WEBVTT - The Mixed Bag of Mixed Reality 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:13.560 Technology with Tech Stuff from Hey there, and welcome to 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:18.400 Tech Stuff. I am your host, Jonathan Strickland. I love technology. 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:22.520 That's what this show is all about, exploring the world 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:26.240 of tech, learning how it works, learning how it affects 0:00:26.400 --> 0:00:29.360 our culture and our society, how it changes us, how 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:32.560 we change it. It's kind of a big old love 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:37.600 in of tech and squishy feelings. And today it doesn't 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:40.280 get any squishy here because we're talking about virtual reality 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:43.440 and augmented reality, a very squishy subject as it turns out, 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:48.200 because it's a definition that continuously changes. And we've explored 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:52.400 topics like augmented reality and virtual reality many many times 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:54.920 over the course of this show. You can find lots 0:00:54.960 --> 0:00:58.920 of different episodes where we've covered the the subject, and 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:01.720 these days the two techn oologies tend to get categorized 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:06.440 together in a bigger bucket that is called mixed or 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:10.959 sometimes merged reality. And you could think of mixed reality 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:14.920 kind of like a spectrum. So on one end of 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:19.120 the spectrum you have near total virtual environments, so almost 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:23.240 everything that you would experience under this area would be 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:27.199 created by a computer. You would be viewing it, likely 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:30.680 through some sort of head mounted display. There'd be some 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:33.039 sort of interface that you would use in order to 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:37.000 have your physical interactions in the real space translated into 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:42.039 the virtual space. But everything you are experiencing ideally would 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:46.240 be created by computer. The ultimate version of this, of course, 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:49.680 would be the Holia Deck from Star Trek the next generation. 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:51.920 You would never really want to use the Holia Deck 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:54.920 because at least once a season that thing goes crazy 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:57.240 and tries to kill everybody aboard the ship, and yet 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.680 they keep using it. We'll talk more about Star Trek 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:03.920 technology soon, but not in this episode but in another one. 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:08.520 But that would be the ultimate representation a world where 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:12.440 everything is computer generated. Everything you can taste, touch, smell, 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:17.600 see here, everything comes from a computer. These days, we 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:20.880 don't really have anything that generates all of that kind 0:02:20.880 --> 0:02:24.959 of sensory data. Typically, the data that does get generated 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:29.240 involves your vision and your hearing and uh you know. 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:34.240 You might go to a specialized VR experience that incorporates 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:36.799 other elements. Let's say that you go to one where 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:40.920 you are going to uh go through like a virtual 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:44.880 firefighting experience. They might use heaters to generate enough heat 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:47.280 to make it feel like you're actually passing close by 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:50.200 flames that sort of thing, but you know, typically at home, 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:53.840 you're not gonna do that, and you probably shouldn't for 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:56.640 fear of burning down your house. Now, on the other 0:02:56.720 --> 0:02:59.880 end of that spectrum, you have almost everything rooted in 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:04.360 a physical world. You just have some digital information overlaid 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:06.880 on top of that physical world in some way. It 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:10.000 may be overlaid visually, so you might be wearing special 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:13.720 glasses or a headset, and through that headset you're looking 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:15.920 at the world around you, but there's also like a 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:19.400 heads up display style overlay on top of it. Or 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:21.680 it could be audio. It could be that you're looking 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:25.639 at something and then an audio accused in the system 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:28.639 you're using that you are interested in that thing, and 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:31.960 it starts to play audio. It could be all sorts 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:33.760 of different things. It really just has to be computer 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:38.720 generated information sent to you to augment your experience, thus 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:41.880 the augmented reality. Both of these kind of fall in 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:44.480 that spectrum where on one end you've got mostly the 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:47.839 physical world with some virtual elements, and on the other 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:52.080 end you've got mostly virtual world, perhaps with some physical elements. 