Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Steering a Balloon With Sound Waves Could Be the Secret to Touching Objects in VR
gizmodo.com: The ultimate goal to making virtual reality feel more like reality is letting users physically touch non-existent objects in a VR world. Until we figure out the technology behind Star Trek’s Holodecks, researchers from the University of Tokyo are experimenting with steerable helium balloons that VR users can safely reach out and touch.
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I really enjoyed this article for many reasons. I find Virtual Reality and its limitless potential to be fascinating. While my experience with sound is minimal, I definitely had not appreciated that if applied intentionally, it could move an object such as a balloon. The idea of it repositioning itself is really smart, and I would be interested to learn more about the mechanics of how it does it alone. I understand that some of it is the natural resistance of the helium balloon, but I am curious about what the researchers did in terms of manipulating the sound waves to contribute to this effect. It is good that they also considered risk factors in introducing humans who cannot see their non virtual surroundings when interacting with the balloon in a virtual setting. I do wonder to what degree suspension of disbelief would be lost after continual exposure to the balloon. At first, there might be wow factor of getting to touch the balloon as if it were another object that only exists in their virtual setting, but after a while of interacting with a multitude of objects and having them all feel like a balloon, I am sure one might start to be consciously aware of the balloon.
I think this is a really interesting first step into controlling objects in a 3D space in a way that doesn't obstruct the rest of an environment. Obviously, not everything can feel like a balloon if you are trying to simulate a more realistic environment (in a world that is not completely made up of balloons). I wonder what the interaction with physical touch would be like, would the balloon be able to stay in place if tapped or pushed? Realistic physical applications aside, this is some really cool technology that makes perfect sense when looked at in theory. Sound waves are nothing more than manipulations of air pressure and it's really cool that they're able to harness the physical implications of sound waves. I hope that this is the beginning of a really interesting exploration into how we can use different forces to create physical and more noticeable movement.
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