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Student Uses Oculus Rift and Kinect To Create Body Swap Illusion
kkleiner writes Using an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, Microsoft Kinect, a camera, and a handful of electrical stimulators, a London student's virtual reality system is showing users what it's like to swap bodies. Looking down, they see someone else's arms and legs; looking out, it's someone else's point of view; and when they move their limbs, the body they see does the same (those electrical stimulators mildly shock muscles to force a friend to mirror the user's movements). It's an imperfect system, but a fascinating example of the power of virtual reality. What else might we use VR systems for? Perhaps they'll prove useful in training or therapeutic situations? Or what about with robots, which would be easier to inhabit and control than another human? The virtual body swap may never fully catch on, but generally, virtual reality will likely prove useful for more than just gaming and entertainment.
I would never leave the house.
Homeless people would be cheaper than robots.
a long, long time ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...
So when will people sell Technovoodoo service?
Not a new idea. Only they didn't use Kinect or electrical stimulators, so they just relied on the partners' willingness to mirror each other's movements.
Cool movie :) Strange Days
They were using the Oculus rift to look down at genitals of swapped bodies when it first came out fools.
http://gizmodo.com/oculus-rift-lets-you-see-what-it-would-be-like-to-swap-1505973834
Maybe now we can have fat people swap into a thin persons body so they can experience what not being a fat piece of shit is like and lose some fucking weight.
"Cowardice in a race, as in an individual, is the unpardonable sin." --Teddy Roosevelt
Gender-swap porn just got a lot more interesting.
I'm just saying.
The word you are looking for is Waldo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R...
Silence is a state of mime.
Why do I^Hyou have the feeling that ''Showing" what it's like to swap bodies doesn't quite cut it?
It sounded really cool until it got to the part where they "mildly shock."
So you could take this and drop yourself into a robot remotely. If the robot was to look like a human or at least dressed like one then you've got your alter-ego ready for primetime.
> What else might we use VR systems for?
Porn.
Next question.
Tell me that this doesn't scream for implementation with porn?
-Styopa
Garick would be crushed
LOL, what could possibly go wrong?
There's a super(hero|villain) origin story in here waiting to happen.
VR, dodgy electrical shocks, a budding young scientist, a Microsoft product ... quick, someone should sell this to Marvel. =)
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Hey, I want to be a White Devil and oppress the 3rd world with capitalism!
You want to go skiing without leaving your den, you can. But I'm assuming a guy like you, you wanna go skiing you fly to Aspen. That's not what you're interested in here. It's about the stuff you can't have... right? The forbidden fruit... see that guy, with the drop-dead Philipino girlfriend? Wouldn't you like to be that guy for twenty minutes? The right twenty minutes? ... You want to be a girl... see what that feels like? ... It's all doable.
- Lenny, Strange Days
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Again!
See for example:
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18017745
"... the body they see does the same (those electrical stimulators mildly shock muscles to force a friend to mirror the user's movements). It's an imperfect system, but a fascinating example of the power of virtual reality. What else might we use VR systems for?"
Are you kidding? Brainwashing!
My guess is strapping somebody on a bench with an OR and giving him violent electroshocks to the testicles each time they see a Qur'an or a half-moon in their virtual reality and an electric orgasm if they see ham and ribs, is the first thing SOME people are going to do.
VR control of robots (and body swapping/mind-sharing with other humans) is the central premise of Joe Haldeman's Forever Peace . Definitely a novel worth reading.
"Fat? No, I'm efficient!"
Though I agree in sentiment, there's still the case that if you don't eat more than X weight of food, you can't put on more than X amount of weight.
The ones who are happy being fat, fine. The ones who are trying to lose weight and can't because of their "hunger"... that's the problem. Because it's hardly ever a celery that they pig out on, but chocolate and other high-fat foods.
It's still down, in the end, to a question of willpower. If you want to slim, you'll allow yourself to feel a little more hungry and - at the same time - find ways to cure the hunger that don't involve fat.
Your gut is just as adaptable as any other part of you - it can learn, given time. And though I don't want to trivialise the effort of losing weight, especially if you have medical conditions or even just suffer from the inherent medical conditions of being overweight (such as it being more difficult on your joints to exercise), there's still a willpower game at play here.
I'm sure there are people who struggle 24 hours a day against hunger and lose. And I'm sure there are a hundred times as many who win for as long as they want to and then give up. And I'm sure there are a hundred times as many again who say they are trying, and don't even bother.
There are weight-loss TV programs where they "stalk" the contestants. They know they could be watched. They know they have cameras in their house. They know they have to cut down. But still they have midnight snacks and go shopping for high-calorie food (if it's not in the house, at least you have to expend more effort than normal to go get it if you have a craving!).
Not everyone is a lard-ass. But equally not every overweight person struggles against an unbeatable desire to eat only high-calorie food.
I've found antidepressants have negatively impacted my ability to keep my body where I want it to be, as odd as that sounds.
I'm taking an antidepressant for OCD problems, and since I've been taking it, I've had a significant reduction in trichotillomania (hair pulling) as well as other OCD problems and face numbness from extreme anxiety. However, I find that the antidepressant has neutered the highs as well as balancing the lows. I find I'm more complacent with things that bother me about myself, muting the motivation to correct them, and also killing most of the endorphin rush from exercising. Its a vicious cycle, because as you gain weight you get upset about your weight/wardrobe, and thus the original reason you were taking the antidepressant is replaced by your new unhappiness about your weight. I've tried to ween off the antidepressant but the OCD came back with a vengance as well as crippling levels of anxiety because I'm no longer used to it.
Its like being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Staying in shape was much easier without the antidepressant, but functioning and managing my OCD was much harder. I guess where I'm going from this anecdote is that the heavy use/overperscription of antidepressants may be causing others to get in this frustrating conundrum.
By operators of factory/medical robots and drones. You start to feel you are actually there. It will get so much better with the new Oculus
I was suprised to find out Joe is a professor of writing at MIT. But he wrote manyof novels before joining MIT.
1. At GITMO.
2. Another remake of the "Body Snatchers?"
What if one of the users is a computer AI. It takes over the body of the other by providing those stimulations that force the user to move their body. Now the computer has a body. Rather than a simulation it is possession and possession is 9/10ths of the law...
One step closer to full blown simsense rigs. Yes!!
This reminds me of the sci fi flick Gamer in which kids control the bodies of death row inmates as if they were characters in an FPS game:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1034032/