Virtual reality: The next big invention from reality into the virtual world

For the past 30 years, virtual reality technology has been considered "the next big Thing" (the next great invention). But there seems to have been no obvious technological breakthrough until Facebook took a 2 billion dollar takeover of virtual reality helmet maker Oculus, and then a series of moves by the Giants to show us a glimmer of hope in the field.

At this year's CES show, Oculus VR unveiled its latest virtual reality helmet prototype Crescent Bay, the latest version Oculus VR and 13th lab last December, which created a strong sense of immersion.

Nimble VR, a start-up that engages in gesture tracking, has been engaged in gesture tracking with 3D camera technology since 2012. Solving virtual reality control is one of the biggest challenges Oculus VR currently faces, so it is not surprising that it buys nimble VR.

At CES's opening day, CNET hosted a symposium on "The Next big invention: a new reality". A leader in virtual reality and augmented reality has been invited to share how the two technologies will evolve in the 2015. Augmented reality glasses castAR inventor, technical illusions founder Jerry Elsworth (Jeri Ellsworth), virtual reality equipment manufacturer Oculus VR founder Palmer Lakki (Palmer Luckey) were invited to participate in the discussion.

To solve the problem of virtual reality, Lakki said, "I am personally more interested in perfecting virtual reality technology first, and then figuring out how to bring the real world into the virtual world, rather than adding something to the real world first." ”

At the same time, Lakki stressed that many people are not satisfied with the virtual reality technology, such as when the computer just arose, we feel that it is not easy to use, not much help, but once found interesting things, to a certain time node, we will slowly get used to it.

For ordinary consumers, virtual reality may be as far away as science fiction. But in fact, virtual reality is around us. We have a number of folders in our notebooks, and we can often not remember the specific contents of each folder; But if you replace it with a few items, such as 1000 pieces, we can describe exactly which items are placed in a relatively clear way.

The virtual reality gives you a sense of space. It uses computer simulation to produce a three-dimensional virtual world, for users to provide information on the visual, auditory, tactile and other sensory simulation, so that they can be seen in a timely manner, unrestricted observation of things in three-dimensional space.

It is believed that viewers who have watched the virtual reality version of Interstellar travel have experienced the intense immersion that Oculus Rift helmet brings. It can make you feel the sense of weightlessness in space, and truly experience the wonderful feeling of sitting in a spaceship through the stars.

Once the virtual reality technology is popularized to ordinary consumers, there will be great market imagination space. According to CMC and CMC, a global market research institute, the virtual reality market will exceed $1 billion trillion by 2018.

A lot of vendors bet on virtual reality

Last year, Sony's virtual reality head-wearing display Project Morpheus was unveiled at GCD2014, and Samsung unveiled virtual reality devices Gear VR when it released its Galaxy Note4 new flagship, and Microsoft will launch its Xbox One-wearing device this year to counter Oculus Rift.

Meanwhile, Intel invested in Avegant last year to develop a virtual reality helmet called Glyph, and Microsoft bought a large number of patents related to virtual reality devices from Osterhout with 150 million of dollars. The Giants are in the form of independent research and development or acquisitions into the virtual reality market, hoping to take the top in the market before the outbreak.

It is worth mentioning that Rothenberg Ventures, a VC company, launched the world's first virtual reality accelerator River at the end of last December to provide capital and services to virtual reality start-ups.

Last year Facebook bought Oculus VR, causing an industry sensation. But most people may focus on the "2 billion dollar" figure, ignoring two facts. One was acquired when Oculus VR founder Palmer Le Chi (Palmer Luckey) was a 21-year-old dropout and another was the dilemma faced by Oculus VR and the entire virtual reality before being acquired.

"The virtual reality technology was at a dead end, and I saved it from dying, giving it a second life," he said. Lakki recalls, "It's not because I'm doing better than others in this field, but because very few people stick to it like I do, expecting a breakthrough in virtual reality technology." Lakki said in an interview with Tencent Technology.

In an interview later with the US tech media The Verge, Lakki once again stressed that "the real obstacle to the development of virtual reality helmets is not necessarily technical, and rift was developed in the second half of 07, when the price was thousands of dollars." They could have developed a 500-dollar helmet device in 08, but nobody cared. ”

Lakki and virtual reality is at the end of 09, he spent a few months to investigate the market, and some crazy to buy all kinds of the market on the helmet display, after the trial found that the consumer-level virtual reality experience is far from being in place. It was thought that the military virtual reality technology would be better, but later found that the effect is also poor, so decided to try to do this thing.

In 11, Lakki found the head of the University of Southern California to do hybrid reality research, Mark Bolas, and started working there, giving him access to a wide variety of virtual reality helmet displays. He then founded the Oculus VR, and in early 13 launched the first virtual reality device Rift VR.