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:55.120 All of that falls into mixed reality, which can be 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:58.160 anywhere along that spectrum, and you might end up having 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:02.880 a largely virtual world and physical objects that you use 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:05.560 in the real world that are then mapped to the 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:09.320 virtual world. So, for example, you might have a real 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:12.680 set of table and chairs in the room that you 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:16.279 are currently in. You're wearing a headmounted display, so you 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:20.479 can see a virtual set of table and chairs in 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:22.760 front of you, and it turns out that they're mapped 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:25.440 to the actual physical table and chairs that are in 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:27.719 the real space, which means that you could actually go 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:31.200 and sit down at that table because you have a 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:34.760 real chair and table inside the room that you are 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:38.520 currently in, your body is currently in, and the experience 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:40.960 of your physical body and the experience of your virtual 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:45.640 representation can be analogous. Uh. That obviously doesn't happen with 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:50.080 most implementations of virtual reality today. There's definitely some research 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:52.159 and development labs that are doing that sort of thing, 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:56.400 but typically if you're going out and buying a VR set, 0:04:56.880 --> 0:04:59.680 whatever it may be, you're not getting something quite as 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:03.680 d as that, generally speaking, but it does fall into 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:07.240 that category of mixed reality. So it describes not just 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:10.320 the headset, not just the philosophy, but some of those 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:14.040 supplemental technologies we've seen rise up since the renewed push 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:17.799 to make VR and A are a consumer technology. Uh, 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:21.240 there are lots of different control systems. There's that interactive 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:26.640 object approach I was talking about, and things along those 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:30.960 lines that all fall into this category. But the question remains, 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:36.160 is it actually ready to blossom as a consumer technology? 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:39.839 Is VR and a R is mixed reality for that matter, 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:43.600 ready to become something that goes beyond just being interesting 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:51.360 or gimmicky and become a common piece of of consumer tech, 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:56.520 something analogous to a computer or a tablet or a smartphone, 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:59.359 something that a lot of people would end up adopting 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:03.840 and using a regular basis. Because we've had the same 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:06.240 question before and the answer has turned out to be no, 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:09.520 or at least no, not right now. You might remember 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:13.840 back in the if you're old enough, that virtual reality 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:17.080 was becoming a really big buzzword around the mid nineties 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:22.640 and there was this real push toward developing VR experiences. 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:26.120 Hollywood was taking a stab at imagining what that would mean, 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:28.720 and often they would create stories in which you had 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:34.760 characters entering computer generated worlds where everything was so realistic 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:38.159 that you could actually be directly affected by that computer 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:40.760 generated world. In other words, that whole idea of if 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:42.839 you die in the matrix, you die in real life. 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:46.600 That was a very common theme in those early VR 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:52.520 movie days. Uh. Of course, the reality of VR was 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:56.640 a world away from what was being depicted in Hollywood, 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:01.640 even given the primitive computer generated graphics of Hollywood at 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:04.040 that time, which are pretty sad. If you go back 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:07.200 and watch movies from the nineteen nineties that were very 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:10.160 heavy on computer generated graphics, you start to wonder why 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:14.680 anyone ever thought it was cool. But that's mostly from retrospect, obviously, 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:18.760 because things have improved so much in the years since then. 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:23.400 But as a consumer, it was incredibly disheartening to see 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:27.240 the reality of virtual reality versus the way it was 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:32.080 depicted in popular culture. You would go to, perhaps, say, 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:35.560 a an arcade that would have a VR set up. 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:38.080 There was one here in Georgia. It was actually at 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:42.000 Gwynette Place Mall. I'll never forget because I would spend 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:45.960 five of my hard earned dollars to spend a few 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:49.600 minutes in this experience, which involved you climbing onto a 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:55.119 pedestal that had a raised little bar, kind of semicircular 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:57.520 bar around you that would keep you from falling off 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:02.680 said pedestal. They would lower an enormous headset onto you, 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:06.560 and the headset itself was suspended by cables from the 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:08.720 ceiling because it was too heavy for you to wear 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:13.000 as an independent headmelon display. This was much much bigger 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:15.280 and more bulky than anything you would find on the 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:18.800 market today. And then they would switch it on and 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:23.360 you would be transported to a wonderful world of primitive polygons. 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:30.480 The probably the the the big title that everyone encountered 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:32.360 at some point or another in those days, if you 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:35.000 were interested in VR, was Dactyl Nightmare. I think it 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:37.560 was called Dactyal mindmare. Is either Dactyal Nightmare Dactyal terror. 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:39.840 It's not in my notes, but I do have distinct 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:43.199 memories of experiencing, or perhaps enduring is a better word, 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:45.760 this particular program and the way it worked was it 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:49.880 was a multiplayer game, had various platforms. You can move around, 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:54.840 and you would use a controller too to move forward 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:56.720 or backward, or left or right. Your point of view 0:08:56.800 --> 0:08:59.760 was controlled by wherever your head was looking, but you're 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:02.840 a rule. Movement was controlled by a controller you held 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:05.719 in your hands, so you didn't walk forward you just 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:08.280 used your you know, thumbstick or whatever in order to 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:11.559 move your character forward. And it was a multiplayer game 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:14.200 where you were pitted against up to three other players. 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:16.120 I think I think it linked for play, at least 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:18.640 the version I played, I think it linked four players together. 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:22.679 And you had a primitive looking little stick in your 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:24.560 virtual world in front of you. So if you held 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:26.400 your hands out in front of you, you could see 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:29.640 this primitive looking little stick with a little cube at 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:31.199 the end of it that was actually a gun and 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:34.240 a bullet, and you would fire the gun and the 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:38.439 little cube would go flying at a less than bullet 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:42.320 speed velocity toward whatever you're aiming at. And you were 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:45.120 trying to take out your opponents. You're trying to score 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:48.160 as many points, essentially a deathmatch, trying to score as 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:51.000 many points against your opponents as you could. Meanwhile, a 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:55.400 pterodactyl made out of as many as perhaps six triangles 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:58.199 would be flying overhead and trying to pick you up 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:01.439 and drop you, uh them where else on the map, 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:06.000 presumably to your death. And um. It was an interesting experience. 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:10.440 It was fun. It was not terribly immersive because the 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:15.280 graphics were so unrealistic. It was immersive in the sense 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:17.480 that you got the feeling that wherever you were looking 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:19.800 really was your point of view. So that was kind 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:24.600 of cool. But because of the limitations of the technology, 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:27.800 the limitations of the graphics, the fact that it was 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:31.760 this very bulky system that you could never completely ignore 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:34.920 all of those different factors meant that you never could 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:39.960 really lose yourself in that experience. And it's experiences like 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:43.600 that that caused people to become disenchanted with the concept 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:46.760 of virtual reality. And when they realized that it just 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:49.640 wasn't where they thought it should be based upon what 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:52.520 they were given to think of, they began to reject 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:57.040 virtual reality. The buzz really faded pretty quickly from the 0:10:57.080 --> 0:11:00.600 whole concept, and from that point forward, at least for 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:03.959 the next decade or so, uh, the people who are 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:06.720 working in the fields of virtual reality as well as 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:10.680 augmented reality found themselves struggling for funding. It was really 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:14.079 difficult to get money to continue their research and development 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:18.200 because there was such a there's the bubble of interest 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.680 had deflated so rapidly. It really collapsed essentially, and the 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:25.360 disciplines took a really big step backward, and so development 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:27.680 was proceeding much more slowly, and most of the advances 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:31.040 were happening in labs where people had very specific use 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:34.920 cases for virtual reality. So, for example, it's been used 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:38.960 extensively in immersion therapy to help people deal with various 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:42.240 types of anxieties and phobias, because it turns out that 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:46.920 a virtual experience, even one with relatively primitive graphics, can 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:50.800 inspire the same sort of physical reactions that we experience 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:54.120 when we encounter something that causes us stress in the 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:57.760 real world. So let's say you're afraid of heights, and 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:00.679 you try on a virtual experience that smulates being at 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:02.760 the edge of a very tall surface, like perhaps at 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:04.960 the edge of the building, you might actually start to 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:07.800 feel your body react as if you were really in 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:12.320 that location, even if the graphics are more cartoony. It 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:14.679 doesn't have to be photo realistic for this to work. 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:18.720 So people who would suffer from the fear of falling 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:21.600 from a great height would actually start to have that 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:26.360 same physical reaction, and psychologists and psychiatrists could use this 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:30.440 to help people get more accustomed to the feelings and 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:32.640 to be able to control them and to be able 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:35.480 to deal with them in a constructive way as opposed 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:39.480 to being paralyzed by them with a phobia, and you 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:44.120 would know ultimately during this process that you were safe. 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:47.760 You're inside a room, inside a lab, You're nowhere close 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:50.320 to the edge of anything. You're not going to fall, 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:53.840 you're not going to get hurt. So rationally you would 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:56.920 be able to hold that onto that thought and you 0:12:56.960 --> 0:13:00.480 wouldn't go into a full panic, hopefully, But even if 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:02.360 you did go into a full panic, it was very 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:04.960 easy to turn the system off, remove it, and then 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:08.640 to re ground yourself. And it was a way to 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:16.120 create this therapeutic approach to exposing somebody to the stimuli 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:20.840 that would set them off and become better at coping 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:25.400 with that situation so that they could then ultimately move 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:28.079 about in the real world and not have that affect them. Well, 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:31.080 it's a very powerful statement to say that virtual reality 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:34.280 could allow you to do this, even when the graphics 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:36.440 are not that terribly powerful. So you did see a 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:40.640 lot of various approaches using technology in that way, whether 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:44.360 it was with phobias or anxieties or post traumatic stress syndrome. 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:47.760 That kind of thing really kind of interesting and cool, 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:53.240 but removed from the mainstream public's consciousness. It wasn't a 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:57.440 consumer technology anymore. So VR did continue to advance, but 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:02.320 it was within the specific implementations, and this was more 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:04.640 or less the way things went for at least ten years. 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:08.760 Then fairly recently, within the last five or six years, 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:11.680 you started seeing devices like the Oculus Rift and the 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:15.400 HTC Vibe come out in an attempt to bring VR 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:18.000 back to the consumer space. A lot of things had 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:21.640 changed since the nineteen nineties. Moore's law had continued to 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:24.480 hold sway, and now we had computers that were much 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:28.880 more capable of generating and processing graphics at a high level, 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:33.440 a high refresh rate, high level resolution. UH. The technology 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:37.640 for tracking had become much cheaper, mostly because of smartphones. 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:43.720 The smartphone market had created this need for sensors that 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:47.320 were really small and very versatile. So you know, the 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:51.280 iPhone has that feature, as do love smartphones today, of 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:53.920 being able to flip from landscape to portrait mode depending 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:59.200 upon how you're holding the phone, whether it's horizontal or vertical. Well, 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:03.400 those same sensors can be used in virtual reality gear 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:06.360 and they're very small and they're relatively inexpensive because of 0:15:06.400 --> 0:15:11.080 mass production. So we started seeing other industries grow, and 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:14.280 then the VR world began to repurpose some of the 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:18.960 technology from those industries and use them specifically in VR hardware, 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:22.000 and as a result, they meant that they didn't have 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:24.480 to develop all of that themselves, and it brought the 0:15:24.560 --> 0:15:28.960 cost of of of research and development down and ultimately 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:32.240 ultimately the cost of the actual products once they were 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:35.400 ready to ship to the consumer, because if they if 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:39.880 VR specialists had had to build everything from the ground up, 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:42.880 VR sets would be way more expensive than they are now. 