts.blogspot.com

In the future, we may decide that a virtual existence, a life inside a fully immersive computer game where our every desire is fulfilled, is a more appealing option than the real world we currently inhabit. Many people have presented the idea that we are already in such a virtual reality, but I don’t believe this is possible. This is because virtual worlds provide us with many possibilities that the real world does not, so why have they not been “programmed” into the real world we know?

Despite the virtual platform giving occupants the ability to fly and teleport, they still prefer to meticulously create staircases to walk their avatar up and down. At discos, people require the coolest dance animations and best looking clothes. In meetings, virtual characters sit down to rest their virtual legs. It seems the confines of reality provide a comfortable and familiar environment.

But virtual worlds are created by us – so why limit ourselves to reality?

Tags: virtual, worlds, reality

Playstation 9 the future of gaming

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 10:40:02 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: When can I buy one.....

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Tags: future gaming, immersive virtual reality

VirtuSphere -- A Virtual Reality Simulation Platform

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 17:13:05 GMT

clipped by: rj3sp

Clip Source: www.virtusphere.net

Break through into immersive Virtual Reality with VirtuSphere™ - the unique simulation platform that allows lifelike movements in cyberspace.

6 degrees of freedom – move in any direction. Walk, crawl, run over virtually unlimited distances.

VirtuSphere can be compatible with all computer based simulations. It is versatile. Need to change the purpose of use? Just reload the software.

Learn more about what makes VirtuSphere the best solution for fullness of immersion and simplicity - for your simulation and training needs.

Clip Source: www.virtusphere.net

The VirtuSphere allows the user to walk “inside" computer generated virtual space while being totally immersed. For example, the user could carry out "virtual explorations" of museums or a new city, or conduct police or military training in a much more realistic manner than that which has been possible until now.

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Tags: virtual reality

An iPhone Virtual Reality Display Device

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:33:49 GMT

clipped by: rj3sp
clipper's remarks: A virtual reality head-mount which transforms the iPhone into a networked, head-tracked, virtual worlds viewer.

Clip Source: www.corepop.com

BOXfab

Things to make the iPhone^TM fly...

Clip Source: www.corepop.com

A Virtual Reality display device which uses the iPhone as the viewing plate so that it becomes a wearable virtual headset simply by clipping on a special attachment. The device can network with other uses for shared virtual experiences and uses the tilt sensor of the iPhone plus a proprietary left-right tracker to provide a truly immersive experience. Special close-view depixelization flat optics turn the iPhone screen into a 3 dimensional window into another world. The under $200.00 design provides the functionality of devices costing thousands of dollars more. Three versions: A. Hand-Held. B. Wearable. C. Deskmount.

Tags: iphone

Virtuality and reality 'to merge'

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 14:58:26 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "In virtual worlds we do real romance, real learning, real business. Virtual reality is real reality."

He added: "Games are the cutting edge of what is happening - we are going to spend more of our time in virtual reality environments.

"Fully emergent games is really where we want to go. We will do most of our learning through these massively parallel interactions."

"Play is how we principally learn and principally create," he said.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Computers the size of blood cells will create fully immersive virtual realities by 2033, leading inventor Ray Kurzweil has predicted.

Exponential growth in processing power and the shrinking of technology would see the development of microscopic computers, he said.

"We will see a billion-fold increase in the price-performance of computers in the next 25 years," he said.

"Virtual will compete with reality," he told the Game Developers Conference.

Pea-sized computer

Mr Kurzweil said it was possible to accurately predict the growth and change in computing power by looking at how it had developed over the last 50 years.

"There will be a 100,000-fold shrinking of computer technology over the next 25 years," he said.

"Today you can put a pea-sized computer inside your brain, if you have Parkinson's disease and want to replace the biological neurons that were destroyed by the disease."

the blood cell computers would be able to "produce full immersion virtual reality from inside the nervous system".

Tags: virtuality, reality, merging

Vuzix iWear VR920 -- Virtual Reality Video Eyewear

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:37:36 GMT

clipped by: rj3sp

Clip Source: www.icuiti.com

Experience the New Virtual Reality with the VR920 Video Eyewear

The first video eyewear specifically designed to let you step inside virtual worlds, MMOs and 3D games. No more staring at flat screens. The iWear VR920 allows you to enter virtual worlds and communicate with others as if you are really there.

