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comment by veen
veen  ·  3587 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Virtual reality bursts through the movie screen at Sundance

You can already watch a movie in a digital theatre in Oculus Rift.

So I haven't yet tried an Oculus Rift or Google Glass or the like. What I have tried a year or so ago is this thing:

It's called a 'Reality Cube'. You stand in a cube with three sides and the floor that are projected on from the outside. You wear a cap with a motion sensor and it changes the render based on where inside the cube your head is. Basically the same idea as this guy with his Wii, but completely covering your field of vision because it's all around you. It doesn't even feature 3D glasses.

Regardless, it's amazing - I have not had a more immersive experience since. First, they demoed a small French burial cave that you could squat in. They scanned it in for research and renderings. It was only a couple feet high, almost entirely dark. I could use the Wiimote in my hand as a flashlight, and I could crawl around on my knees. After a minute or so there you really don't see that it's a rendering. Next, they demoed a factory that you could walk around in a bit. You entered on the second floor on a platform. When I looked over the railing I was convinced it was a ten foot drop, even though it was just a projection.

They actually use this reality cube to help people with phobias, for instance for people with a fear of spiders they have a table with a spider on it that they can move around. One of the technicians told me they hacked Quake and Unreal Tournament on there, but that most of them couldn't last more than fifteen minutes without nausea.

I really hope the MS Hologlass thing will provide a similar experience. It can be truly amazing.