Using Virtual Reality Underwater Is Weird (but Fun)
Using Virtual Reality Underwater Is Weird (but Fun)
from MIT Technology Review
Stephen Greenwood and Allan Evans are making a VR headset that you can wear underwater
The first idea was to combine an isolation tank—where you float in a dark, silent room, alone—with virtual reality
They see it being developed for entertainment, scuba-diving simulations or physical therapy and for making VR feel much more captivating
Greenwood said “when you don’t have a sense of the ground or gravity in a radically different environment, it makes it much more believable”
A waterproof Android smartphone is attached to a 3-D-printed plastic, and audio comes from a MP3 player that uses bone conduction
They’ve been trying it out at Greenwood’s apartment building, which has a pool. On a chilly afternoon, I jumped in and tried it out myself
The first experience had me floating above the International Space Station while David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” played. It was relaxing
The next was an underwater scene with colorful fish with peppy jazz music. Hanging out with the fish was a little more fun
The headset is about as advanced as Google Cardboard. There’s head orientation tracking, but no tracking of your head’s position in space
This is especially weird if you’re making an effort to swim in one direction because the visuals make you feel as if you’re not moving
In hopes of improving this, they are working on building a positional tracking system that can work underwater, using sound and magnetics
Despite the simplicity of the setup it was easy to forget about the outside world and just enjoy the weird virtual one below the surface
