In previous year’s Steven Spielberg adaptation of the novel ‘Ready Player One’ by Ernest Cline, fans of simulated places called ‘The OASIS’ run through physical streets wearing VR gear as their systems map the virtual worlds in their physical surroundings. Though this seems pretty awkward socially and raises questions related to the value people have upon physical environment, the movie still represents remarkable technical advancements if this could really be done.
In fact, even technical viewers drenched in VR tech may look at these directions and think if really such a thing could be feasible. For example, how one virtual world can compensate as well as alter to allow navigation while passing by public areas outdoors.
Well now, it seems like the researchers at Microsoft are figuring out these answers already. Microsoft researchers Christian Holz, Andy Wilson, Eyal Ofek as well as a Microsoft intern Jackie Yang have developed a city-scale redirected VR walking system called ‘DreamWalker’ mounted on top of one Samsung Odyssey headpiece as well as extra sensing hardware.
As per the researchers, ‘DreamWalker’ works on unseen huge-scale, uncontrolled areas as well as public spaces and encourages people to remain on the right pathway in real-world which are void of any moving vehicles. It uses ‘humanoid’ animated VR characters that move in the location where an obstacle is detected and guides the user to correct direction.