Experience cyberspace like never before

Step inside with the Vuzix iWear VR920, the world’s first Internet communications and gaming solution that incorporates immersive big-screen 3D, head tracking, microphone and audio. You can move, look around, listen, and communicate with others - almost like being in the ‘real’ world. The iWear VR920 opens amazing new doors to the World Wide Web.

Tags: vuzix

Agents in virtual environments for training and education

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 12:35:54 GMT

clipped by: PatParslow
clipper's remarks: Steve? I guess everyagent deserves a name.

Clip Source: portal.acm.org

Virtual reality can broaden the types of interaction between students and computer tutors. As in conventional simulation-based training, the computer can watch students practice tasks, responding to questions and offering advice. However, immersive virtual environments also allow the computer tutor to inhabit the virtual world with the student. Unlike previous, disembodied computer tutors, such a "pedagogical agent" can "physically" collaborate with students, enabling new types of interaction. To illustrate the possibilities, this paper describes Steve, a pedagogical agent for virtual environments that helps students learn procedural tasks. After providing an overview of Steve's capabilities, the paper focuses on the benefits and challenges of graphically representing Steve in the virtual environment.

Steve: an animated pedagogical agent for procedural training in virtual environments

Tags: cop3d, virtual, education, agent

Next step (literally) in virtual reality!

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:51:23 GMT

clipped by: djkraz
clipper's remarks: This thing is awesome, you have to check out the video at the source!

Clip Source: www.engadget.com

Sure, you get a pretty good workout on that regular treadmill, but don't you think you could burn more calories if you had a little directional freedom? Well, thanks to the ridiculously clever people at Virtual Space Devices, you're one step closer to breaking free of your staid workout -- and one step closer to fully immersive virtual environments. The Michigan-based company has been developing an omni-directional treadmill since 1996, and they appear to have come up with a real solution -- a self-contained unit which allows you to walk (or run) in any direction you choose, without actually covering any ground. Next up the company plans to manufacture a device called the iPlane, which will not only allow you to walk and run wherever you want, but fly as well, which should make future iterations of Doom really, really interesting. Watch the video after the break and be stunned and amazed.

Tags: treadmill, virtual reality, technology

Virtual Worlds and Storytelling. Hard to distinguish from reality.

Wed, 23 May 2007 20:43:06 GMT

clipped by: rcthor_vendors

Clip Source: www.virtualworldlets.net

Not a member yet? Register for full benefits!

Immersive Environments, in which the participant feels truly present, do not desensitise the participant to events within them.

Professor Ivan Sutherland’s display ‘Sword of Damocles’, built in 1968, was the first, crude demonstration of a system that might one day make virtual, indistinguishable from “real”.

It consisted of a headband with a pair of small CRTs attached to the end of a large instrumented mechanical arm through which head position and orientation were determined. Hand position was sensed via a hand-held grip suspended at the end of three fishing lines whose lengths were determined by the number of rotations sensed on each of the reels.

A second, deeper look at creating interactive stories, branching dialogue, and trying to create a feel of player participation whilst guiding them to specific destinations.

Tags: virtual, world

Total Immersion in Games or environment is redefined

Tue, 22 May 2007 13:52:48 GMT

clipped by: rcthor_vendors
clipper's remarks: All movements are captured as you walk in a large sphere.

Clip Source: hackedgadgets.com

VirtuSphere - Totally Immersive VR

Never mind the new joystick designs of the next-gen consoles. Check out the VirtuSphere, this looks like a great VR environment tool.

“VirtuSphere is a new Virtual Reality technology that allows a user to truly ‘walk’ in 3D computer generated terrain. All you do is climb into the rig, but on the VR goggles and start walking. The movement of the sphere is then measured and translated into movement in the virtual world. This technology looks amazing for future computer gaming applications as well as military training exercises and virtual tourism.

With the creation of the VirtuSphere™, Virtual Reality technology has developed sufficiently to permit users to leave behind the keyboard or mouse and immerse in this exciting new medium. The VirtuSphere is currently the only technology in the world, which permits the user to move about in virtual space through the most natural movement of all – by walking.”

