Now that we covered the Oculus VR set in my last post, I thought it’s a good time to move up to something even more advanced. Yep, it is possible, maybe not as real as Rift is or the HTC Vive and Playstation’s virtual reality set. But still, they are all similar in one way. Let’s just spell it out – they look damn awkward! Gamers might not be as concerned as some other people with their looks, but please, nobody wants to look like a weirdo. So until they manage to somehow make those look cool and comfortable to a point where you can easily wear them daily, I can not see them getting widely popular.
One company has come up with a great looking concept that may just solve it all. The name is Artefact and their project is called VR2020. Now, just sit back and look at it! Isn’t it just the most groovy thing you’ve seen for some time?! There are two concepts – Light and Shadow, designed to “explore how immersion and inclusion might be harmonized in VR hardware experiences for the gaming enthusiast and for the mainstream consumer.” It does seem like a rather ambitious project when you look at the tech specs and design requirements – fabrics that read human expressions, computers mounted on your back and so on. But then, technology is advancing at such a pace – how many of the things you are using today seemed impossible 3-5-10 years ago? Exactly. And you have surely heard the (hilarious) joke about that kids who said “Dad, that’s great, you have 3D printed the Save icon!!” when seeing a floppy disk for the first time. Yeah, I am old.
So, to get back to topic, it might be much sooner than you expect. We can be all wearing those super fancy hoodies with computers and batteries all built in. They would be reading our expressions and eye movement and translate them to the game avatar (or whatever it is going to be used for). Immersing in your game can be finally taken quite literally. That’s for the Shadow model. The Light one is on the contrary – designed for a more connected experience, where it would be used by families, friends and other closer groups so that they can share their gaming together. They will use features like front cameras, external screens, sharing mode and transmission of sounds.
Of course, those are all still conceptual for now, but still a very good indication to where we are going and something great to look forward to. Just think of the possibilities! Pretty limitless!
That’s all for now, let’s hope to see those soon enough and in the meantime – I will keep you posted.