WEBVTT - Oculus Rift: The Story So Far (Update) 0:00:03.360 --> 0:00:06.720 Didn't touch with technology with tech Stuff from how stuff 0:00:06.760 --> 0:00:14.040 Works dot Com. Hey there, and welcome to Tech Stuff. 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:17.160 I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Obama. And today we're going 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:20.200 to take another look back on an older episode. You see, 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:23.160 we got a lot of news about the Oculus Rift 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:26.120 that's been piling up since March of two thousand fourteen, 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:29.760 and we did an episode called the Oculus Rift Story 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:34.239 as the story so far, so there's enough information to 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:36.760 kind of update that, but not so much that we 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:40.800 can do a whole new episode. Right that original episode 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:44.960 published on August. If you want to, well, you don't 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:46.680 need to go looking for it, because we're about to 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:50.040 play it. We're about to play it, however, just to 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:53.440 give you an idea in the timeline of where this occurred. Yes, 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:57.440 so since August two thirteen, a lot has happened. So 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:01.080 once we have played through that episode, stick around. We 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:03.760 have a lot to say about what's been going on 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:12.120 since then. So, without further ado, here's the original episode. Today, 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:15.640 we wanted to talk about something that, uh technology that 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:18.959 really made a big splash in late two thousand twelves 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:21.760 and really in two thousand thirteen, something that got a 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:24.480 lot of people excited. I guess you could say it 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:28.520 kicks started the virtual reality craze again in the US. 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:33.640 Oh my goodness. The Oculus Rift. So yes, and as 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:36.200 of June they announced that they had just raised sixteen 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:41.280 million in private funding. Sixteen million dollars, which isn't shabby 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:44.040 for a company run by a twenty year old guy. Okay, 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:47.640 let's not focus on how young this guy is. Now, 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:50.760 that's amazing, that's that's this is a tinkerer, who is 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:54.320 who is of the people? And uh in eighteen years 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:58.440 younger than I am. Yeah, no, he really is. Though. 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:01.800 He's one of those guys who worked out of his garage, 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:04.880 messing with stuff that interested him and was able to 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:08.840 leverage that into something that is really taking at least 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:11.840 one section of the gaming world by storm. So we 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:14.600 were will be talking a lot about video games, but 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:17.280 in this case, it's a it's a peripheral for video games. 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:20.000 So all of you people out there who hate video 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:23.960 game topics, this is still cool. It's virtual reality. Now, 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:28.000 before we get into a discussion about Oculus Rift and particularly, 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:31.360 I wanted to mention just sort of a history of 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:36.360 virtual reality. Uh, kind of Jonathan's history of virtual reality. 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:38.200 So this isn't in our notes or anything. This is 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:41.440 from my own personal, completely unofficial. He is making it 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:45.160 up as he goes along. Dinosaurs will be involved, Okay, 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:48.800 well actually yes, well technically it's not a dinosaur. Pterodactyl 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:53.200 is not a dinosaur, but it's close. Um so virtual reality. 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:56.000 For those of you who were alive in the nineties 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:59.080 and remember this kind of stuff that it started to 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:03.040 really kind of get buzz in the early to mid nineties. 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:06.080 This was one of those terms that was promising to 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:09.000 turn computing on its head. It was changing the way 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:11.920 we thought about computers. It was gonna be immersive. You 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:14.440 were going to be surrounded by the computer data. You 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:16.640 would be part of this experience. It would no longer 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:20.800 be this separation that was created by a screen and 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:23.120 a keyboard and a mouse. And this was partially due 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:26.720 to science fiction. It was largely due to science fiction. Yeah, 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:30.560 because because the actual technology at the time was not 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:33.480 not up to part none, none, up to the expectations 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:37.760 that were generated as a result of both science fiction. Also, 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:41.119 I mean, obviously Hollywood had a big deal with how 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:45.760 this was portrayed and and it was never really realistic 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:48.040 in the Hollywood version. Also, if you watch any of 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:50.760 those movies that had a lot of virtual reality elements 