Tags: immersion, video games, environment

Pileus, the Internet Umbrella - Flickring and Google Earthing in the rain

Sun, 20 May 2007 18:35:37 GMT

clipped by: ReneGuz

Clip Source: www.pileus.net

Pileus is an umbrella connected to the Internet to make walking in rainy days fun. Pileus has a large screen on the top surface, a built-in camera, a motion sensor, GPS, and a digital compass, and it provides two main functions; A Social Photo-sharing and A 3D Map Navigation.
The photo function is connected to a major web service "Flickr". A user can take photo with a camera on the umbrella, and pictures are uploaded to Flickr in two minutes with context tags via a wireless Internet connection. User can also enjoy theirselves watching photo-streams downloaded from Flickr (and video-stream from YouTube on an advanced proto) with simple operation of wrist snapping.
3D Map Navigation is powered by "Google Earth". Detecting a location data from GPS, it shows a 3D bird view around the user. User can walk-through a city comparing the 3D views and real sights, and the map is always updated by GPS and a digital compass. As it has a large screen, it create virtual reality but not immersive.

Tags: umbrella, internet, google, earth, flickr, pileus

Virtual reality torture feels real

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 17:17:08 GMT

clipped by: m_a_d_d_i_

Clip Source: www.technovelgy.com

Researcher Mel Slater, who works at the Catalan Polytechnic University in Barcelona, Spain, and at University College London, UK, has set up a virtual reality version of the famous Stanley Milgram experiment of the 1960's.

In Milgram's earlier version, volunteers were told by an authority figure to deliver electric shocks to another person as punishment during a "test." No actual shocks were given; the "punished" person faked increasingly emotional reactions. Sixty-five percent of the volunteers administered shocks that could be fatal, astounding a generation of psychologists.

In Slater's virtual version, volunteers in an immersive virtual environment administered "shocks" to a virtual woman character. Half of the volunteers could see the woman character; the others interacted only with text. The context of the experiment was that the virtual woman was answering questions in a test. When she gave an incorrect answer, volunteers were told to give her shocks of increasing voltage as time went on. The virtual woman responded with cries of pain and protest.

Despite the fact that all volunteers knew that the subject of the experiment was not a real human being, they typically became more anxious as the experiment proceeded. Measures of stress, like heart rate and palm sweatiness, increased for many volunteers. About fifty percent of those who could see the woman character confided after the experiment that they thought about quitting, and several of them actually did. Volunteers who could not see the woman character were more likely to administer shocks of maximum voltage than those who could see her.

Why would people care about a virtual character in a clearly contrived experiment? It appears that the emotional brain of the human volunteers didn't quite get the message that this was only virtual reality.

Tags: virtual reality, obedience, violence, conscience

Virtual Torture

Wed, 27 Dec 2006 01:25:14 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: www.nature.com

Virtual reality shocker

Torturing even a lifeless computer character makes volunteers upset.

Researchers have recreated in a virtual world one of the most extreme social experiments ever performed in the real world. The results suggest that virtual environments could provide a way to explore human nature in ways that ethical concerns could make impossible to do for real.

In the original experiment, conducted by Stanley Milgram in the 1960s, volunteers were told by an authority figure to deliver electric shocks to another person as punishment for incorrect answers to a test¹. The other person wasn't really receiving the shocks, but the volunteers were tricked into thinking they were by shouts of pain and protest. Despite this feedback, some volunteers went on to deliver what would have been lethal shocks.

Slater's volunteers did a similar experiment, but in an immersive virtual environment where they interacted with a virtual woman. This counters some of the ethical protests that have prevented Milgram's experiment from being repeated because the volunteers knew they would be interacting with a virtual woman and so, unlike Milgram's guinea-pigs, knew that nobody was being hurt.

The group from whom the virtual woman was hidden delivered shocks up to the maximum voltage, like many of those in Milgram's experiment. Those who could see her were more likely to stop before reaching this limit².

Tags: torture, vr, virtual reality, ethics, morality, computer, simulation, milgram, psychology, experiment