Oculus Rift and Industrial Design

I liked the idea of playing FPS games in VR as a way of exercising by getting you to stand up and move around a bit. I can imagine it will just end up being something you use instead of a monitor though. Rather than get a massive monitor you would just sit at your desk staring at the wall and seperate out the mouse function where you use the mouse to aim and shoot but use your head to look around.

I think I saw somewhere the other day an article about using them to replace rollercoasters where people sat in a suspended cart moved around by hydraulics. Pretty cool getting the effect of a roller coaster without the cost and space of building one. The environments could become so much more immersive.

I saw one where they combined the VR with the roller coaster. So you were actually on a rollercoaster, but the VR goggle made it seem like you were in outer space… of course Space Mountain did that like 50 years ago with dark lights and projections. :slight_smile:

  1. I feel like it is bad spunk shui to cover your eyes while watching pr0n

  2. I think the Samsung looks cooler.

I like the color break. I supposed the strap on top makes the Oculus design more stable, but I think the single strap on the Samsung makes it look less brutal.

  1. My point with the Virtual Boy is that this technology doesn’t seem that revolutionary to me. More an evolution of what was already possible. As such, my thinking goes immediately to was the technology not adopted earlier because of lack of applications or lack of image quality/refresh rates, etc.

The difference between the gear and the Oculus (that may not be clear) is that the triangular section on the back of the Rift is actually electronics. There are Infared LED’s that surround your head allowing the camera (which sits in front of the user) to track the position of your head. This way you can track not only the rotation, but also the subtle positional changes. It makes for a big difference in the way you interact with it. When the DK2 came out I jumped into a racing game (Assetto Corsa) and I wasn’t just racing around the track, I was sitting at the starting line leaning over to admire the stitching that was on the shift knob of my Fiat 500, I was looking through the corner of the window the way I would in a real car following the apex of the corner, by the time I got to the top of the hill I was a little dizzy, not because of the VR but because I had just shredded up an endless amount of switchbacks in the Italian alps (for the record - I also get motion sick on the race track - so I don’t chalk that up to simulator sickness - I’ve played space simulators for hours with no problems)

Is it revolutionary? - It suppose it depends on your perspective. From a purely technology perspective the iPhone was not revolutionary. It took a combination of existing smart phone technology, threw a new touch screen on it and eventually added the ability for people to make “applications” easy.

But did it revolutionize the way we use everything from the internet to our daily lives? Absolutely.

Again, it’s not just about the technology, it’s about a cultural shift and willingness to embrace it as a platform - and that has never happened before, even though people have been playing with stereo displays and 3D graphics in labs for decades (anybody remember the CAVE?).

The Oculus and Gear VR are just part of the solution. Notice how Gopro and other camera manufacturers are now focusing their effort on cameras that can capture 3D? Leap Motion has restructured their entire business to focus on being an application for hand capture in VR.

And this isn’t just going to be about games. As designers we should be excited for the fact that we spend half our days drawing and sculpting 3D objects on a tiny 2D window. The future in which we create things can be fundamentally different, and that transition is going to open some pretty amazing opportunities.

The Leap Motion home screen video does a nice job of synthesizing a lot of those thoughts - VR + natural hand interaction + endless possibilities.

Yeah totally agree! An easy way to give VR a try is to get a Google Cardboard headset. I think the second version with bigger lenses is definitely worth the $20 from Amazon. Both Apple and Android devices have a bunch of free VR experiences worth taking a look at.

There was actually some short 3D 360 Star Wars videos that are up for promoting The Force Awakens on mobile devices. They weren’t very high resolution but were fun to check out for free. They actually just had a really cool Star Wars VR demo at GDC a couple weeks ago, you can check out here.

Imagine wielding a lightsaber in VR and hearing the hum of the lightsaber in 3D audio as you move it, childhood dream stuff right there!

Roger that, I am looking forward to it. The Force Awakens in a first-person POV would be un-fkn-believable.

My personal opinions will be more informed but unlikely to substantially change. As with parenting in the age of iPads, there are novel and sometimes edifying experiences to negotiate with new technology, but the question posed to parents is “at the expense of what?” Meaning, screen time (TV, VCR, iPad, VR headset) is often preferred by kids over “doing something else”, like simply being bored and using one’s imagination, or going outside and actually moving your body. So - I guess I have principles about stuff like this, but wouldn’t be worth a damn as a designer if I wasn’t curious about new gadgetry and open to trying new experiences.

TL;DR - every augmentation is also an amputation.

My whole design career started when I was first getting into video games (as per the screen name).

Doom came out in 1993 (I was 9) and not only was it revolutionary from a game perspective, but it was one of the first games that was easily modified which sparked my interest in computer graphics and coding. That led to several years of amateur mod making, which lead to me learning 3D modeling and is actually what made me discover “Industrial” design when I found out one of our teams lead artists was an ex-Big 3 car designer who decided it was more fun to model cars in games than it was in real life.

I realize that’s a far cry from the value kids get out of playing Super Bubble Pop on an iPad, but I think even Minecraft shows there is still some potential “hope” - minecraft is very much just a virtual Lego set that you can play with friends, and don’t have to worry about stepping on while walking around the house in the dark.

An engineer friends daughter is 6 or 7 and already picked up on how to write iOS apps…which gives me some appreciation for the future.

