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Augmented Reality Quake
DrGonzo writes "Take a tour of campus an shoot some monsters. The Wearable Computer Lab at the University of South Australia has developed a
prototype wearable Quake suit. " I'm a little skeptical
of this, but it sure would make the frisbee golfers on campus look like the normal
ones.
I know that the division between reality and gaming can be confusing for many people but this is a new extreme. Doesn't anyone else think it would be a little disorienting to see horrifying monsters running around your campus? (not with standing fellow undergrads of course:)
I stole this Sig
::drool::
Wow, I almost got arrested for playing real (not augmented reality, without guns of any type) capture the flag the other night. This just multiplies the fun.
Given the popularity of Vampire: the Masquerade and similar games gone live-action on nearby campuses, I can envision these adapted to enhance reality for less aggressive, slower-twitch games. And once people are used to walking around campus in a cape as a flag to other players they're someone to talk to in character, a headset kind of thing isn't any bother. It'd be useful for flagging the invisible players instead of having them have to walk around with their arms crossed over their chest and saying "You can't see me!", thereby breaking the whole mood/suspension of disbelief thing.... d
I would love to have a get-up like this. Maybe wait till it doesn't look so stupid, but I'd definitely like to get one.
Currently, at my LAN parties we sit on our asses all night and consume a weeks worth of calories in soda, chips and pizza. It would be awsome to turn that into a physically demanding sport where I can burn off some calories and get my fat ass into shape.
Nothing burns calories like a real-world deathmatch!
Yeah.. people running around schools shooting things that only they can see.
That's a good idea.
baka^2
In Lain, the conspiratorial organization known as the Knights of the Eastern Calculus attempts to break down the boundaries between the real world and the "wired", or online world. One of their mechanisms for doing so is a game called "PHANTOMa", an augmented-reality role-playing game. As it happens, the particular technologies the Knights use to "augment reality" have some unfortunate psychological side effects for the players.
Augmented reality is an interesting idea, but I really have to wonder whether we really need or want any more mediation in experience than we already get.
imagine construction site where a electrical tech is installing some wire and with the goggles sees a overlay of blueprints for pipes or other wires and such.
Or Helping a person walk through his new house before the walls are finished.
Even Firefighters with a systemlike that overlaying blueprints of a apartment complex so when they are walking through the smoke they could see general things like walls.
Oh the fun that can be done with this.
Well besides video games.
-THIS SPACE FOR RENT!
The military has live fire exercises. Much better at getting people to take things seriousely. This may have limited uses but not nearly to the extent that you seem to think.
Live fire exercises aren't going anywhere anytime soon, but the military already makes heavy use of computer simulations (usually just off the shelf games with custom levels, embassies and such). Technology like this could augment this aspect of their training. Why go through all this trouble when you have live fire excercises? Simple, bullets cost money. Electrons are far more inexpensive. When you have to maintain a fighting force 24/7 during peacetime, incidentials like bullets add up quickly. Plus, every once and a while there is an accident on the range. Sucks to send a body bag home with a note saying, "killed in training, our bad."
--Infinityedge
Show up on a disc golf course with a Frisbee and you might as well stamp "Newbie" on your forehead.
:)
:)
Golf discs are heavier and hurt like hell if you are moronic enough to try to play catch with one.
Not to mention you'll have a hard time throwing Ye Olde Frisbee much over 100 feet. Drives to 350 feet are average for a regular disc golfer. Like me.
Anything is possible given time and money.
Right now, the main research is focused on AR - augmented reality, of which the "research" mentioned in this /. article is part of.
As far as "virtual reality" is concerned, number one, it isn't called VR anymore - it is called "virtual environments" (and I even think use of that term is being "discouraged"), or "VE".
Basically, most researchers are having a hard time getting funding for anything with the word "virtual" in it, as it is seen (by potential investors) as a money hole.
It doesn't look like there are going to be any "breakthroughs" soon - you probably aren't going to go out and buy an HMD at Fry's within the next 5 years. It is strange, but it is mainly because of "no market". What is strange is that there is a HUGE market - FPS players. However, FPS players won't be satisfied with just an HMD, they will want at minimum full tracking of head and "gun" position. I think if a home version of Q3A coupled with the HMD, "wand", and tracking system of a Virtuality 2000 came on the market cheap enough, people would flock in droves to it, but it won't happen, because the HMD and tracking isn't cheap.
It is crazy, because the tracking should be cheap - there have been (and still are) a few projects on the net to homebrew magnetic trackers, many with enough details to replicate them yourself. Sourceless head trackers are also fairly cheap (though you can't use them with a mag tracker). HMD's are hard to homebrew, but it has been done. Parts are cheap enough, though plans are scarce. I have a ton of the plans from the early 90's, but no rights to reproduce them. Some are available online, though.
If you are real lucky, you might manage to scrounge a "pro-level" HMD off of ebay (there is pro level VR gear on ebay - stuff that used to go for thousands, now goes cheap - I have seen polhemus mag trackers on ebay, and last year I managed to "snag" a General Realities CyberEye CE-200M HMD with head tracker CHEAP).
Most of what is on Ebay is the old stuff, but it can be had fairly cheap, too - old Victormaxx HMDs and Forte VFX-1s go fairly cheap. Powergloves can be found as well, though they are starting to get real scarce.
Your best bet, if you really want to see this personally, is to build it - that is really the only way you or I will get to use this kind of stuff, and it is likely that the homebrew people will be the ones to really create the apps...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon