How's that for "getting into the game"
But is virtual reality technology really safe? I am reminded of my Manny's (male live-in child caregiver) experience when he eagerly signed up to take part in a research study for new VR technology.
In 2010 my Manny volunteered for a virtual reality study in Kirkland, Washington. They were testing Virtual Reality gaming technology and its effects on players, and for two hours of your time twice a week for 6 weeks you would receive a $250 VISA gift card. It was explained he would wear a helmet attached to the ceiling by wires that would immerse him in the game, and he could move his physical body about the room a little and control in-game actions via handheld controllers. It was in a large and obstruction free area so he could walk and move fairly freely, there were three VR stations in the room but they were plenty far apart. He would play the VR game for 75 minutes and answer questions for 20-30 minutes after. His blood pressure and other vitals would be monitored before, during, and after the game.
He set it up for my days off for not only the monetary reward, but mainly for the sheer coolness factor. A huge tech head, he was super excited for Virtual Reality technology to be made available.
The night before the first study day, they called him to cancel, saying they will be in touch soon if he was still interested. Three weeks later he was set up again, but that too was canceled the morning he was getting ready to leave. Third time's the charm: 6 weeks later he took the Metro and called me not too long after, informing me that he would be home soon because there was something weird going on. I asked him how it was and he told me he would tell me when he got home.
Later that night he regaled us with his tale. He had stepped off the bus at the complex in Kirkland and made his way to the correct building. There were several ambulances and fire trucks by an entrance, and he watched a person thrashing on a gurney trying to break free from the strapped restraints, being loaded into a vehicle.
He was never contacted. He would call them every so often to inquire, always getting a strange and faltering reason. One day he was told they will not be conducting the study at all and thanked him for his interest.
I was working in a local artisan retail boutique slash tattoo shop that catered to the tech geeks of Kirkland, Seattle's Silicon Valley. One of our clients was having work done about a year later and I overheard him talking about a disastrous virtual reality trial at his company the year before. He was transferred as an intern to the VR department but made them transfer him out a few months into it because it "weirded him out". Volunteers would be brought in to test the games but something always happened and they never came out of the correct doors, and there was a lot of talk how they would begin acting strange and were taken out of the building. The trials would immediately be put on hold and receptionist told to inform qualified applicants that they had to tweak the project and would call them when it was reopened. Questions directed at department heads and others directly involved were always excused away or ignored, and overall there was an eerie feeling that concerned him.
Of course this could all be coincidence, and there could be any number of explanations, but the timing was spot on.
Aside from these experiences, I have to wonder at the long-term mind and body effects of virtual reality. When you are walking in real life, your brain registers the eyes seeing the scenery go by and the feeling of your weight on your soles, the movement in your muscles, and the air moving across your face as you move through space. Your brain registers all this as "walking". In virtual reality, only the eyes see you walking through virtual space, your brain knows you are sitting still and is confused because of the mixed signals. Disorientation, nausea, dizziness, and other physical effects are reported due to the senses not aligning.
The Teslasuit aims to solve this problem by zapping your nerves with electrical impulses.
The Teslasuit will more fully immerse people in virtual environments by providing (almost) every inch of your body with haptic feedback. The haptic feedback system stimulates your nerves directly with electricity so you can “feel” things in the virtual world.
Teslasuit CEO Dimitri Mikhalchuk talks about the suit’s progress at CES 2018:
Basically you will be able to feel when you bump into something, or reach out to touch or punch something.
What say you? Is virtual reality safe? Will the Teslasuit eradicate potential long term mental, emotional and psychological ramifications, or is it opening up a whole new can of virtual worms?
Images via Pexels and Teslasuit
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This technology is exciting. Perhaps in the beginning there are some people that cannot handle, but virtual reality is here to stay. Not only that, I think it will expand and become a regular part of our lives just as the internet is right now.
In the future we will probably spend more time in virtual worlds than in the “real” world.
I believe that there will be some who grow "addicted" to virtual reality, and will prefer it to the real world.
Yes Definitely, less problems...
Right. Could be good for some, but could also be not so good in many areas... Only time will tell!
True in what ways are you involved in it at all right now?
I am not. I do not own a vr set, I only write about it :) Do you have one?
No but I want one. What would make you get one.
Of course! The same happens with video games, but that’s normal. Virtual reality will a new way of entertainment but also a new way to teach. Imagine being able to be inside a simulation of World War 2? Or some other important event.
This will be huge for sure.
The world is going to change, that's for sure! These are the beginnings of some crazy fast as interesting times!
The technology is amazing but i am not sur eit is good for everyone even the 3D movie experience isnt good for everyone, I have heard of quite a few gettign headaches from watching a 3D movie, I dont get a headache but I do find it intence and wouldnt want to watch two 3D movies in a row
taking that to a furthe rlevel with the Virtual reality glasses which I have tried is an amazing experience but also for soem it can create intense headaches even after short use
taking it another step further may be good and fun for some but I would worry about the long term effects it may have on some people
as for me, rather than playing a Virtual experience game I would rather than play a game get outside and experience a real 3d experience
I agree, I'm tentative. I do not suffer side effects from 3D film, but one of my sons does. I wonder... Would that mean he would suffer physically during VR, but I would feel far less?
