The Oculus Rift is an upcoming virtual reality head-mounted display. It is being developed by Oculus VR, who have raised $16 million, of which $2.4 million was raised with crowdfunding via Kickstarter.
And, the Oculus Rift will probably not be the only VR gear out there in the coming years... Apparently, Sony is also working on VR gear (See: Sony VR gear).
Believe the hype. Oculus Rift will change everything...
After twenty years of VR misfires, finally a technology has arrived that can make Vritual Reality real.
''With the black mask on, you are plunged into a virtual world -
turn your head to look around and the Rift tracks your movement,
allowing you to explore the virtual world as you would naturally.''
Inside the Rift each eye is isolated and sent its own image - one slightly offset from the other. This tricks
your brain into seeing the Rifts's flat screen as a 3D world full of depth.
Obviously, the possibilities are endless:
''It is not hard to to envision a game that puts you in the driver
seat of a Formula One racer.
The Company Next3D plans to use a combination of 180 degrees cameras and
3D filming to deliver a real world experience to the Oculus Rift.
(And) One of the major backers of the technology is from the sex industry. Where we will leave
you to ponder what that experience will be like... (Or see Future of Sex for more).''
Erik Torkel Danielsson, one of the co-founders of Intuitive Aerial, decided to put his shiny new Rift through its paces this week by pairing it with his company's Black Armor Drone. The hexacopter is designed for aerial photography, and the payload is pretty hefty -- attached to the rig are two cameras simultaneously recording video and an onboard laptop. The video is encoded by the laptop and transmitted to the land-based computer via WiFi for display on the Rift.
Still, getting your head in the game is probably what will push Virtual Reality center stage.
On Oculus one reads this incredible announcement:
We have incredible news to share with the community: legendary game programmer John Carmack will be officially joining the Oculus team as our new Chief Technology Officer (CTO).
John is one of the brightest minds of our generation. Pioneer, visionary, and industry legend. There are very few people in the world that can contribute to the Oculus Rift and the future of virtual reality like John can.
And it is not stopping there: Halflife will soon be available in VR:
Talk about a terrifying experience...
Certainly, the gaming industry seems determined to make 3D gaming a reality.
And, Oculus Rift has been endorsed by a number of notable game industry figures, including:
John D. Carmack: Co-founder of id Software and lead programmer on Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake, since August 2013 CTO at Oculus VR.
Gabe Newell: Co-founder and CEO of Valve.
Tim Sweeney: Founder of Epic Games and developer on ZZT and the Unreal engine.
Shuhei Yoshida: President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios.
- - -
Ideed, a new frontier:
What about a gender swap?
Gender Swap is an experiment that uses The Machine to Be Another system as a platform for an embodiment experience (a neuroscience technique in which users can feel themselves like if they were in a different body).
