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The road to 100% immersive virtual reality

Rifts
Adventurer
The goal of virtual reality is evidently to transport you into modified worlds that are either more visually appealing, exciting or horrifying than the real one. With an Oculus Rift we're tricking two out of five senses into thinking we're somewhere else (sight and hearing). But how do we immerse our selves 100% into virtual reality? Below I'll try to explain each part in detail and how far we've come. I'm going to skip sound in this post as it's very easy to replicate, and no further advances are really needed.
 
Sight - This is probably the most important sense to manipulate, and even though we've come very far, there are a lot of progress to be made. Most importantly higher resolution (16k+), wider FOV, and eye tracking. But also lighter HMD's that eventually could transition into bionic contact lenses, although this might take a while.

Touch - Full body haptic feedback suits like the Teslasuit are currently in development and will bring virtual reality to new heights. These suits would have to mimic all kind of touch sensations like heat, cold, wetness, vibration, breezes and feather light touches. Eventually the technology would have to expand beyond fabric suits into something you could really 'coat' your body with, like a conductive paste sprinkled with sensors to reach parts of the body otherwise not accessible, and I mean ALL the parts  B). This could prove tricky for places like the the eyeballs or most importantly, the insides of your mouth (very important when simulating eating).

Taste and smell - Advances have been made and these senses seem quite easy to replicate artificially. Electrical stimulation and thermal changes can produce several major taste sensations like sweetness, saltiness, sourness, bitterness, mintyness and spiciness. Although the technology have to develop into something you could wear on your tongue comfortably. Regarding smell there is already a device called "FeelReal" that can produce 7 odors so far, attachable to the Oculus Rift DK2. 

So lets say there's enough progress that we can artificially create all of these sensations using various technologies, will it feel exactly like reality? Sadly no. There are still other 'senses' like balance, acceleration, proprioception (position of the body parts), hunger, thirst, internal pain, nausea (why you would want those two I have no idea) and others that are near impossible to replicate with today's technology. The only way to influence these senses would be to surgically manipulate the brain, which we are very far from accomplishing. 

Another aspect, and possibly the most important one, is how do we create worlds that are as believable as the real one? I'm not just talking about the visual part, but how do we overcome the boundaries of digital environments like everything having to be precisely coded and planned in advance? Firstly there'd have to be advancement on the AI field, with the outcome of our actions being randomized within certain boundaries. Interaction would have to be unpredictable yet logical, with reactions seeming real and not picked out of an array as the response that made the most sense. I believe quantum computing will eventually let us create 'real' humans in virtual space, but that might also take a while.

In conclusion, virtual reality has come a long way in the last ~25 years, mainly in the visual aspect and new technologies are emerging to make digital worlds seem even more real. I'm certain that humanity will eventually move into virtual space to never return, and that we've found the answer to the Fermi Paradox, but that's just me  😄

I'm done rambling and would love to hear what other people have in mind regarding the future of Oculus Rift and virtual reality!
28 REPLIES 28

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
Brain-to-computer interfacing is already happening.

Here's just one example, but there's many more:

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/534206/a-brain-computer-interface-that-works-wirelessly/

Blackrock Microsystems, have commercialized a wireless device that can
be attached to a person’s skull and transmit via radio thought commands
collected from a brain implant.


We won't need Lighthouse nor Constellation tracking, and we won't need body tracking controllers, we will just need the power of our minds (and a moderately intrusive surgical procedure to put an implant in our brain).

Warbloke
Superstar

Did someone say 'Groinal attachment' ?


(Seem to recall that from Red Dwarf's Kryton)

 

"You can't believe everything you read on the Internet " :- Abraham Lincoln 

Greyman
Superstar

Zenbane said:

Brain-to-computer interfacing is already happening.

Here's just one example, but there's many more:

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/534206/a-brain-computer-interface-that-works-wirelessly/

Blackrock Microsystems, have commercialized a wireless device that can
be attached to a person’s skull and transmit via radio thought commands
collected from a brain implant.


