Relationships 5. 0 by Kislev Elyakim;

Author:Kislev, Elyakim;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press USA - OSO
Published: 2022-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

XR Development

Steven Spielberg’s film Ready Player One, based on Ernest Cline’s novel by that name, is set in 2045 in Columbus, Ohio. By this time, Columbus is decaying, its tall buildings composed of former trailers stacked on top of each other. This grim reality leads most of its citizens to enjoy virtual reality sessions as an escape. In fact, most people are “hooked” on virtual reality, making them even less able to improve their situation. The dominant virtual world operator, the “Google” of virtual worlds, is called OASIS. Within OASIS, an orphaned teenager, named Wade Watts, tries to distinguish himself with his avatar called Parzival. As Parzival, Wade hunts for an Easter egg hidden within OASIS as part of the brainchild competition of the late founder of OASIS, James Halliday, to win his fortune and assets.

The film presents an impressively immersive vision for the future of VR. Leaving aside, for now, Spielberg’s warnings of social issues related to XR technologies, which I discuss later in the chapter, let us first delve into Ready Player One’s technological vision. By describing differences between existing devices and the technologies presented in Spielberg’s film—which several experts I spoke with pointed to as a roadmap for XR development—we can better understand the current challenges to XR.

For one, Wade is depicted using an omni-directional treadmill that gives him the ability to travel in any direction and at any speed. A few companies have tried to develop this technology in gaming, but they are not commercially viable. Current models take up too much space and are very expensive to buy and maintain.

One of the few VR treadmills that does exist is called the Omni, made by Virtuix. Omni treadmills are quite different from what Wade uses, because they do not let the player run free. Instead, a harness keeps people from falling off the device, something that calls to mind a baby walker. In addition, users put special soles on their shoes, which let them slip and slide on the slightly tilted surface without moving much. This allows players to move in any direction.

Another development in current technology is the redirected walking (RDW) technique, allowing players to move for extended periods. Redirected walking takes advantage of when players don’t see anything, such as when the eye moves from one place to another rapidly. When this happens, the RDW technique subtly shifts the VR scene. This results in users thinking they are walking a straight line, but the path is being altered to stay within a designated real-world area. Of course, this still requires large enough spaces and is far from practical in modern apartments.

A second feature presented in Ready Player One is adding more senses, besides sounds and sights, such as feeling vibrations. For this reason, developers are working now on a vibrating rumble pack similar to those found in video game controllers. Vibration technology has been included in VR gloves like Gloveone and Manus that mimic textures and the feeling of touch. The more sophisticated HaptX glove produces a combination of kinesthetic and tactile simulations with newer pneumatic technology.

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