Cyberwalk

The “Max Planck Institute for biological cybernetics”, the ETH Zürich and the technical universitites of Munich and Rome have produced a high-end device, giving you the opportunity to really (realy really) dip into the virtual world: the Cyberwalk. Once you wear a HMD (head mounted display), combined with an infrared tracking system you step onto that magnificent machine an walk through – let´s say – the old Pompeji. You can explore the whole city (which was virtually rebuilt by the programmers of ETH), in every direction and watch it from any angle. The AR system knows where you are and how you are orientated, the carpet magically moves under your feet. You go left, it goes righty right.

At the moment, the EU-research project is about finding out, how people, or better their brains, apprehend the pysical world. The research field is called “psychophysics”. One way to find out more about our reception of sense stimulations and their combined reaction is by analysing the sense-reactions of test persons while moving through a virtual world with their own feet.

But for some people involved in the project this is only the beginning. They are talking about firefighter-training, strolling through ancient rome in a museum or about architectural scenarios. Of course the costs of this device are a little drawback (only the hardware for the cybercarpet is approx. 300.000 Euro) but maybe version 2011 will go productive. For theme parks, gaming (do you remember “laser tag” by the way?) and many other places with mixed reality opportunities this could be a great step forward. Not to mention Second Life…

 

Lasers AR back!

Every time I see something with “a laser”, Mike Myers comes to my mind. Threatening the world in “Austin Powers” with “a laser” might be a little old fashioned. But if you think of it as a user interface, it makes a lot of sense – and fun. What comes to your mind, when you think about virtual objects in real space and in real time combined with a laser pointer / shooter / painter … ? Behave!