Mentatul

Tag: vr

  • Productivity in the Age of Mixed Reality

    Productivity in the Age of Mixed Reality

    In the past few years we’ve witnessed the launch of more than a dozen HMDs (Head Mounted Displays). Several of them are already available in large numbers. HMDs focused on entertainment (Oculus, Vive) rely on taking over visual perception completely via Virtual Reality. HMDs focused on productivity (HoloLens) mix real life with computer generated imagery drawn upon a transparent display. There are other combinations and means of mixing visual information, so all of this technology has recently been put under the umbrella term Mixed Reality.

    This post concerns the productivity aspects of Mixed Reality. It’s a topic I’ve been meaning to play with for more than a year. I find it quite fitting to debut the Futurology^ section on Mentatul with this text, especially since just as I was preparing to write, I stumbled upon the following news (this has to be the work of a muse):

    http://www.tomshardware.com/news/microsoft-trials-hololens-technologies-construction,33490.html^

    The purpose behind any post in the Futurology^ category is to launch a wild, boundless speculation regarding what the future holds regarding a certain concept. To get things going, here are some of the things I imagine can be accomplished in the future (productivity-wise) using Mixed Reality.

    I’ll list my ideas chronologically, starting with the first things that came to my mind back when I read about what Google Glass can do. Feel free to submit your own ideas in the comments below. With your approval I may integrate these in the article, giving proper credit.

    • Workers are busy adding the finishing touches to a building. Using an HMD similar to a pair of glasses (like HoloLens for instance), they see the position of all other workers, as if they would see through walls. All wiring and pipes are also drawn in their exact positions inside the walls as the user looks around.
      All workers see directions pointing them towards the location of the next task. Let’s take for example the installation of a network socket. The worker is helped to locate all tools required for the task. After the task is completed, a test immediately shows if the connection is successful. If it is not, the worker can simply look around through the walls and see where to go and fix the connection.
    • Operators of large machinery are assisted in anything they do by architectural plans projected over real life terrain. Machines are integrated with this projection and “snap” automatically to the highlighted locations, needing only rough supervision. Of course, operators will soon become completely unnecessary because…
    • Architects are allowed to control and direct robots directly from their office. Work done in CAD applications, after passing several simulations and authorizations, is downloadable by robots that simply print out the structures. Architects are able to use Mixed Reality to fly around the construction site from the comfort of their homes. This technology can be used to construct human-ready colonies as well as mining stations anywhere in the solar system.
    • Before AI becomes sufficiently advanced to perform all these tasks, humans are recruited to supervise the operation of these robots (as is already done in the mining industry^). Gamers might find employment opportunities in a future that relies on a person’s multi-tasking skill, quick reflexes and ability to channel one’s mind into an alternate reality. Think of it as a huge real time strategy game where a gamer controls an army of construction robots.
    • Taking this to the next step, humans supervise self-driving vehicles that are stuck for some reason or require human intervention. Planes, boats and anything that moves is accessible in a “first person” view.
    • The security implications of all that I’ve written are enormously hugely massively gargantuan, and that’s an understatement. However, quantum cryptography might address this issue.
    • Repair manuals are displayed onto a device as the user is fixing it (this tech already on its way!^). With a good system in place for spare parts management, this enables any reasonably handy person to fix almost anything. Of course, this means that the religion of Consumerism^ should give up on one of its founding principles: planned obsolescence.
    • Taking this one step further, in times of crisis when a hospital is not accessible, simple surgical programs can help lightly trained individuals to perform tasks that would normally be beyond their capability.

    The Futurology Disclaimer: I do not claim that my ideas are original. I’m sure these suggestions are just scratching the surface of what can be achieved, but hopefully they’ve scratched enough to get anybody inspired to come up with more. I’m also sure many of these ideas are already being worked on by several organizations. If any of the ideas listed by anybody on this page are original and will benefit any organization, I expect credit to be given where it’s due.

    Version history:

    2017-02-08 – 1.0 – Written.

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  • nVidia GeForce 1080 and AMD RX 480 – the Video Cards of June 2016

    nVidia GeForce 1080 and AMD RX 480 – the Video Cards of June 2016

    This June is a good month to be a gamer. Both nVidia and AMD have announced new graphical processing units that exhibit vast improvements over the previous generation. After being stuck for almost four years on the now-primitive 28 nanometer lithography, the GPU manufacturers have jumped straight to 14 (AMD) and 16 (nVidia), skipping over the intermediate step of 20-22 nanometers.