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:54.160 to them, they look awful by today's standards. When you 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:56.920 talk about the graphics quality, well, there were showcases of 0:03:56.960 --> 0:04:01.160 that early computer generated right, but it was still even 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:03.640 though they look horrible by today's standards, they still looked 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:06.320 amazing compared to what was capable what we were capable 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:09.040 of doing with virtual reality at that time. Also, it 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:13.120 was really expensive because this was all a technology that 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:16.200 had to be built from the ground up, specifically for 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:20.040 the purpose of virtual reality. Now here's a hard, cold 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:25.000 fact about technology. If you're designing something that is brand new, 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:28.159 as in no one has built this kind of stuff before, 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:31.360 there's a huge amount of money that goes into that 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:36.240 to to build them development enormous amount of money, and 0:04:36.360 --> 0:04:39.280 virtual reality did not you know, it generated a lot 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:41.200 of buzz, which was good in the early days, but 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:44.920 then the reaction to what was actually possible was such 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:46.720 that a lot of that interest and a lot of 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:50.480 the support drained away very very quickly. So you're left 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:53.240 with these people who were doing valuable work in the 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:57.320 field of virtual reality. But because there was this bubble 0:04:57.400 --> 0:05:00.599 that burst early on in the development of the technology 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:03.800 itself and the industry, they were left with very little 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:07.560 to work with once that bubble went away. So also, 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:09.440 I feel like at the time, people we were focused 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:12.640 on the entertainment issues of it and weren't really thinking 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:17.919 forward to UMU, to the possible medical purposing and and 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:23.040 therapy purposing. At least anyone outside the actual industry was 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:25.400 not seeing those that. You know, there were people who 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:27.960 were working in the industry who's actually saw some really 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:30.960 cool applications, some of which we have actually seen happen 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:34.200 over the course of the several years that have in 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:38.479 between when virtual reality was a buzzword and today. But 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:41.479 people who were looking at it from the outside, the 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:44.719 general consumer, they were looking at it as video games 0:05:45.839 --> 0:05:48.360 or sometimes you know, I think it got pigeonholed, is 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:51.200 all I'm saying. Yeah, there were there was a smaller, 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:55.280 smaller segment who were thinking virtual sex and uh, but 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:56.839 I mean those were like the those were like the 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:59.799 two applications. It was either you were playing a game 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:04.160 or you were having some sort of weird virtual romantic 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:07.719 internal Yeah. Yeah, that that's scene in Demolition Man happened. Yeah, 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:10.800 that was a thing. Yeah, yes, it was a thing. 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:13.360 Uh if you if you haven't seen that, I don't 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:20.000 necessarily recommend it for for a snipe Sander Bullock picture. 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:24.320 You know it's it's it's fun. It's a fun film. 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:29.080 I'm not anyway. So anyway, getting getting back into virtual 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:33.240 reality so to speak. Uh So, as time went on, 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:37.280 the virtual reality community began to really like the people 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:40.000 who are really working on trying to develop things like 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:46.279 sophisticated head tracking technology, sophisticated display technology, and input various 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:49.360 user interfaces. Uh. What they began to do was they 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:54.080 began to appropriate stuff from other industries, mostly the video 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:58.800 game industry, because video games were progressing and they were 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:01.960 starting to introduce new types of controllers. So, for example, 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:05.080 when the Nintendo WE launched and they had the WE 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:10.560 control with the multiple access gyroscopes in it that allowed 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:14.880 for very specific kinds of interaction with the console, the 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:18.400 video or the virtual environment. By now it's called virtual 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:20.960 environment's not virtual reality. Because virtual reality had sort of 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:24.480 a stigma attached to it. The virtual environment. People were thinking, 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:28.400 why don't we take that, like literally, We'll go out 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:31.640 and buy a Nintendo WE and take apart the controller 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:35.040 and use the technology in the controller to help develop 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:38.240 our stuff because it's less expensive than developing one on 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:41.640 our own or buying one of these very specific types 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:45.600 of parts that are only made for virtual reality. So 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:49.240 that kind of sets the scene for what happens with 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:54.440 the Oculus Rift. So let's go and first we'll just 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:56.440 talk about what the Oculus Rift is. It is a 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:00.320 headset that has two screens in the headset, one screen 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:05.160 for each eye. The two screens both render a very 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:09.480 similar image from a from a game. Yeah, on casual glance, 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:12.120 you would think that it's the same picture, but they're 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:14.920 from very very slightly different angles, just like your eyes 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:17.520 are to right right to to give the illusion of 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:20.080 depth when your brain puts the two inches together. Yeah, 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:22.280 and we'll talk more about what's actually going on there 0:08:22.320 --> 0:08:24.320 a little bit later in the podcast. So it's this 0:08:24.440 --> 0:08:28.640 headset and it has motion tracking. Uh so essentially your 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:33.600 head's motions are interpreted by by hardware in this headset 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:38.640 sent to a computer that is taking that as input 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:42.000 and then processing it within a game engine of some 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:46.040 sort and sending back the response so that the images 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:49.360 you see are based upon the movements you're making. Right. 0:08:49.440 --> 0:08:53.720 I mean that's basic head tracking technology. But it was, 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:56.640 and it's this is this is what's interesting to me. 0:08:57.120 --> 0:08:59.240 This is not new, Like I said this, this started 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:01.160 way back in the nine needs, but a lot of 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:05.760 the software side was very primitive, and so the pictures 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:08.719 you would get would be very very basic. Like when 0:09:08.720 --> 0:09:11.120 I said that whole pterodactyl thing. One of the early 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:15.880 games was your this blocky figure moving around a blocky 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:20.000 landscape being chased by a blocky pterodactyl and you had 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:21.880 to just kind of run around and try and shoot 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:25.360 other people using a blocky gun that fired get ready 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:29.200 for it. Blocks. Uh, it was not it was not 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:32.000 that immersive. I mean, it was interesting that your head 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:35.040 could move, you know you it did track your motions, 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:37.320 but it wasn't immersive in the sense that you felt 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:40.320 anything was realistic. And there was a latency issue. And 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:43.320 we'll talk about latency later. To latency is like the 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:48.160 death sentence for virtual reality systems. So, uh, it wasn't 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:50.120 a new idea, but this was a new way of 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:52.640 of approaching it, and it was all made possible by 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:55.960 other industries. It wasn't the fact that the virtual reality 0:09:56.040 --> 0:10:01.360 industry had advanced to a huge degree. It was because 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:06.160 of things like smartphones and tablets. So let's talk about um, 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:09.439 kind of one of the most famous failures in virtual 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:12.480 reality first, because because this is one that uh the 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:17.240 founder of Oculus Palmer Lucky has mentioned before, which is 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:20.880 also from Nintendo. Yeah, the Virtual Boy. Back in nine. 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:25.880 This was one that the little headset would display red 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:30.800 vector graphics. I think maybe not the first, but one 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:33.880 of the first games to feature Warrio was on the 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:37.760 Virtual Boy. Uh, so he was able to survive Virtual Boy, 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:41.280 even if the product itself did not survive very long. 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:45.840 Time magazine gave it a review that was not positive. 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:50.880 They actually said that, uh, that it was migrain inducing 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:53.720 and uh and so there was a lot of bad 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:57.560 press about the Virtual Boy and it didn't sell terribly well. 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:00.640 It was one of the tech's biggest flops. I remember 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:03.440 it being a blip on on on my radar and 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:06.520 then almost immediately disappearing right up there with the Nintendo 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:09.439 Power Glove. Oh yeah, if you had the Power Glove 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:12.200 and a Virtual Boy, you are a huge Nintendo fan. 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:15.480 You look like a cyborg, but you're probably throwing up 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:17.880 a lot and you maybe had two games to play. Yeah, 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:23.160 that's also true, so Palmer Lucky. He looks back on 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:27.800 this history of virtual reality and he is absolutely fascinated 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:29.719 by it and wants to get involved in it. But 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:32.920 let's learn a little bit more about who he is. First, 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:36.640 Like you said, Lauren, he's twenty years old right as 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:39.400 of right this very moment. Um He's uh, he's he's 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:42.880 from Irvine, California. Um, he self identifies as a hacker 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:45.760 maker both both at the same time. Probably. Um. He 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:49.000 was homeschooled. His dad's a car salesman, I believe. Okay, 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:53.640 he went to as you know, he for school for 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:58.040 for college. He was actually studying journalism. He in fact 0:11:58.080 --> 0:11:59.760 said that one of the things he wanted to do. 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:02.679 He was always interested in taking things apart and learning 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:04.600 how they worked and then trying to put them back together. 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:08.040 And you know, he had kind of typical smart kids 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:10.520 success rate at things still working when they were put 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:13.480 back together after he had taken him apart. But he um, 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:15.880 he said that he wanted to go to journalism school 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:18.640 to learn to become a writer so that he could 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:22.240 tell people he could write articles, like really good articles 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:29.320 to explain how stuff works. He wanted my job, Palmer 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:32.400 Lucky wanted my job. Well, I'm really glad that he 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:35.680 took his own job instead of ours. Yeah, because we'd 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:37.080 be all of a job and neither of us would 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:40.920 have invented the oculus rift fact. Yeah, because he his 0:12:41.040 --> 0:12:44.640 plan b ended up ended up being a lot more successful. 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:48.400 Being pretty okay, Um, but yeah, he was. He was. 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:51.800 He was into some some interesting pursuits as a child. Yeah, 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:55.640 originally it was all about blowing stuff up, shocking stuff 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:58.880 or setting it on fire, like like like Tesla coil guns. 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:02.000 I read about some way coil guns. He built coil 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:04.480 guns as a kid. He actually said at one in 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:08.720 one interviews, it's a miracle I am still alive because 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:12.160 he was building stuff like anything that would involve destruction 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:16.880 through electronics was really fascinating to him. Typical kids can't 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:19.800 can't blame him, you know, like probably like some little 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:23.080 I don't want to be an armchair psychologist. But in 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:26.480 general I notice that kids and I do not I 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:31.120 don't separate myself from here, have occasionally power fantasies because 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:35.079 so much of their life is Hell's determined by other 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:38.640 people exactly, So this is sort of a self determination, 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:41.760 self empowerment kind of things. Some of us focus on 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:45.120 dinosaurs because dinosaurs are bigger than our parents and therefore 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:48.079 are more powerful. Some of us focus on tesla coil 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:50.360 guns that can melt our parents faces off if we 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:52.400 ever had that desire, which, by the way, he did not. 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:56.319 Let's be clear, he was not. He was not planning 0:13:56.360 --> 0:14:00.679 on on zapping people. He just wanted to build stuff anyway, 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:03.960 well as far as we know, but he did. He 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:06.480 did wind up doing something constructive as well. He uh, 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:08.840 he started up an iPhone repair business, didn't he. Yeah, 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:12.000 he sure did. As a teenager, he began to eat 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:14.760 when the iPhone came out, he was fascinated with that. Immediately, 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:17.959 he took one apart and learned really what made it work. 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:22.320 And so he because of his his practical knowledge of 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:26.120 electronics that was, you know, largely self taught, he ended 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:31.360 up having a successful iPhone repair business. He also would 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:34.640 jail break people's iPhones, so if they wanted to have 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:37.600 an iPhone that could run other types of stuff on 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:39.880 it that rather than just what Apple would allow you 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:42.920 to run a boot with whatever. Yeah, he would actually 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:46.680 do that for a fee, and apparently it was pretty successful. 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:51.520 So so successful that he might have made around thirty 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:55.880 six thousand dollars in a single year, which you know, 0:14:56.000 --> 0:15:00.120 as a teenager is a pretty good many humans. It's 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:02.880 a pretty good salary for for for something like this 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:05.240 is this is his version of a lemonade stand. That's 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:09.080 a pretty successful lemonade stand. Yes, as of two thousand nine, 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:11.280 when he was sixteen, I believe that was when he 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:15.000 began looking into purchasing virtual reality equipment. That's when he 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:17.360 kind of had had had been online and had seen 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:20.080 some stuff and was getting interested in the subject, right 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:22.960 and and that was also he's done interviews where he's 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:28.320 talked about how the industry changed dramatically, Like back in 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:31.360 the early days. Besides things like Nintendo's Virtual Boy, which 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:33.840 were really the exception, those were the few. There were 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:37.280 only a few things that were ever consumer based technologies 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:40.160 that the average person was would be expected to purchase 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:42.840 right right, even today a few years later, the very 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:46.240 low end virtual reality equipment runs around a thousand bucks 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:49.000 of pop I think um and and a lot of 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:51.920 it um. A lot of the more professional gear was 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:55.040 running up near a hundred thousand bucks. In fact, one 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:57.400 of the things he found he found a piece of 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:00.560 virtual reality equipment that was pretty rare at the time 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:04.840 it was first produced cost ninety seven thousand dollars. He 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:08.360 bought it for eighty seven bucks because, again, the VR 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:11.960 industry just kind of out. Yeah, so he was really 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:14.920 interested to seeing, you know, in seeing how these things worked, 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:18.200 how did they track head head motion, how did they 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:21.200 feed video in? And a lot of these early early 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:26.360 VR equipment pieces are enormous, right, They require things like 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:29.680 some kind of rig exactly, they require a rig so 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:32.480 that their support because if you were to just wear 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:35.080 it yourself, it would be so heavy as to be uncomfortable. 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:36.800 Some of them would be too heavy for you to 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:40.040 even effectively move your head. So a lot of them 0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:42.200 would have these rigs that would allow you to have 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:46.520 suspension from from like uh uh, not the ceiling, but 0:16:46.800 --> 0:16:49.080 it would the rig itself would extend beyond where you 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:52.560 would stand, and there'd be chords that would help support 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:54.720 the weight of the helmet, so you wouldn't have full 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:57.600 three sixty degree motion either. If you were to try 0:16:57.640 --> 0:16:59.840 and turn all the way around, eventually those those cords 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:01.760 are start to wrap up, yeah, and you'd have to 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:05.399 turn back the other way. So he was interested in 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:08.159 purchasing as many of these as possible to learn what 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:10.359 made him tick. Yeah, he he was thinking about creating 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:14.440 more immersive game interfaces and uh and and experiences and 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:16.600 but but none of this stuff was really what he 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:18.639 was looking for. He was he was kind of hoping 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:22.960 to to salvage something together for himself, honestly, and um, 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:25.840 and none of it was working, right, So, but he 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:28.760 learned a lot during this period, Yeah, and um. And 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:31.640 as of twenty eleven, he was working at the University 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:35.000 of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies, which I believe 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:38.199 is in military associated facility from a lot of the 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:40.520 stuff they did was for the military Specifically, he was 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:44.600 working in the Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy Program UM, sometimes 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:49.560 called virtual IRAQ, which helps veterans who have PTSD use 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:55.080 VR therapy to to get over their post traumatic stress disorder. Yeah. 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:58.240 In fact, this is one of the most fascinating uses 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:00.920 for virtual reality. And I've I've actually talked to there 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:03.199 was Um, there are people over at Emery, and there 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:06.159 are people over at Duke who run labs that use 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:08.600 this kind of approach, and I've talked about it for 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:11.080 use with PTSD have also talked about it for use 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:15.000 with things like phobias, and the idea is it's this 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:20.000 immersion therapy where you immerse a person into certain situations 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:25.480 that might trigger anxiety or stress, but they are they 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:28.040 know that they are in a safe environment. They know 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:31.239 ultimately deep down that they are perfectly safe, that they 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:34.080 are not really in that. But it's immersive enough for 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:36.680 people who have a severe fear of flying. I've heard 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:39.840 that it's extremely successful, something something along the lines of 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:43.080 you could do a virtual visit to an airport. And 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:47.400 the interesting thing here is that the scientists have discovered 0:18:47.400 --> 0:18:50.160 that the graphics do not have to be photo realistic 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:52.840 at all. They don't have to be you know, to 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:54.920 the point where you would look at something and think 0:18:55.440 --> 0:19:00.360 that's identifiable as Dullest International Airport, for example. You look 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:02.520 at and just say, there's a building and there's the 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:04.960 representation of a plane next to it, that's the airport. 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:09.240 And once you get into the immersive environment, which usually 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:11.840 takes around half a minute to a minute long for 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:14.480 you to really get acclimated, assuming that everything is working 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:18.119 properly on the technical end, then you start to have 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:20.840 the actual physical reactions you would if you were in 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:24.200 the real situation. So, for example, one about a fear 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:27.439 of heights. I remember specifically reading about this, actually talking 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:29.000 about this to some of the people at Duke and 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:32.240 Emory Um. You might have a simulation where you're on 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:34.480 the top of a tall building. The building does not 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:36.880 necessarily look like a real building. I mean, it might 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:40.440 look like almost a cartoonish example, but the person would 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:43.600 start to have that same physiological response as if they 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:46.080 were in the real situation. And it was part of 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:49.680 this this uh, this therapy to expose oneself to these 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:52.960 situations in a safe environment to get acclimated. It's the 0:19:53.000 --> 0:19:56.600 psychological principle of facing your fears. Essentially. There's there's a 0:19:56.600 --> 0:19:59.199 lot more technical terminology I won't go and there's a 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:01.600 lot of a lot of other elements to this therapy. 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:04.800 Obviously that you don't want it to just be cruel 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:06.840 and be like, hey, I heard you're scared of spiders. 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:11.000 Here's a big harry spider. That's not that's not therapy. 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:14.520 That's cruelty. It's it's extremely guided therapy and and there 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:16.720 are many parts of it and uh, but but but 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:20.119 it's excellent, really interesting work. Yeah, and so Lucky was 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:22.680 working on this. He was, this was part of the 0:20:23.200 --> 0:20:26.800 stuff that that he was involved in. And he he 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:28.439 will be the first to tell you, by the way, 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:31.320 he's a hardware guy, he's not a software guy. And 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:34.480 in fact, there's some great interviews that he's done with 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:39.200 other members of the software community, of the video game 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:43.919 community where he says the success of the Oculus Rift, 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:46.560 the early success that has had before, it's not even 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:49.400 a consumer product yet as of the recording of this podcast. 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:53.360 It's there's developer kits that are out and that's about it. Yeah, 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:56.199 you cannot you cannot as a consumer by this and 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:58.920 expect to use it. With a ton of games there 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:01.439 right now, there are two games that are really I 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:04.359 think I think three as as of this podcast. Okay, 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:06.800 so the third one has has recently joined in the 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:09.560 past week. But it's not like you can't plug it 0:21:09.640 --> 0:21:12.680 into your console either. This is PC only right now, 0:21:13.640 --> 0:21:16.359 with the hope that maybe one day it'll it'll be 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:21.000 available for multiple platforms any rate. He he actually says, uh, 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:23.840 you know, point blank. He says, the success of this 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:26.879 would not exist without the software side. But that's not 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:31.080 my world. I can't program I can build this hardware. 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:35.040 So uh he he really was using that expertise while 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:39.680 working over at the Southern California's Institute for Creative Technology, right, 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:41.960 and he threw I think that he was a member 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:43.399 of a couple of forums, the names of which I 0:21:43.480 --> 0:21:46.080 am completely forgetting. So somebody right in and tell me 0:21:47.000 --> 0:21:49.800 correct my complete lack of a word to give you, 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:52.720 Mr Lucky. First of all, I object to have to 0:21:52.760 --> 0:21:55.200 call you Mr. You're eighteen years younger than I am. 0:21:55.240 --> 0:21:57.679 But if you're listening, just to just right in and 0:21:57.720 --> 0:22:00.879 tell us what they were. Um. And he developed this 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:04.480 plan um too. You know, he really wanted to to 0:22:04.800 --> 0:22:08.840 build a kind of kind of a personal hobbyist kit 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:13.160 of VR headsets and do it yourself. Yeah. Yeah, So 0:22:13.160 --> 0:22:17.240 so he planned a Kickstarter to just create a hundred 0:22:17.560 --> 0:22:20.840 enthusiast kits. Um you know that that you know, contributors 0:22:20.880 --> 0:22:24.160 would would get the pieces of a virtual reality headset 0:22:24.320 --> 0:22:26.080 and put it together themselves and be able to play 0:22:26.119 --> 0:22:28.960 around with it. And um. But but this got the 0:22:28.960 --> 0:22:31.760