I wonder I would guess that would be the case
That was a fascinating (if somewhat creepy!) story. I do wonder about the brain-body effects of wearing a suit like that. For instance, will it simulate pressure from, say, physical contact? So if you are fighting something in game and get punched?
I imagine it would but it would just register as a light pressure which could have the rather fun effect of making you feel like superwo/man. Some monster attacking you and you barely feel it. Overall though, I think people will get used to VR and they'll iron out any kinks pretty fast. What's perhaps more worrisome, is people spending all their lives living in VR at that point...
I was just talking about that in another comment- the more I think about it the more I believe people will become addicted to the vr world and prefer it to the real world.
Most addiction occurs in large part due to something missing from a persons life. They are not satisfied or happy so that leaves room for whatever the addiction is to come fill that void...
VR will probably be safer and happier than the real world for a number of people, especially considering the fact that loneliness is now a deadlier epidemic than smoking and obesity. It can simulate human contact. But, on the other hand, it may be a healing thing for the chronically lonely...
Who knows what the virtual reality future holds?! lol
Actually think about it,
Sometimes I feel that life is a dream.
Huttons Paradox.
You are not alone in that...
I am very lonely.
Because you didn't care about me.
Please follow me. @hostyz
Oh it's going to happen for sure. There are already many people with video game addictions and I can only see VR exacerbating that. Then when you have sandbox world's where people can do what they please (already being developed by a company called decentraland - think second life in VR) there will be an opportunity to have jobs and actual lives in the virtual world. It's quite crazy when you think about it... Actually, this is giving me an idea for a very cool scifi story 😆🤔
Wow... So you can put on your goggles and "go to work" in the game? Like walk to your shop and open it and deal with the other virtual players, or customers, and exchange goods for crypto? Something like that?
Exactly like that! It's still early days: they've just been selling parcels of land in their virtual world, but in time, people will be able to start building anything they want on their parcels and then I reckon things are going to get very, very interesting :)
So now we're going to have to but two houses- one in the virtual world and one in which to reside while you're paying off the mortgage to the one in your vr world...
These are most definitely interesting times in which to live!
Hopefully the VR ones are a bit cheaper 😉 Although I suppose if you're planning on living purely in VR you can get away with your RL house being like one of those Japanese cube apartments 😜
Cyberpunk literature has been predicting this for decades...
Great comment, diving a little deeper into the topic. Thanks for your wonderful comment.
There are advantages and disadvantages, the good thing is that you can discover different things about yourself, different life.
You can look at my article on virtual reality, welcome comments!
https://steemit.com/science/@hostyz/vision-of-future-technology-1
Yes, and it is helping PTSD sufferers heal by using virtual reality in conjunction with cognitive behavioral therapy, but in a controlled environment.
I am afraid of the long term psychological effects; not only from brain confusion (and whatever long term changes that will make- only time will tell) in safe games, but children playing disturbingly violent and bloody games- that has a whole other element. They are not being monitored. Their brain is still developing... There is absolutely nothing to stop some serious consequences... It is frightening...
Good point...only time will tell...
It can improve its safety and reliability from controlling time and developing virtual world system.
Step by step to improve it, do you think?
I agree with that part, it will improve and evolve, but the brain is a complicated, organic thing, and if someone has the tiniest mental flaw or illness, and you introduce this mind complication that produces physical symptoms, how will the brain cope?
Do more creative thinking, positive games, and perhaps better for human development.
Awesome thanks for sharing!!
Thanks for reading!
You're Awesome and i mean that.
Thank you :) You're a pretty cool cat yourself!
Thanks that means a lot to me!
eye opening article, thanks. It brings to mind part of the Hopi prophecy regarding technology being the ultimate path that interferes with humanity's possibility of true spiritual evolution, its like this type of technology will short-circuit the inner pathways necessary. I'm to old school, I guess and don't feel good about the extreme vr potentials emerging...
Oh, I had forgotten about that! It truly feels like it will prevent spiritual evolution...
.
I'm excited to see how this technology , evolves over time!
Wow amazing game one...Actually game is my best passion....Thanks for sharing...Best of luck...
Gaming is a passion of mine as well, I am currently creating a game app for ios, amazon and android :) Stay tuned if you are into Tell Tale Games type!
Nice post
Why, thank you!
Super interesting and very well written. VR is the future of gaming. It's already awesome but this is just next level.
The Future is coming fast..
Thank you :)
no way! that is exactly the kind of scene that I would expect in a thriller novel about virtual reality gone wrong. I already hear about people getting nauseous from the VR head pieces so I'm sure the suits will be released long before they've fixed these sort of issues. Nice post.
Right?! Write what you know ;)
Honestly, even when I'm writing fiction, most of the time it's based off something I experienced, or at least was told by a friend...
You're giving me ideas ;)
The paradox being of course that every minute you spend of your life in 'virtual reality', you are missing out on 'actual reality'.
You can only spend your time once...
