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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.
...more on 9 News at 11.
now that's augmented reality with a market!
cz
because now I'm going to have to rent a stadium!
daed si luap
That one shot with the bridge is scary. I can't tell if the bridge is really there or not. With sufficiently good graphics, you could easily break a leg/neck.
-prator
I'd better start training now if I want to win some deathmatches.
Hey, watch it about the Disc Golfers!
:)
Hey at least we can get "Augmented Reality" for about five or ten bucks... depending how much the mushrooms are going.
This seems to be paying a lot to do the same thing
Get your Unix fortune now!
CmdrTaco certainly does have a knack for attacking all the masive power blocks in our society. When will he stop his suicidal habit of making powerful enemies, such as Microsoft, Scientology and the all powerful Frisbee Golfers, with their hordes of vicious lawyers? If the Frisbee Golfers don't get this article eaten before 5 PM, I will be surprised.
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
If you wanted to play paintball, but didn't have any friends who did, this would be a great way to get outside and have some fun. It could also take the paintball/lasertag-style game to the next level. Instead of just shooting each other, you could launch a coordinated attack on the horde of monsters at your school. Buffy expansion pak, anyone? I don't play paintball, but I imagine that it's mostly running around and you only shoot a couple of times. This sounds like you could shoot stuff all over the place.
The obvious problem is looking like a complete idiot in public. But for some of us, that happens anyway, so who cares?
The obvious useful application for this is the military/police force. I can imagine them setting up common scenarios that soldiers/officers would be required to run through on a regular basis. This would almost be like getting real experience, and it would keep everyone in shape, too. Much better than computer simulations where they sit down, or are confined to a room. I wonder if they plan on making a bundle selling this to various enforcement agencies.
c-hack.com |
The main problems with the system seem to be
Has anyone told Stef about this yet?
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
Horrifying monsters? I'd be plenty worried if I saw Ed Harris in a dark suit following me around campus! Especially if he urged me to get back to work!
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
Having done research with HMD's (Head mounted displays), I am pretty sure they never had 640x480 headsets for $700. The problem is that the optics and screens are super expensive, if you want them to be wearable for any reasonable amount of time. A couple of problems: Even if they could manufacture a really nice high quality HMD for $700, there STILL isn't a large consumer market for it. They would need to build something that wows people for $200, which just isn't possible with current display technologies. The other problem is field of view. Most modern consumer headsets have pretty limited FOV. Increase the FOV, and you effectively blur out the image. Makes text tough. I wouldn't wait for any cheap HMDs.
As for your question, VR as popularized by fiction, is a LONG way off. I don't think it was ever really alive. The problem is just that there are too many parts missing, too expensive, or just not there yet (good quality feedback, sourceless tracking) for anything more than expensive research projects.
I think maybe once we figure out some sort of brain-computer interface, we may see some real consumer VR. But I doubt much before that.
"Of all days, the day on which one has not laughed is the most surely the one wasted." -Sebastian Roch Nicol
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