An article that was just sent out by Michael Abrash who is the Chief Scientist at Oculus (Formerly id Software and Microsoft) which give you a sense of the opportunity.

didn’t even look at it that way but i guess that is prolly true…our attention is zero sum

Again, it’s not just about the technology, it’s about a cultural shift and willingness to embrace it as a platform - and that has never happened before, even though people have been playing with stereo displays and 3D graphics in labs for decades (anybody remember the CAVE?).

i remember the CAVE! my school was one of the few that had the whole setup i believe…i remember being surprised at the time how long it had been around. i thought it was cool then, i think it still cool now and even though the technology & maybe even the zeitgeist at large may be more open to it, it still strikes me as being well too niche to have like 5 different consumer versions…

This is going to be as big as 3D tv’s. Oh, wait…

R

What about 3d curved TVs though? :slight_smile:

Man you guys are salty. I’m going to come revisit this thread in a year and we’ll see where things land. :wink:

I’m mostly with the 3D tv argument actually. I feel the head-up displays are great for immersive experiences, invaluable in entertainment to present architectural and other projects where spatial experience is key. It would be a great research tool as well especially combined with brainwave sensing. As a work tool though, I feel the 3D immersion only adds as much as 3D did for movies and TV. The immersion as a work tool is less desirable since we need to do all kinds of things all the time and would continuously have to take the set on and off. I like the Samsung better than the Oculus, both designs need some spicing up though.

How does the tech. in the Oculus Rift compare to the gadgets that get thrown around for free?

Recently I had a VeeDub folded Paper 3D Box in the mail, that can be used with your mobile. The VW content did not load, but I found some vids on youtube working with it. Toyish stuff and not well calibrated, which is a hurdle, as neither the heardware nor the film developer know which optical device and settings will go into the cardboard box.

How do the dedicated devices of Oculus or Samsung compare to this? Usable for anything else but p*rn?

On a side note: I’d rather like VW to put their development and marketing power to more pressing issues.

mo-i

I’m listening to a podcast and one of the guests asks why VR has failed to take off. He theorizes that there is an natural human fear to covering ones eyes, no matter how realistic the experience maybe after they are covered.

I think there could be something to this. So many of the publicity shots make me feel that the users are kidnapped or trapped.

Any other ideas?

I don’t think it’s just that, it may make some people more resistant but so far no one I’ve stuck in the headset has had a personal apprehension to trying VR. I’m naturally somewhat claustrophobic myself.

I think a lot of the reasons have to do with:
1 - High end VR is super expensive and difficult to setup. (Drill probes into my walls? Spend $600 on a GTX 1080 video card? No thanks)
2 - Mobile VR experiences are not terribly engaging or compelling - 3d Video and Daydream games are neat, but still very basic.
3 - There has not been a huge media push for VR being amazing. Maybe some Playstation commercials but Facebook needs to buy a superbowl ad if they want to sell us.

I actually saw they just added a VR experience booth in the mall by us. You sit in a little pod chair and they strap on some mid-tier mobile based headset and you get to do the rollercoaster type railed experience. 2 of the 3 were full when I was there on a random Tuesday so it seems to be something people are willing to try. IMAX just launched an NYC theater that has VR demos that accompany movies, which is a good pairing as well.

I think once people start to see value in the experience and realize it’s something they can afford it will take off, but it’s still too much of an early adopter technology to hit mainstream.

3D Tvs (and movies) were pushed on us by the media. Big fail. How is VR any different?

R

To start - have you tried a high end VR experience? If the answer is no, then I can see this making sense as a question.

3D movies were not a new experience, they were a depth addition to existing experience of sitting on your couch or a theater and watching a movie.

It’s wholesale different than being immersed in a virtual world with which you can interact, move around, and be immersed in the experience.

If you have played with VR, I’d be interested to know what games/demos you tried that you feel it is similar enough to 3D films.

I’m a huge proponent of VR because everyone I’ve stuck into a VR experience, whether it’s someones mother or my own blue collar friends the consistent result has always been shock/amazement and utter joy. My friends mom didn’t want to come out she was enjoying it so much and that was on a much cruder Oculus Dev kit.

Tilt brush and 3D VR experiences make you wonder how we spent so long building stuff in 2D. I just started working on a remodel of my basement and threw a 3D model into Unity to quickly experience it as a prototype, and it’s amazing how quickly the medium transferred information. I could immediately see I needed to make the bathroom a foot bigger just by walking in and looking around.

Which again all goes back to the experience point - VR is tough to describe on paper and easy to be cynical of. And even todays experiences are limited in scope but some of them are truly amazing and when those continue to develop and become affordable and easy to use it will take off.

No, I’ve never tried VR. High or low end. (maybe once at a trade show, can’t recall what it was).

I can for sure see applications like the 3D design/environment applications you mention.

From my un-experienced POV, I just can’t see the mass market adoption as much. At least in terms of entertainment I see the biggest challenge as the lean in vs. lean back experience. Most people want to lean back and experience watching a show, vegging on the sofa, not doing work, moving around, putting on gear for an experience. It’s the biggest reason I think 3D sucked. Gotta find the glasses, gotta find the appropriate content… not the same as browsing netflix or TV for something mindless to watch or binge on. I’m not a gamer however so maybe there’s opportunity there…

R

I don’t argue that the experience must be incredible, and the price certainly limits its adoption. However, it feels like there is something more to the lack of enthusiasm than just those elements.

I think the first adoption wave will be in video games. As much as people like to think that game platforms are dieing (vs gaming on mobile), this seems like a a great augmentation to Xbox. These types of things seem to take a long time and then explode (think Wii, and the cameras on Xbox 360) and then normalize. I think it will catch, there just hasn’t been the right mix of software/hardware and use case put into the market.

I think MMO video games is probably the right kind of lean immersive experience and that amazingly catchy MMO game with VR has not appeared yet.