And yet if the two one day become almost indistinguishable (on a sensory level) whose to say you're wasting that precious time? :)
I would argue rather than virtually growing a plant with no fruit - why not live reality, and have a potato soup?
In the VR world you can spend some crypto to make the tree grow faster...
to paraphrase from the old Indian saying - what are you going to eat when your crypto bank is full - silicon?
I don't think we need to conduct an experiment to see if a virtual garden or a real garden will sustain life...
Personally I'm a fan of in person interactions. Probably because I'm Italian and big on hugs and touch...
But, there again, with the Tesla suit you'd feel the embrace.
But not the emotion and energy behind it...
Remember Demolition Man? The people were outlawed from having sexual intercourse in real life? They can only do it via virtual reality goggles... Holy hell, we're moving toward that in real life... What year was that film set in?
this is the new best thing i think it is awesome, it is part of technology today and if used correctly it can be very good for the kids as well
Wonderful teaching tool, also
It's clever what VR can achieve, but theres too many outside questions on it,, and lawnmower man comes to mind. :)
YES! Exactly!
LOL! I tried a virtual reality game about 30 years ago, in a mall. It was just a helmet, and you had to stand on a platform. Everything was just like stick figures and outlines but it was VERY engrossing. It cost us about 25 bucks each which was a LOT back then, but we wanted to try it because even back then it was "just about" to go mainstream...
And even then they were saying that it was going to take the porn industry to new heights because having sex with the porn star was one of the applications already being explored. Perhaps folks will want the luxury model of the Teslasuit...
Oh wow, 30 years ago? That is crazy, there must have been so many kinks. SO many! lol.
I was just talking about that last night- remember in the Sly Stallone and Sandra Bollock film Demolition Man intercourse was outlawed! You could only do it via VR! That dang movie is coming true- Arnie was governor of CA!
They do love their predictive programming lol! I can't remember exactly what year, but it had to be about 1990, and it was pretty lame and yet still amazing. "Asteroids" style graphics and no real point, just wander around and look at stuff, no weapons or anything. Sounds like we were lucky it was not any better!
Very interesting read! I think after enough trials and testing it can become a safe thing to use. There will probably always be an exception to the rule. I can see a Black Mirror season 5 episode about this xD would be pretty cool.
Well-written and thought-provoking article. I think VR is definitely a mixed bag. I don't really play games these days, although I am sure VR games will be very cool and addictive. I remember when the Sims came out a few years back. Personally I never understood the appeal, but so many thousands of people got lost into that world, living their alternate Sim lives. I can only imagine how many people will get sucked into persistent world VR games. Soon it will be just like sci-fi predicted, with people hooked up to IV tubes and catheters because they don't want to unplug from the VR world long enough to eat or pee.
I am looking forward to 4-D VR movies though. I haven't actually heard of such a thing, but I'm sure they must be on the way. Last year I tried a non-interactive demonstration of VR with just a helmet. I have to say, it was quite an immersive experience. There were many different experiences to choose from. I picked a horror one. I was in a wheelchair and unable to move, while creepy zombie creatures came and did scary things around me. It got me thinking about the possibilities.
I guess VR is inevitable. But overall, I'm really not sure if it is a good thing or not.
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..bit close to all the demon-buttons for comfort!
Demon buttons?
As you know, there are subconscious powers in all of us - residual forces that all had to exist for the sake of survival through different phases in the history of our coming into being as social beings. All have one thing in common, namely survival.
The most basic of these we call our instincts, still active and essential for our continued survival, or at least that of our bodies. Then there also exists in the realm of the subconscious, slightly more to the spiritual side in the essence of things, a set of dormant and semi-dormant powers, or faculties, some at all times beneficial to our existence and some that may have been necessary for basic survival in primitive times, but are now counterproductive to our peaceful and productive coexistence as modern social entities - and some call these demons, the baddies amongst the hidden powers still part of our make-up.
Normally we subconsciously suppress activity of these baddies, our natural wisdom being aware of their detrimental effect. At a conscious level we call it "chaining the devil down." Satanism, at its deepest level, is in fact about waking up, or 'invoking' these 'demons' to manifest consciously and work to the advantage of the individual in a completely self centered 'evil' manner - to the detriment of peaceful synergistically beneficial social life for the rest of us.
For the sake of this comment not becoming a post in its own right, I'll keep it short, just saying that these demons can also be invoked by external factors and we have to remain vigilant in not setting ourselves open to evil minded ones who may want to manipulate our behavior in this manner. Hence my wariness about getting into a harness via which goodness knows what combination of sensations can be stimulated to goodness knows what effect.
Ah, yes. I know exactly what you mean.
This reminds me of something I came across in my martial arts/metaphysical training. I learned about remote viewing and became intrigued, researching at length. I was gung ho- until I was warned to protect my body while I sent my minds eye "out" as there are many who tried without the protective measures and were "inhabited" if you will by others who had lost their own bodies while traveling in this manner. This chilled me to the bone and I never tried RV.
I am in agreement with you on this, there is no telling what you will open yourself to, or open up that has long been buried within. If it has been buried for generations, there is no way you have the ability or techniques to control, or possibly even understand it...