    In combination with switching over to multigate transistors^, this technological leap allows the new video cards to achieve a boost of up to 40% in performance at a much lower price than the previous generation. In terms of price/performance ratio, we’re looking at an improvement between 60% and 80%. That’s massive. We haven’t seen such a leap in GPU technology for many years.

    It’s also important to note that nVidia and AMD are not directly competing this time around. nVidia took to the high end with its Pascal microarchitecture while AMD went mainstream with Polaris. AMD’s RX will offer the best value, but if you want maximum quality Virtual Reality gaming, then nVidia is your only option.

    The new video cards aren’t widely available yet and a shortage can be expected in the coming months. But make no mistake; these new models will kick some serious pixel! I want to make sure you’re aware of this and for heaven’s sake, don’t buy any of the previous generation video cards. The new arrivals are making them beyond obsolete.

    There are a lot of “trap products” out there right now. In a perfect example of bad timing, Asus just unveiled a beastly, liquid-cooled gaming laptop. Unfortunately, it has the obsolete GPUs inside. In six months, a lighter laptop will be more than capable of humiliating this one:

    http://www.tomshardware.com/news/asus-gx700-gx701-water-cooled-strix-gl502-thin-and-light,31888.html^

    And don’t worry; there will be plenty of new video cards to choose from. MSI, a video card manufacturer, will release no less than five options using the same GeForce 1080 GPU. Talk about consumerism:

    http://www.tomshardware.com/news/msi-nvidia-gtx-1080-gpus,31913.html^

    Last but not least, I’m very interested what these new GPUs will bring for a certain emerging product category: virtual reality backpacked computers. It was only a matter of time until some company would try to address the issue of people tripping onto the cables they use to connect their high-end Head Mounted Display to the computer. As goofy as it sounds, do not underestimate the temptation of VR gaming. These products will sell.

    And, to confirm what I’ve just said, it turns out that it’s more than just one company developing these things. The only catch is that, unsurprisingly, manufacturers are using the recently obsoleted GPUs. I imagine that in about 6 months, when nVidia’s mobile Pascal will have shown up, these backpacks could become quite a product, especially for those interested in VR gaming:

    http://www.tomshardware.com/news/vr-backpacks-msi-zotac-chaintek,31974.html^

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  • Ready or Not, Here Comes Virtual Reality!

    Ready or Not, Here Comes Virtual Reality!

    Finally, the first Virtual Reality HMD (Head Mounted Display) – the Oculus Rift – has reached retail availability. The first reviews have started pouring in – here’s a pretty good one from The Verge^. Things are pretty much as I expected, with the majority of reviews being positive and the rest being rather neutral. So far I haven’t read anything seriously bad and although this is very encouraging, it is not a surprise given the fact that all companies involved have been preparing for this launch for plenty of time.

    In the meantime, VR as a technology continues to promise growth in the most unexpected of areas. For example there are these guys who propose giving HMDs to roller coaster^ riders. Combining high quality computer graphics with a roller coaster experience is indeed something that I’d love to try one day.

    On the other hand, there are companies whose VR content is not exactly top notch. Take for example AltspaceVR. Even though their VR client now supports Samsung’s Gear^, the graphical quality is below what could be achieved even with the limitation of having to run on weaker, mobile graphical processors. AltspaceVR’s “games”^ are not much to look at either. I’m worried about half–baked products ruining the reception of VR. This is one of the most important technological revolutions of the past few decades and I believe a proper, polished launch is very important. Let’s not forget the debacle that was Google Glass.

    Luckily, there are plenty of companies that have amazing products lined up. The Oculus launched with some really good titles such as “Eve Valkyrie”, “Elite: Dangerous” and “Lucky’s Tale”. However, I believe the best is yet to come, especially when “No Man’s Sky”^ shows up, which, I believe, is the title that will truly make VR. I hope Oculus can have its controllers ready as soon as possible. And if not, there’s always the Vive^, which will also hit retail availability very soon.

    So, ready or not, VR is coming to town. I think that the companies that are at the forefront of this new technological revolution will have a lot to gain from their investment. I’m looking at you, FaceBook, Samsung, Valve, HTC and Microsoft. Plenty of big names are still missing in action, especially Google and Apple. Regarding Apple, they don’t even have decent hardware support for VR^, as recently pointed out by Oculus founder, Palmer Luckey. The coming twelve months will certainly be very, very interesting. Let’s watch and enjoy the show.