Currently, Oculus VR team members are mainly software developers and programmers. Asked why Facebook was chosen, rather than a company with hardware like Google (Weibo) and Microsoft, Lakki said they were looking for a hardware-literate partner because they had a great hardware team. They do not want to be bought by big companies, only part of the overall product line.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and chief executive of Facebook, acquired Oculus after saying that the Oculus virtual reality helmet display changed the way many people think about video games. Virtual reality will be the future platform that may change the way we work, entertain and communicate in the future.

The three "stumbling blocks" on commercial Road

When can virtual reality be commercialized? How long will it take from the game developer's hands to the average consumer's home? What bottlenecks must be overcome in commercialization? The following are the three major "stumbling blocks" on the commercialization of virtual reality.

First, the core technology and the user experience. When we build a geographically focused virtual environment, be sure to ensure the user experience. If the game or application design is not good, users feel dissatisfied, the initial stage will be worse. For example, some virtual reality helmet devices wear, users will feel dizzy.

Second, the content of the short board. The user buys the hardware product not for the hardware itself, but needs the extensive and the high quality content. and currently support the virtual reality experience of the game, video and other products are far from meeting the needs of users.

Some experts say, "at present Oculus Rift is only a helmet display product, not a set of content system." The future of real driving virtual reality ecosystem development is the content. So to see the virtual reality platform, there are a lot of integration work to do. ”

Third, product pricing. Oculus VR has been slow to launch a consumer version of the virtual reality helmet, mainly because of the high cost of research and development. In order to popularize to the user, the positioning must be the user can afford. In fact, the previous mentioned lack of content, the key or excellent content production cost is too high, Oculus end users and relatively few.

Mr Zuckerberg had previously stated that the acquisition of Oculus VR was a complete investment in the future. Shuhei Yoshida, President of Sony Electronics Entertainment Global Studios, also believes that virtual reality products from game developers to ordinary consumers need to undergo a process. Kepen The most important thing now is to constantly develop new technologies, produce more quality content, and build a complete ecosystem.

Virtual reality makes people more confident?

Virtual world so lifelike, it is easy to forget is in a virtual environment, often confused in the end is the real world or the virtual world. So what happens when people leave the virtual reality environment?

Jeremy Bailenson, director of the virtual human-Computer Interaction Laboratory at Stanford University, Jeremy Bielensen that in the virtual interaction based on self-expression, avatars affect the perception, attitude and behavior of the user consciously or unconsciously, which is what psychology calls "the general Thoth Effect" (Proteus multiplying).

At the end of July last year, Bielensen was invited to participate in Baidu "The Big Talk" activities, gave a few cases, impressive. He said that the beautiful avatar will make the girl feel more confident, her way of speaking, pronunciation and intonation, the choice of words, will be changed by the embodiment of beauty. Also in virtual interaction, a man's tall image is positively correlated with his income and confidence.

How long can this beautiful and tall feeling last in real life? The study found that the impact of virtual reality will still exist for some time after the helmet is removed, for example, a girl with a beautiful avatar will be more active in all kinds of social activities in real life, and a man with a large virtual avatar will become more confident in reality. have stronger leadership.

Virtual reality also helps to reduce the obesity epidemic in the United States. In virtual reality, Bielensen says, when you do three legs, you can see that your avatar is a pound lighter. You may not believe you can slim down, but the virtual incarnation gives you the feeling that as long as I exercise, it can be done, this is the social cognitive theory of "self-efficacy" concept.

Future commercial Application Space

The concept of virtual reality originated in the 1960s. With the development of computer graphics technology, simulation technology, artificial intelligence and multimedia technology, the virtual reality helmet has been used in the military and aerospace simulation training in the 80 's. The current virtual reality technology is mainly applied in the game field. The future of virtual reality technology in education, medical, business meetings and other fields of application will have a lot of imagination.

The first is the field of education. Last October, VIPABC introduced a wearable smart glasses tutorglass, so that online learning users have a sense of immersion in the real environment, improve the user experience of on-line English learning. At the same time, in the three-dimensional virtual world, teachers can show students what books and tablets cannot display.

The second is the medical field. Albert Rizzo (Albert Rizzo), of the University of Southern California Institute of Innovation Technology, found that immersive virtual reality simulation training therapies can improve and even restore life skills in the real world for patients with brain damage.

and business meetings. Oculus VR founder Palmer Le Chi said that Oculus Rift virtual reality helmet can effectively reduce the frequency of our travel, not as busy as before, to travel around, can save our valuable time and resources.

However, Jaron, founder of the VPL company, known as the "father of virtual reality", said in a recent media interview that "the consumer's affordable head-and-wear display device is still a long way from building a complete ecosystem." ”