How Close Are We to Full Dive Vr 2019
As an avid gamer, I'm always looking for an immersive gaming experience that can detach me from reality. In this pursuit, I've stacked up a collection of consoles, HD screens and even a VR headset.
Nothing I've done gets me close to the full dive virtual reality promised in film, art, and literature stretching as far back as the 1860s. Currently the possibilities of full dive VR fascinate Game developers, scientists and tech leaders around the world.
Join me on my trip through past predictions and present day tech innovations that are pushing us towards a full dive reality.
What Does Full Dive VR Mean Anyway?
Full dive VR is an immersive digital experience that crosses the bounds of human consciousness. It helps to think of it as a Semiconscious state or a lucid dream.
For now, it's just an idea. However, tech innovators push us closer to this reality by the day.
The term "Full Dive VR" comes from Sword Art Online (SAO), a 2009 anime, and a Japanese light novel. It involves using VR technology to break away from our physical space and dive deep into virtual reality.
What's the Current State of VR Technology?
VR technology is still in its infancy. But many real-world applications show its promising future. Let's take a moment to consider VR gaming solutions.
VR headsets allow players to engage in an immersive 3D gaming experience. Not only do players get to see a 3D environment form around them, but they also get to move around and interact with elements in the environment.
Most of the real-world applications of VR have a basis in the entertainment industry. These range from:
- Movies
- Documentaries
- Carnival experiences like rollercoasters
- Escape rooms and horror scenarios
- Historic events
- Adult content
There are also loads of examples of the use of VR in less mainstream environments. For instance, militaries around the world use them to simulate training. You can also find such use in the medical field.
We can expect more real-world usage as VR technology continues to get more funding if mainstream use increases.
Past Predictions on the Future Possibilities of Full Dive VR
The full dive VR concept is much older. I got my first glimpse of this with Sony's "PS9" ad campaign for their Play Station 2 launch back in 1999. Incidentally, the first movie in the Matrix franchise came out in the same year, which shifted the conversation to the possibilities of a simulated "hive" consciousness.
Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures also touched base with the concept back in 1996. However, Steven Spielberg's virtualizations in Ready Player One paint a clearer picture.
Sure, it's a dystopian world from the not-so-distant future. But, what caught my imagination is we currently have some of the technology they have in the movie. Maybe we'll learn how to make it work by 2045, as they have in Ready Player One.
Which begs the following question:
How Long Till We Have Full Dive VR?
We're close to a fully immersive virtual world but not yet home.
Let's take a look at our current VR technology and its limiting factors.
Haptic Feedback and Other Full-Body Tracking Technologies
Haptics focuses on interfacing our appearance, physical movement, and other choices with a simulated world. These technologies give us immersion without giving up our physical senses. So, you get the trills without the pain.
Virtual Reality gamers also get haptic feedback through vibrations and sensory stimulation. You get a sensation when you touch or interact with objects and people in the virtual world.
Currently, most of the software and hardware caters to a high-end niche market. There's also a drive for more mobile technologies with a focus on an enhanced sensory experience at the high-end level.
However, we've yet to see something that overrides the user's perception of their physical reality.
What Are the Current Possibilities of Full Body Tracking in VR?
Current full-body tracking technologies fall into two broad categories:
Outside-In Technologies
Here, various cameras or sensors are mounted within a limited space. They track movement and physical interactions within that area.
Inside-Out Technologies
This approach uses cameras or sensors mounted on a VR headset. It scans the area to imbue a virtual world into your physical environment.
Additional sources for their tracking data adopt both technologies. Some even add optional trackers and controllers to improve the user experience.
VR technologies that track the entire body include:
- Valve Index VR System
- Varjo VR-2 Pro
- HP Reverb G2
- Deca Gear 1 VR
All these technologies use headsets, trackers, and additional controllers to track and simulate virtual reality. They get us closer to a fully outside-in experience.
It's worth noting that Ready Player One is set in the not-so-distant 2045. And, Spielberg found a way to work some of the tech array we currently have into the full dive VR narrative. We continue to see improvements in quality and price of VR gear every year.
If this pace of innovation holds up then we may fulfill the movies prophetic vision by 2045.
Can We Bet on Haptic Feedback Suit Getting Us to Full Dive VR?
The consumer market has loads of VR headsets that immerse users into a virtual world, minus the need for third-party gear. But you can also splurge on haptic sensors to get a full-body experience.
bHaptics is an example of one of the third-party solutions. They offer a variety of wearables that include:
- Torso vests
- VR head-cushions
- haptic gloves
- Attachable haptic devices for your arms
- Attachable haptic devices for your Feet
- Attachable haptic devices for your hands
bHaptics uses vibration motors to provide feedback, so you're confined to experiencing each sense as a vibration. On the other hand, Teslasuit offers an enhanced sense of sensory engagement.
It's a full-body suit that uses electro-therapy technologies to stimulate muscles. This ensures you can feel the rain, wind, heat, and more realistic shocks on colliding with objects in the virtual world.
The major drawback to having consumer-based full-body haptic suits is the price point. For instance, the cost of a Teslasuit is $2,500. That's why it's mostly relegated for use in medical training and physical rehabilitation fields.
There's also a shortage of software support because there's a significant gap in mainstream funding.
Perhaps that will change as more people learn about the potential benefits of haptic solutions in implementing full-dive virtual reality.
Does Nerve-Gear Hold Any Promise?
It helps to think of Nerve-Gear as the type of VR they have in the Matrix movie franchise. So, it brings full dive VR closer to home.
Bodysuits and haptic sensors do a good job of simulating reality. Nerve-gear allows users to drop out of the physical world completely. This is because you get a full sense of virtual reality.
Here are a few contemporary approaches to nerve-gear:
Non-Invasive Brain-Computer Interfacing (BCI)
Such technologies interface the body's electrical impulse directly into a machine. This gives the machine feedback that allows users to control their actions and feel a wider array of sensations.
Currently, there are a couple of technologies that toy with this concept. These machines use electroencephalogram (EEG) monitors to track brain activity and map it out on computers.
A notable example of the use of non-invasive BCI in VR gaming is the HTC Vive. It uses an EEG monitor instead of the usual brain cushion. Emotiv is also looking into the commercial viability of EEG and other BCI technologies.
However, the major challenge is that we haven't figured out the safest way to embed VR sensors directly to the brain.
The line gets more blurry once you factor in other dynamics like age, gender, past trauma, and so forth.
Invasive and Semi-Invasive Brain-Computer Interfacing For VR
Currently, invasive and semi-invasive BCI is still in the research phase. So, we don't have that many real-world applications that show we'll experience true full dive virtual reality within this decade.
However, Tech virtuosos like Elon Musk are pushing the fold. Recently, I watched a demonstration of his version of a Neuralink.
It's a nickel-sized computer chip that's embedded into a person's skull. Instead of sensors, it comes with surgically implanted electrodes that sit on the surface of your brain. This allows researchers to read brain impulses and even embed code to modify brain activity.
Musk's intentions with Neuralink are purely motivated by physical rehabilitation. He envisions it helping people overcome debilitating spinal and brain-related injuries.
How Close Are We to Nerve-Gear?
A vast majority of commentators also see it as a technology that can be used in backing up and restoring memories, much like we've seen in popular sci-fi shows like Black Mirror or Altered Carbon.
It's also worth noting the efforts of a research start-up named Kernel. Their innovation does what Neuralink does in a nutshell. The good news is that research into the potential fusing BCI with VR is attracting some mainstream funding.
DARPA recently funded the Stentrode (a portmanteau of Stent and Electrode) research project to the tune of $60 million. It promises to use cranial implant electrodes to monitor and arouse brain activity.
What Are the Current Limiting Factors of Full Dive Virtual Reality?
I want to escape reality in a full dive virtual reality environment in my lifetime. Unfortunately, we're not at a place where such technology is affordable for most of us.
So the rollout pace may be slower than I'd like. It also helps to keep score of some of the limitations that come with full dive VR technology.
- So far, cheap commercially available full dive VR gear is not that dependable. So, we may have to rely on expensive solutions.
- VR software devices have been around for a decade now. But, their graphical interfaces are a far cry from what gaming consoles and HD screens provide. A lot more research and funding is needed in VR computing and content creation if we're to make the leap to full dive VR.
- For now, most of the full dive technology depends on bug-prone software. We also don't have many algorithms that understand brain activity, let alone human nature.
- Some of my friends suffer from C.O.D (Call of Duty) induced PTSD. So, imagine the adverse effects that full Dive VR may have on the brain.
Will VR Ever Be Like Sword Art Online?
Full dive technology may seem like a fantasy, but some pragmatic dreamers are working to make it a reality. Neurable is a company that's been at the forefront of BCI research. Most of their research is based in the medical field.
The research has shifted to the application of a Brain-computer interface for things like gaming and entertainment. In 2017, Neurable demoed Awakening – a game that allows you to use their device and a HTC Vive to control things in a virtual environment.
So, you can control objects in the Awakening with no other controllers. Just your brain! Currently, Neurable is working on the world's first "everyday" brain-computer interface.
With more funding and a strategic partnership with Unity Development Kit, we'll soon see more game developers advancing the cause of full dive VR.
How Long Do We Have to Wait for a Full Dive Virtual World?
Shows and movies like Sword Art Online (SAO) and Ready Player One paint a plausible reality. It's unlikely we'll get there in 2022, as depicted in Sword Art Online (SAO).
But an array of currently available Virtual Reality, BCI, and EEG technologies shows great promise. We've also seen companies such as Neurable combine them to great effect.
The trick lies in mapping out the human brain to understand its functions. We also need to work on deep learning Artificial Intelligence and address the potential side effects on the human psyche.
Coming up with commercially viable full dive VR seems like an elusive pipe dream. The nature of tech disruptions make it hard to predict anything with certainty.
A lot could change in 5 years. Maybe some genius will work it out.
Conclusion
As you can see, full dive VR implementation comes with a set of challenges. So, more research and funding is needed. I'd also like to see more Virtual reality game developers collaborating with neuroscientists.
In my conservative opinion, it's not even about our full dive technology catching up with fantasy- it's more about understanding how the brain works. So, let's give it 20 years to a century.
Author
Darrel Bryant
There's no two ways about it – I am a huge nerd and I love it! When I'm not testing out new gadgets, I'm pulling apart the ones that I do have at home to find out what makes them tick. Not a lot of them get put back together, but I have become a pro at telling the good gadgets from the bad!
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How Close Are We to Full Dive Vr 2019
Source: https://convergeddevices.net/how-close-are-we-to-full-dive-vr/
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