When I demo VR to people they often struggle to see its
potential application in the real world. One dimension they often miss is its
potential to let you interact with other people - it’s social dimension. Far from being socially isolating, it may be
socially liberating. The possibilities are mind-blowing.
Virtual Reality (VR)
Remember that Facebook bought Oculus for 2.3 billion
dollars, when it had not a single customer. Why? Zuckerberg saw the social
possibilities of multiplayer VR. He could see that Facebook, the world’s most
successful social network, could be transformed by this technology. VR may be
the future of social networking. Rather than the flat, text and pics medium we
see today, we’ll be able to meet, socialise, do business, experience entertainment
and learn in 3D spaces with anyone, anyplace at anytime. Multiplayer VR is
already here. You can play games or train in a multiplayer environment right
now.
Augmented Reality
(AR)
Microsoft is also working on the AR angle with ‘holoportation’.
The ability for you and anyone else to holoport to any place at any time really
is on the horizon. Imagine teleporting from one place to another. If two people
can wear their HoloLens they can see each other as being present in the same
space. You have to see this to believe it. First you need to capture you’re
body, so that it can be reconstructed online. We can all be created as virtual
people, compressed and reconstructed in
the other person’s space, in real time. Note that with AR anyone can be seen in
the room with you, as if they were standing there. This works through ‘live
capture’.
Interaction
Within VR or AR worlds you need to be able to move around,
interact and do things. In VR, controllers such as the Xbox games controller, that
comes with the Oculus Rift, are already shipping. Other devices such as the
Oculus Touch are in development, along with haptic gloves and suits. You can
already move around, manipulate objects and feel them in you hands.
In AR, Microsoft’s Bluetooth controller is a simple one
button device that you strap to your fingers. Remember that voice recognition
and is likely to play a huge role in interactivity and, of course, social
interaction, along with gestures. Don’t forget the possibilities with the
headtracking itself, as you know where the person is looking and can place
sounds, other people and objects anywhere you want, dynamically, in relation to
that movement.
As others see us
Weirdly, you can also put yourself in another person’s shoes
and see the world from their point of view. A doctor sees as a patient and
experience what it is like to have a visual, hearing or physical disability. A
teacher can experience what the learner sees and does. A coach can experience
what a sport’s person is experiencing during practice. A man can experience
what a woman sees, does and experiences and vice-versa. This opens up
possibilities in training of sexual harassment and equal opps. You can
experience what it is like to be of any other gender, race, age or disability
in any other place. There have already been experiments in experiencing life as
a refugee.
Global experience
Virtual travel with a mountaineer or astronaut is possible. You
can fly with a bird. You can actually be on the Moon or Mars. You can
experience being in a concert or sports event and be with there on the field or
stage. More than this, new forms of film and games will allow you to be inside
the film or game and have other people in your team right there with you. You
will be able to interact with these other people, just as you would in real
face-to-face situations, whether they are AI controlled avatars or real people.
Global classroom
In learning, we really can have one-to-one tuition, as if
the person was actually there, with you, in the same space. The Global
Classroom becomes a possibility, with teachers and learners getting together,
no matter where they are on the planet. Groups of people can learn together,
even in other created VR worlds, such as outer space, below the ocean, at the
atomic level, inside the body – anywhere. Imagine MOOCs where all of this is
possible and millions can be taught by the best teachers using the best created
worlds, as if you were actually there.
Conclusion
In both VR and AR, you will be able to connect with
relatives, work colleagues, friends, teachers and other learners at any time,
in any place. The world is literally in your living room or wherever you choose
it to be. This is more than the global village it is the global room.
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