selectyourrealityworld

[selectyourrealityworld]

AR wearables and "A-ha"

Every so often I am grateful to experience what’s best called as “a-ha” moments in my professional life.  No, whilst I enjoyed their music at the time I’m not referring to one of Norway’s best musical exports. In researching the benefits of assistive technologies for people with vision impairment there have been several pinnacle events: several “a-ha!” moments.  Most of these moments are the…

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Exploring Nonverbal Cues in VR Experiences

How do you convey nonverbal cues in virtual environments especially to people with vision impairment? And what we can we learn that we can use in the physical world?

I often think of what VR experiences have had the most profound effect on me and my perceptions of the possibilities of this technology. I can’t recall the exact time or date but I can remember one scenario that always sticks in my mind. It was a meeting held in a lecture theatre in VR with participants from around the world invited to ask questions of the presenter. So what was the profound…

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Using VR to study pedestrian perception of street design

VR and street design? There's a lot of potential here to consider accessible well before the construction begins.

In my role on local government authority access and inclusion advisory groups my advice is often sought on accessible street design.  But reviewing a design on paper or 3D generated (static) models doesn’t provide the complete picture of how a street design will be navigated at different times of the day with varying traffic flow and its associated sounds. A research paper published on Nature.com…

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Mozilla Hubs floats into the sunset

Bye bye Mozilla Hubs...

Like many I was disappointed to hear about Mozilla Hubs being shutdown on May 31, 2024. As someone with a long term interest in the accessibility and possibilities of virtual reality (VR) platforms I saw much potential in what Mozilla Hubs offered especially as an open source solution. I guess this is always something that needs to be considered with any open source project started by an…

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Concerts to your headsets

Immersive VR concert experiences coming your way.

Not that long ago I attend a VR rave courtesy of Fat Boy Slim (see my earlier post: What does a rave, a cockroach and a Yeti have in common…in VR?) and I’ve been looking forward to what comes next. Soundscape (not to be confused with Microsoft’s excellent 3D GPS app Soundscape) might be worth me investigating. According to their blurb it sounds interesting: Soundscape creates a virtual music…

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CES 2024 AR glasses bonanza

AR glasses look like they were everywhere at CES 2024...and finally untethered!

There’s a lot to digest from the recent Consumer Electronic Show 2024 and just as well I’m currently on leave to try and, pardon the pun, consume it all. For now I’m focusing on what what was presented on the augmentative reality front and their impact on spatial computing. This year saw offering from major IT companies that focused on wearables that, well, look like wearables should from an…

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World Economic Forum and virtual presence

Can't make it to Davos this year for the World Economic Forum? How about going virtually and not just via video conference?

One negative aspect of virtual meetings I’ve experienced over the past three years is the lack of physical presence i.e. being around others. There are so many aspects of a physical meeting that cannot be replicated through attending via a two dimensional representation such as traditional online meetings. Watching a screen is one thing: interacting with others in the space 3D space is…

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Travel preparation in 360

Time to prepare for travel: where's my 360 virtual tour?

Whenever I travel for work or personal reasons I like to get familiar with what is going to be my second home whilst away. This preparation includes working out navigation routes to / from my transit point via public transport, location of cafes for meals and local attractions. But I also like to know more about where exactly I’m staying including a visual of my room: or the one I would like to…

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Time for a different type of AR lens?

One of the challenges with augmentative reality wearables is how do you create the lowest profile possible that still delivers the experience you want? If you happen to wear reading glasses as well how can these be accommodated? Yes there are options to add “corrective lens” inserts but this generally adds to the weight and structure of the AR unit. There’s some interesting work happening at the…

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3D audio navigation and controlling pedestrian crossings? I have to see this.

What gets me excited in the augmentative reality space (amongst many things!) is it’s application to real world scenarios. There have been several AR apps released recently that overlay additional navigation details to visual mapping systems: Google Maps and Apple Maps to name a few. When Microsoft developed Soundscape which focuses on navigation cues via 3D audio I was particularly excited to…

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The battle of the AR "lightweights" continues?

AR glasses as an access solution for smartphones? Things are getting interesting in this space.

Now this is getting interesting: another AR glasses product has been launched into the AR “lightweight” category: AR post report on the launch of the Rokid Max. Now I say “lightweight” not so much related to the actual weight of the glasses but their smaller profile in comparison to traditional VR headsets. This is where is gets interesting especially from an accessibility point of…

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Raving in VR?

It's been a couple of days to reflect on my recent VR experience and its accessibility. Curious to know how others found it.

Recently I managed to secure a ticket for the recent Fatboy Slim VR experience via the EngageVR platform. A number people have already commented on their experience (a lot along the lines of “…with VR experiences like this who needs drugs”) not a lot have mentioned the accessibility of the experience. Kudos to EngageVR for providing detailed instructions on how to get the most out of the…

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AR and history tourism

On my last trip to Europe (albeit 8 years ago now) one of the most impressive AR experiences I had was at Koldinghus, Denmark. Whilst this was only one room where the installation was provided it’s the one thing I remember the most about the visit. As this article suggests if used in different settings it can provide a whole new level of information: Augmented reality could bring new life to…

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Control your games...with your mind

The octopi are coming or is this just to facilitate a new method of interacting with VR and treatment?

A number of companies are researching ways of utilising human generated electrical activity to control devices and basic computer interfaces. Whilst Elon Musk continues down the line of neural implants to achieve the same this research is what is more likely to come to fruitition in my view: Can mind-controlled VR games help stroke patients? Whilst the prototype shown in this article could best…

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To turn or not to turn?

Ever considered how you can interact in VR if you have limited neck movement? This publication explores a way to make this possible whilst addressing potential issues like motion sickness in VR.

One of the often unconsidered aspect of VR game development is how a user can interact if they have limited neck mobility due to illness, injury or disability. Whilst Meta have addressed this in part through their guardian system and the ability to define whether you are standing or sitting this still requires movement. An alternative method is through the use of the hand controllers to reorient…

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Avoiding obstacles through the use of AR

There isn't a lot of current research out there on the viability of using augmentative reality (AR) in avoiding obstacles. Am keen to see further research in to this area and especially the incorporation of sonar and haptic feedback into the wearable.

This is first of augmentative reality (AR) research I have come across that attempts to address how AR can assist with obstacle avoidance: Augmented reality obstacle avoidance – Dylan Fox. In the video Dylan runs through the research undertaken at UC Berkeley in the use of the Hololens in a controlled environment. It’s an interesting study that does raise additional questions in to the future of…

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VR as a treatment modality

Once upon a time whilst studying Occupational Therapy I dreamt of the use of VR as a treatment modality in hospitals: here's an example of it in action.

When I started studying Occupational Therapy I was already engaged in the early days of virtual reality development. I had already thought VR would lend itself as a great physical rehabilitation tool. (I still have the sketches somewhere of how I visualised this well before VR on a smartphones was a thing) Looks like its made the mainstream through companies like Movision as this LinkedIn…