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:45.640 They're still expensive, don't get me wrong. We'll talk about 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:49.680 that problem in just a little bit. So Oculus and 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:52.560 HDC Vibe they come out. They're trying really hard to 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:56.000 make VR become a thing like it could have been 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:57.960 in the nineties if it weren't for the fact that 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:01.080 the reality was so far behind where our perception was. 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:07.440 They obviously still have some hurdles. Meanwhile, recently, actually Microsoft 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:11.040 announced a platform called hollow Lens, and they were looking 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:14.960 at getting into the augmented reality space, so a headset 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:18.120 that would actually overlay information on top of the real 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:20.760 world around you, as opposed to replacing the real world. 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:24.360 And obviously hollow Lens is just one example. There are 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:28.680 plenty of augmented reality applications out there for various types 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:32.240 of devices, but hollow lens was something that Microsoft developed 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:36.880 that was intended to be an augmented reality headset and 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:41.160 the UH. Since then, Microsoft has said that it's not 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:44.720 going to be its own consumer product. It was more 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:47.960 meant as a platform for developers to use in order 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:51.440 to develop augmented reality experiences, which then would be incorporated 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:54.960 into future products. It would not be a hollow lens 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:56.200 that you would go out and buy. It would be 0:16:56.240 --> 0:16:59.040 something else, UH, which is kind of a shame. I 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:00.800 never got a chance to try a hollow lens. I 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:02.560 know they still exist, but I've never been able to 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:05.520 to try one on. I really hope one day to 0:17:05.680 --> 0:17:08.080 change that and get an experience with a hollow lens. 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:12.159 So today I want to look at the technologies and 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:14.919 approaches companies are unleashing in an effort to get VR, 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:19.040 a R and mixed reality off the ground again, because 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:22.200 for a while it looked like there was the possibility 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:25.320 that just like in the nineties when VR died, we 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:29.119 could see the same thing happened today. And the reason 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:32.000 for that there's actually several reasons. There's the fact that 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:35.840 it's expensive, it's a fractured landscape. There are a lot 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:40.560 of different options out there, and they're not all equal. Uh, 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:44.359 there's a perceived lack of content. So you could get 0:17:44.480 --> 0:17:46.880 the hardware, but then you wouldn't have a whole lot 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:50.359 to do with it, because until recently, there just weren't 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:52.840 as many experiences out there that you could point to 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:56.120 and say, this is the reason you have to have 0:17:56.240 --> 0:17:59.600 this kind of technology. They're just there weren't enough titles. 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:02.359 Whether it was an experience or a game or whatever 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:05.200 you want to call it, there just wasn't enough there. 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:08.520 Let's get to that cost issue. So the Oculus Rift 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:14.080 as of the recording of this podcast, retails for four dollars, 0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:17.800 and that includes the headset, some sensors, and the touch 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:20.520 controls that you would use to move around within a 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:24.720 virtual experience. The sensors track the movement of infrared LEDs 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:27.920 that are on the headset itself. This more accurately reflects 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:30.560 your head movements within a game environment, so as you 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:33.080 move your head in the real world, it gets reflected 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:36.240 in the virtual environment. You can use three sensors and 0:18:36.280 --> 0:18:39.080 that will get to three hundred sixty degrees of tracking 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:42.119 around you. Uh. Though there are some experiences that can 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:46.320 simulate three D sixty degree tracking using just two sensors, 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:49.680 but that's not for everything. You would need three sensors 0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:53.800 to achieve that with all the different experiences that Oculus 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:59.000 works with. The HTC Vive retails for five dollars, so 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:01.240 it's a hundred dollars more are that includes the headset, 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:05.040 a couple of base stations, and some controllers. You can 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:06.720 set up the Vibe to work in a space of 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:10.240 up to fifteen feet by fifteen feet, and that allows 0:19:10.280 --> 0:19:13.280 you to actually move around inside a physical environment and 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:16.800 have those movements translate into the virtual world. So whereas 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:19.280 with the Oculus Rift, you're sitting at a desk typically 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:22.320 and you're using your point of view. You know, you 