[ExI] Welcome to the Future

[Adrian Tymes]

On Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 1:20 AM, Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:
> Pushing the limits of VR? This is 1990 level of technology.
> And *I still can't buy it*, in 2012.

Well, you can, but...

As with videoconferencing, fully immersive VR is a technology
in solution of a problem, and that tends not to sell well.

What's needed are ways to apply it in ways that a lot of people
would find useful or entertaining.

Part of the problem is that full-body VR suffers from a more
extended version of the "gorilla arm" issue.  Also, how do you
use the full body as an input device?  Also also, what do you
do about lack of awareness of the real world while using your
body to manipulate things in VR?

The Kinect and similar are direct results of attempts to deal
with those issues.  Notice that they *do* sell, at least
somewhat, because they deal with the issues better than
slapping on a pair of goggles does.  Notice also that there is
a lot of experimentation going on with those platforms: it is
as yet not widely understood what they is truly good for.