We won't need Lighthouse nor Constellation tracking, and we won't need body tracking controllers, we will just need the power of our minds (and a moderately intrusive surgical procedure to put an implant in our brain).


That will be amazing, but it still sounds like the nervous system is being harnessed to generate output and not to accept the inputs that would be needed to fool the body into thinking it is experiencing something that it isn't.  

That sort of technology is very likely to be a fair way off, not least for health and safety reasons, but it could still happen.


shadowfrogger
Heroic Explorer
Using ultra sonic sound waves ( too high for our ears to hear ). You can simulate neurons but is largely unknown precisely how it works. Once you are able to figure out how the process works, then have the targeting precision to target individual neurons. Then figure out how the brain systems works and how to hack into them. Then we could have full matrix like vr, it could even cut off your own motor cortex to stop you moving in real life but still read your movements for vr.

There is research already into reading the visual cortex. Scientists can extract basic very blurry colour/video. Shown next to the real footage the patent was watching, it's undeniable that the footage somewhat matches but needs more research to understand the patern. This is good because it means the brain workings between humans is somewhat the same system and not totally a individual puzzle.

While all the other technology is extremely hard to solve. The biggest task will be figuring out how the brain works. We will probably need self learning technology for that to happen as the complexities are staggering.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/2014/02/09/ultrasonic-brain/#.V5IcL4YRU0M

https://www.nextnature.net/2008/12/scientists-extract-images-directly-from-brain/
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nightauditor198
Adventurer
Google "Entrim 4d headset"! It is technology that exists and works today and will trick nerves in your inner ear to feel acceleration and rotation on all axis!

It´s just a headset with build in electrodes. Imagine the implications for any kind of driving of flying simulator for example. You would finally be able to feel acceleration forces!

I think the path we´re on will inevitably lead us to a real holodeck as you described it that involves all sense.

We might be closer than we all think. It might already happen in the late 2020ies. We´ll see.

LZoltowski
Champion
Saw that video -- jeez if it s true this could be ground breaking https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiucutdyVOg
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Be kind to one another 🙂

Map63Vette
Adventurer
I don't know, maybe you'd call it paranoia, but as soon as any device is directly engaging my nervous system I think I'm walking away.  Force feedback on controllers is easy enough and makes sense because you can easily let go as a safety measure, but if a steering wheel were to directly engage your arm muscles to contract to provide resistance, I don't think I'm willing to cross that line.  Zapping my inner ear to produce balancing stimulations is a cool idea, but it just seems like a huge can of worms on what could possibly go wrong or how different people will react to it.  Though we all might share a common "nervous highway" where X part of the brain interprets signals in a similar manner between people  (like the image extraction example above), I still think everyone is coded a little differently.  Think of threshold of pain as an example.  Some people can take extreme heat/cold/pain and it doesn't bother them or they just don't feel it as much whereas others flinch from the slightest touch.  If someone with "deadened" stimuli played a game and cranked up the settings to work for them then handed the interface to their friend who was more sensitive, things could get interesting in a hurry.

nightauditor198
Adventurer
I absolutely can understand your hesitation. I personally have dreamed of something like this for ages, so I am ready to click on the buy button as soon as I can.

We´ll see what it actually feels like, but I think this could help with motion sickness. Maybe it could even get rid of it completely. I seriously can´t wait to sit in assetto corsa with that thing on my head and actually FEEL how hard an F40 accelerates when the turbo kicks in 🙂

Or sitting in a cockpit in ED or Star Citizen and actually feel the ship rotate, feel the thrusters.

I think this could be absolutely amazing. Well, I hope so at least 🙂

GenetixStudio
Superstar
Many of us will likely be the early guinea pigs 😉

Zenbane
MVP
MVP

Greyman said:

 it still sounds like the nervous system is being harnessed to generate output and not to accept the inputs


Yes, based on that one report. However...

Paralyzed Patient Uses Brain-Computer Interface to Walk
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/852053

Why Brain-to-Brain Communication Is No Longer Unthinkable
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/why-brain-brain-communication-no-longer-unthinkable-1809549...

😮