The Future Of Virtual Reality
Ever since the movie Ready Player One was released on the big screen, video game fanatics everywhere have been jumping on the virtual reality train. Everyone has been waiting patiently for the day that they will get to play in a complete fantasy world with limitless imagination and endless possibilities such as those displayed in Ready Player One’s “Oasis”. As of now we are mainly focused on visual based virtual reality, involving headsets that hold two mini screens on your face, one in front of each eye. This allows the user to look around freely in a virtual world and enjoy a whole new environment.
How Close Are We?
Complete virtual reality will probably not be around for a couple of years if not more, but it seems we have been coming up with new gadgets and technologies to get us closer to full immersion all of the time. The best virtual reality experiences you can get at the moment would be those from the virtual reality headsets like the PSVR, which plugs into Sony’s PS4, and other similar headsets like the Oculus Rift which is compatible with PC’s. Other gadgets have been released such as virtual reality gloves, which allow players to have full hand and finger control within games. Also some of these new gloves even have integrated feedback technology which restrict hand movements when they come in contact with objects in the virtual world. To imagine this more easily, the gloves basically stop your hand from closing all the way when you pick up something in the game, so it feels like you are actually holding something in your hand.
Beyond The Headsets
There have been other ideas besides visual headsets that have recently been released that could accomplish virtual reality with complete immersion. The idea is to send information directly to our brain about the virtual reality we wish to partake in, instead of receiving the information via our 5 senses, like the headset does with our vision. This would mean making a computer that could be controlled by a user’s thoughts rather than a keyboard and mouse. Surprisingly enough, developments towards this goal have already been accomplished. An interesting experiment at Harvard was done which was related to this, Aviram Eisenberg explained the experiment by saying “In 2013, Harvard University broke ground for FDVR advances by conducting a human- brain-to-mouse-brain experiment. In this experiment, researchers used an electroencephalogram (EEG) brain-brain-interface (BBI) to detect the thought patterns of a researcher. By focusing his thoughts, the researcher was able to control the movement of a rat’s tail. Not exactly the kind of action most serious gamers are looking for, but it marked an important turning point in BBI technology. For the first time, two brains communicated directly through a hardware interface” (Eisenberg). This means we are sending signals through computers using our brains, which could possibly lead to more advanced computers allowing us to think about more advanced controls that could power our in game characters. The problem being this is only one side of the spectrum, we have humans controlling the computer with thought but the brain is not being stimulated by the computer.
The Next Step
We have seen that two brains could be connected via a computer from the experiment mentioned above. So now can we control just a computers interface with our thoughts? A computer was designed for a paraplegic patient by researchers at the University of California to actually allow him to walk! Aviram described this in his article by stating “Fast-forward to 2015. Researchers at the University of California at Irvine also used an electroencephalogram machine to detect human thought. This time, however, those thoughts did not make it possible to control a rat’s tail, but to help a paraplegic man walk for the first time in five years. The man, who had suffered a spinal cord injury, walked nearly four meters with the assistance of the EEG device and advanced software” (Eisenberg). In other words, we have actually made a computer that we are able to control via our thoughts! This is huge since we would be trying to control our characters in the virtual world with only our thoughts. Even though there is much progress to be made, it will be interesting to see what new advancements come next to help put us into full immersion.
Virtual reality is not yet quite like what the fictional films and shows display it to be like, but many enthusiasts are spending much time trying to make those fictional displays a reality. We do not yet know when we will be able to jump into a world like the “Oasis” in Ready Player One, but with technology seeming to advance faster and faster, one can hope we will be fully immersed in our favorite video game titles sooner rather than later. Until that time comes, we will have to enjoy the experiences already available with our virtual reality headsets!
Cited:
Eisenberg, A. (2018, January 15). Full Dive Virtual Reality Coming to a Brain Near You. Retrieved March 1, 2019, from https://appreal-vr.com/blog/full-dive-virtual-reality-how-it-works/