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  • The Virtual Reality Revolution

    The Virtual Reality Revolution

    Every single person that I’ve witnessed give virtual reality a try has been floored by the experience – especially the ones that didn’t see it coming. Even those who knew what it’s all about came back with amazed expressions once they took off the HMD (head mounted display) for the first time. I placed my bets on the fact that virtual reality is going to skyrocket faster than most people expect it to.

    The rather expensive hardware required will definitely make some customers think twice. However, there already are plenty of gamers out there who own powerful hardware. They will be joined by early adopters who will make sure that they can properly run most of the VR experiences. They will show these programs to relatives and friends, which will feed the wave of excitement. And so, a new technological revolution will begin.

    The next step in the evolution of entertainment

    Virtual reality is more than most people expect it to be. This is why, when referring to VR content, I write about “experiences” or “programs”. Whoever thinks that this about games or movies couldn’t be further from the truth.

    What we have here is a whole new dimension for experiencing art, one which wraps a world around us rather than showing it to us through a small rectangular window. Indeed, for now, the field of view of most HMDs is quite narrow (110 degrees), but 2nd generation devices such as StarVR^, with its 210 degrees of coverage, will bring large improvements in that regard.

    Expect the 2nd generation to show up in 2017, probably along with the 1st generation HoloLens – Microsoft’s augmented reality HMD. When exactly in 2017? That, remains to be determined by the level of hysteria to be reached during the 2016 holiday season once people realize the amount of fun they can have with these things.

    The first generation of HMDs faces other limitations too. One of the worst is the requirement to be plugged into the PC – with the exception of smartphone-powered HMDs, which are not nearly as convincing in terms of graphical quality as their PC-powered cousins. I expect plenty inventive solutions to address such problems in the next couple of years.

    Despite any limitations, I continue to believe that VR and AR will take off faster than expected. Almost everybody that I’ve discussed with is perfectly happy to tolerate a few temporary problems, given what they’ll be getting in return. It’s hard to understand the potential of VR without experiencing it, but let’s just say that it’s a step forward at least as big as from paper to radio or from radio to TV.

    Impressive potential for innovation

    Today, there’s a very important difference compared to when the newspaper, radio or TV appeared. That difference is called “technology proficiency”. In this age, there are millions of people able to create digital art. And then there’s this thing called “the Internet”, which means that we are all but a few clicks away from enjoying the work of some talented young team toiling away in a garage across the ocean.

    The reason why VR & AR will spread faster than expected is that the emergence of a new medium for expressing our creativity will usher in a staggering amount of innovation and original art. The transition from 2D to 3D graphics will seem like a baby step in comparison. There’s an army of engineers and content creators out there, the likes of which this Earth has never seen before.

    They’ve made gloves^ that can not only allow the precise tracking of hand movements in VR, but also showcase our first try at feeling objects in the imaginary world. There’s even a suit^ with temperature controls! There’s eye tracking^. There’s spatial awareness^. There’s mobility^. And all this happened in less than three years. Such a density of innovation completely dwarfs anything we’ve seen during previous technological leaps.

    By now, a lot of companies have realized what’s at stake. They are investing a lot of money into making this technological revolution happen, because if it does, it will fuel demand for entertainment and the hardware to power it. Manufacturers of video cards are especially ecstatic about this area, but pretty much all companies involved in producing PC components should probably get their champagnes ready.

    Should we line ourselves up for pre-orders?

    Despite my obvious enthusiasm towards this technology, the answer to this question is a definite NO. I’ve found an article that does an excellent job of explaining why. There is only one matter that the author hasn’t emphasized enough: the amount of high quality VR content is still quite low. I would recommend waiting at least until the 2016 holiday season before jumping in. By then, a lot of bugs will be worked out and more content will be available.

    Don’t pre-order any HMD:

    http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/222843-why-you-shouldnt-pre-order-an-oculus-rift^

    We’re less than two months away before tens of thousands of customers will receive their Oculus Rifts, the HMD most likely to reach retail availability first. Very soon after, the Vive Pre will follow. These first representatives of the high-end VR experience will open the door for many others. Personally, I’m probably going to order my HMD after November 2016. I haven’t made up my mind regarding the brand. I’ll be patient and read a few dozens of reviews before parting with my money.

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