NASA Is Moving Aggressively into VR Tech — Inside VR & AR

Vuzix Thin Smartglasses; NASA picks up the VR pace; "Pong" inventor re-invents "Pong" in VR; VR Sense machine from Japan; AR "Portal" simulation video.

NASA is moving more aggressively into using VR tech as it gets closer to the first manned mission to Mars. While the space agency has been making use of VR headsets since the 1980s, Matthew Noyes, software lead at NASA's Hybrid Reality Lab, says that the technology is now "invaluable" to NASA "before, during, and after space flight." For astronaut training, Noyes says, "We’ve never had the ability to create a sense of presence so strong in an astronaut that when they encounter a life-threatening situation we throw at them, they actually feel their life is in danger. That’s what we’re trying to capture." – AUSTRALIAN

Rochester, New York's Vuzix is hoping to get its extra-thin AR smartglasses into stores this year. The company showed off its Blade 3000 and M3000 Smart Glasses at last month's CES in Las Vegas. Vuzix wants to avoid anything remotely clunky, knowing that no matter how cool a pair of smartglasses may be, nobody wants to look goofy. To that end, they are aiming for a target weight of 80 grams for their AR glasses. Paul Travers, the company's CEO, says, "With ours, you can wear it. You won't be embarrassed. It is an all day long device." – VB

Nolan Bushnell, the Atari founder who invented "Pong" in 1972, plans to develop wireless VR headsets for use in malls, arcades, and movie theaters. Noting VR's sluggish acceptance rate as a home technology, Bushnell believes the tech has a better chance to catch on when interested consumers can try it out in groups in public places. Following that logic, Bushnell's company, Modal VR, has developed a virtual reality version of "Pong" that two people can play, blowing the illusion up to ping-pong table dimensions. "We're at the Pong stage of VR," Bushnell says. – MIT TECH REVIEW

Japanese video game developer Koei Tecmo has come up with a wild alternative to VR headsets it calls the VR Sense virtual reality machine. A player sits inside the machine (which resembles a cross between a toaster and a standalone arcade racing game) and is promised 3D visuals as well as "fragrance function, touch function, wind function, thermal cooling function, and mist function" to stimulate all five senses. In many ways, the "VR Sense" is a giant VR headset one sits in instead of strapping on. – PCMAG

AR developer Kenny W has developed a video showing what playing Portal on the HoloLens could be like. The demo was created as a "fun side project" in the Unity 3D engine. The AR interaction with the game's iconic Companion Cube "adds a new level of immersion," according to PC Gamer. Writer Paul Lilly notes, however, that none of his real-world experiences with the HoloLens have matched the "cool factor" of videos like the Portal mock-up, citing the system's small field-of-view as restricting to the necessary immersion. – PCGAMER

Adult VR content studio VR Bangers has developed a device that will enable adult VR actors to more convincingly interact with a user. The combination camera and microphone "mannequin head" replaces a traditional VR camera, and will let fans "finally feel like they are getting kissed and caressed." (Road To Vr notes that the device's "lifeless, black eyes" may not be particularly conducive to a more sensual experience.) – ROAD TO VR

The New York Times reports that virtual reality is finally making inroads into the art world, which it says is "always more skeptical than cinema and television about new technologies." For the artists creating work interpolating VR, the goal is immersion. According to writer Jason Farago, artistic convention is often challenged by new technology, but the "promised revolutions" never seem to arrive. While Farago is impressed with the sense of wonder VR can impart, he believes the test will be whether the tech can be put into service of more complex artistic ends. – NYT

FROM THE FORUMS

At the Virtual Reality and the Metaverse forum, user QueenDivine asks, "What's the next step to developing VR motion controls to make gameplay better and more immersive?"

the_hoser writes, "The next step is in separating the headset tracking from the motion controller tracking. Right now we have three systems with motion controllers and headsets locked together. It's natural, of course, but we need to transition to motion control a-la carte. Until we do, no real innovation can take place. If Razer or Logitech want to innovate without tying their product to a specific headset, they really can't, right now. Microsoft seems to be heading in this direction, but I don't put a lot of faith in them to stick with the technology long enough to see it through."

Antabaka replies, "SteamVR is already facilitating this. I'm not sure about Oculus. Any peripheral, including controllers and headsets, can use lighthouse tracking. Similarly, more than one company can make lighthouses that can be used with any lighthouse-tracked controllers or headsets. It just so happens that we haven't had quite enough time yet for there to be more than HTC involved."

morfanis adds, "I agree, if there's any tracking technology to build on now it would be Lighthouse. It's an open specification and not restricted to SteamVR and is apparently currently being used for 100s of other platforms in development at the moment. Lighthouse hardware is not tied to the Steam gaming platform.I doubt Oculus will have any interested in creating open hardware, they will want to use their controller and tracking hardware to support and sell their own platform over others.

That all said, I agree that an independent standard will arise sooner or later."

WarMachine425 keeps it simple: "Next step for me would be at least foot tracking. Just to start. With that we could at least have more accurate in-game representations of our real world stances."

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