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:23.919 move your head to change your point of view and 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:26.720 then use controllers to move around and stuff. You might 0:19:26.760 --> 0:19:28.680 stand up for that, but you don't really move around 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:31.840 very much. HTC Vibe is meant to allow you to 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:35.920 move within a physical space and actually have that effect 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:39.959 the way the the experience is playing out that you 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:43.840 are actually seeing in your headset. Both the Oculus and 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:47.560 the Vibe also require a fairly decent PC to to run, 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:51.639 although those requirements have also come down as things have 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:55.800 become optimized and the technology ends up getting less expensive 0:19:55.840 --> 0:20:00.840 over time. When they first launched the Oculus in the HTC, 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:04.080 people said that typically you would need to spend around 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:07.719 a thousand to undred dollars to get a PC that 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:12.879 was decent enough to run VR experiences and have it 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:17.359 be a pleasant experience, not something that was frustrating or 0:20:17.920 --> 0:20:21.560 didn't measure up to what your expectations were. Today, it's 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:24.760 about half that really, according to a lot of sites, 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:29.080 you could build a basic VR ready computer a gaming 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:31.600 rig for about six hundred dollars if you wanted to 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:34.919 make the baseline system. Now. Obviously, the more money you 0:20:34.960 --> 0:20:37.600 can invest in a rig with really good graphics, processing 0:20:37.600 --> 0:20:41.240 and memory, the better your experience will be. But a minimum, 0:20:41.440 --> 0:20:44.240 we're talking about six hundred dollars, and so that means 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:47.480 your average VR bundle all told. Let's say you don't 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:49.760 have this computer already, you want to go out and 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:53.080 buy all this, you're looking at around a thousand dollars 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:56.040 to maybe twelve hundred dollars just to start off, and 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:58.760 that's around your base level that's total. That's with the 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:01.399 VR set and the PC to run it off of, 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:03.639 and it could be much more expensive if you want 0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:05.720 to run it on a real beast of a gaming rig, 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:08.160 and at that point we're talking about a few thousand 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:14.640 dollars easy. Uh. So there are other restrictions with those 0:21:14.640 --> 0:21:17.919 particular implementations. Another big one is that you're tethered to 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:22.040 a PC. And since you're tethered, meaning that you actually 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:24.800 have a cable running from your headset to the computer, 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:27.359 you're limited in how far away you can get. Even 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:30.080 with the HTC vive, you're limited and how far away 0:21:30.119 --> 0:21:32.960 you can get from that base station and still be 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:37.280 able to uh to have your experience working. And it 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:40.920 restricts your movement somewhat, especially if you're walking around a 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:43.879 fifteen by fifteen foot environment. You could get tangled up 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:46.359 pretty easily in that cable if you're not careful, and 0:21:46.440 --> 0:21:50.439 that will really literally in some cases, cause your virtual 0:21:50.480 --> 0:21:53.520 experience to come crashing down around you. So there are 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:56.520 other limitations beyond just the cost. But the cost is 0:21:56.560 --> 0:21:58.399 a big one. It's a big barrier to entry for 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:00.760 a lot of people. It means a people who have 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:04.520 a lot of disposable income, and they're big tech enthusiasts, 0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:09.280 tend to be your audience. You just it's too expensive 0:22:09.400 --> 0:22:12.280 for your average consumer who's just curious about it to 0:22:12.320 --> 0:22:16.840 get into it. It's it's too big of a financial commitment. Now. 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:20.080 Not long after Oculus started drumming up excitement, developers for 0:22:20.119 --> 0:22:23.080 smartphones began to create apps and supplemental products to turn 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:27.639 phones into simple VR or a R headsets. So Google 0:22:27.760 --> 0:22:30.359 launched Cardboard, for example. On Cardboard was kind of a 0:22:30.359 --> 0:22:35.240 platform for apps to turn Android phones into make shift 0:22:35.440 --> 0:22:41.159 VR headsets. You would actually build or order a cardboard 0:22:41.200 --> 0:22:45.400 headset with some lenses, and the lenses would align properly 0:22:45.440 --> 0:22:47.680 so that you could actually get the three D sort 0:22:47.720 --> 0:22:52.320 of effect of virtual reality, and the phone would act 0:22:52.359 --> 0:22:54.520 as both the processor and the screen. You would slip 0:22:54.560 --> 0:22:58.879 that into this cardboard headset and then you would be 0:22:58.920 --> 0:23:02.640 able to look around and have various virtual reality experiences. 0:23:02.640 --> 0:23:06.080 There were interesting, they were fairly limited, but pretty cool 0:23:06.359 --> 0:23:09.680 ideas anyway, And the big draw of that approach was 0:23:09.720 --> 0:23:11.680 that you didn't have to spend nearly so much money 0:23:11.720 --> 0:23:13.720 to have a VR experience. So, in fact, if you 0:23:13.840 --> 0:23:18.000 already had an Android phone capable of supporting cardboard, then 0:23:18.200 --> 0:23:21.199 you're really just talking about twenty dollars or less in 0:23:21.280 --> 0:23:23.760 order to get the stuff you need to either make 0:23:23.880 --> 0:23:27.600 or you're buying a cardboard headset, and that's the that's 0:23:27.640 --> 0:23:31.439 the financial uh investment you have to make, assuming you 0:23:31.520 --> 0:23:33.680 already have the phone. Obviously, if you don't have the phone, 0:23:33.720 --> 0:23:35.360