Virtual reality changes human cognitive distance "Avatar" how far?

["Never a time so appropriate, virtual reality technology ushered in the dawn, it changes the reality of the revolution is coming." "Jemiri Bielensen said.

Neatly dressed you look in the mirror in front of the door, suddenly found in the mirror is full of wrinkles, an instant old to 30 years old. In the face of such a scary picture, do not scream, because-it is possible that virtual reality technology to deceive you.

This "Magic Mirror" has appeared in the Stanford Virtual Interactive Laboratory (Virtualhumaninteractionlab). It is a project called "Face Retirement", which the lab works with Bank of America to address the social problems of young Americans who lack a sense of saving, in order to tell young people that the extent of your appearance and smile will depend on your current saving behavior after old age.

Jemiri Bielensen, the founder of Jeremybailenson, told reporters including the first financial daily that in virtual reality, tracking the subjects ' physical changes, body movements and so on, and then changing what they saw and heard, In order to realize the psychological virtual reality, so that he forgot in the real world. "It may not take long for everyone to create their own avatar," he said.

Jemiri Bielensen and Jim Braskovic in the virtual reality: from Avatar to immortality: the brain doesn't care too much about whether an experience is real or virtual. Just click on the button and you won't grow old, lose a few pounds of fat, or make the muscle block stand out. In this world, your great-grandfather is still alive, and you can play ball games with your 6-year-old daughter ...

The n possibilities of making dreams

Although virtual reality technology has been studied since the 90 's, but just two years ago, virtual reality technology was moving at the turtle's speed, and until the past year, it had really aroused widespread concern, and the driving force behind that was the weight reduction of hardware devices, the lower cost, and the rapid improvement in the resolution of the LCD screen. Make the effect more realistic, and FACEBOOK20 billion dollars to buy Oculus Capital promotion.

"From a software standpoint, we have crossed the turning point. "Jemiri Bielensen said. For example, he recently replaced his $40000 worth of equipment with OCULUSRT, which only cost 300 dollars.

He told reporters, virtual reality technology mainly includes three aspects, one is the reality equipment, including LCD screen and eyepiece; The tracker, tracker will track the changes of the user's senses at all times, even if it is a very small action; The third is roaming technology, when the user takes action, The virtual reality device will change the picture settings around him, allowing the user to feel like they're walking around in real situations.

"Virtual reality has a big effect on the real world. Jemiri Bielensen said that the application of virtual reality technology may change the way people travel, education, improve people's awareness of environmental protection, transfer altruism to people.

Stanford University, for example, has begun to train rugby players through virtual reality, and players are trained to defend themselves through virtual reality equipment every week. This approach not only allows the "bench" players who often do not have the chance to get a proper training, but also reduces the likelihood of injury. Currently, professional alliances are working with Stanford University to build training templates.

In addition, virtual reality technology uses the principle of empathy to train people to perceive the difficulties in the life of the elderly or the disabled, thus vividly educating people to reduce their age, sex and race discrimination.

In the lab, some of the subjects were wearing virtual reality helmet devices, playing Superman in the game, and taking insulin injections to save a dying child in the city. After the game, the subjects continued to undergo another test-the tester accidentally knocked over a box of pens, and most subjects picked up the pen immediately. Compared with the control group, the use of actual action to show the people around the person's love significantly increased by 35%.

And in another group of subjects in the lab, those who went into the virtual world and sawed off a tree in person, increased their awareness of recycling waste paper by 20%. This virtual reality application, called "transposition thinking", may help solve the problem.

For example, a man in the virtual environment into a woman, in this environment there will be men to her harassment, virtual reality provides a way to let the test people feel that they are a woman's true feelings. Professor Bielensen that this would change the psychology and behavior of those who are sexually harassed.

Bielensen jokes to reporters that if virtual reality digital labs are too successful, no one will ever be able to apply for Stanford because they'll go to a virtual university that is exactly the same as the real Stanford.

How far is it from Avatar?

After decades of technology accumulation and evolution, the virtual reality of the industry is beginning to flourish. Microsoft has released the virtual reality product HoloLens, Samsung, Google, Facebook, Sony and other IT giants have started in the virtual reality to expand the layout.

Jemiri Bielensen told reporters that Google, the founder of Facebook are frequent laboratories, and Facebook Zuckerberg after talking with him for 3 hours, quickly spent 2 billion dollars to buy virtual reality device developer Oculus. In addition, he has received the Chinese Baidu, Tencent and Huawei's visitors.

"There is no time like this, the virtual reality technology ushered in the dawn, the revolution that changed the reality is coming." "Jemiri Bielensen said.

He predicts that as Oculus's virtual reality devices reach a consumer-electronics level, it won't be long before people can experience virtual reality technology at home.

But before that, there are still some problems to be solved in the application of virtual reality.

Hondondon, a deputy researcher at Beijing Institute of Technology, said that the current Oculus products, although consumer electronics, still have relatively large volume and the use of the threshold. "Long-time visual experience and wearing comfort will also become an important aspect of the development of virtual reality devices." “

Hondondon also believes that the current virtual reality technology is still concentrated in the display field, and for the sense of touch, smell and other areas of feedback still lack of corresponding solutions.

Zhu Yu, a professor of psychology at Peking University, argues that there is a gap between virtual reality and real-world space cognition, and that if it is used as a way of teaching or training, such as fire-fighting, it may lead to cognitive biases in the real world. In addition, the use of virtual reality technology to achieve some of the personality and behavior of the impact of training, but whether or not to form a long-term stability of the impact, there is no clear research results, this is the future of virtual reality technology research topic.

Jemiri Bielensen also warns that virtual reality experiences can be addictive and may even lead to undesirable consequences. For example, a gamer may become more violent in the real world if he is immersed in a violent game created by virtual reality technology for a long time.

More seriously, the widespread use of virtual technology may cause people to blur the boundaries between virtual and reality, creating moral or legal risks that will change existing social systems, creating new social problems, and even changes in social order and moral law.

But people may not have to worry too much. The advent of automobiles and computers has long changed people's lives, Jemiri Bielensen said, but there was little doubt about them when they first appeared. "Therefore, the most important thing is not the emergence of new products, but how people use them." “

(Responsible editor: Lvguang)