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| AltspaceVR users can do things like play chess on a virtual chessboard, shown here in a virtual outdoor garden. Image Source: Technology Review |
Or should we say a baby step to the Holodeck (even Microsoft's version)? Sorry: since Sunday's post, I've been in a Trekkie mood (and yes, that's old-school, even though Gene coined for a distant cousin, the Trekkies vs. Trekkers debate rages on). I will come down to Earth tomorrow. Until then, LLAP...\\//_
We know what social networks are like on the Web and in apps, but what will they be like in virtual reality? While Facebook, the owner of Oculus VR, is surely pondering this behind the scenes, a startup called AltspaceVR is already offering a few clues about how we may connect with each other in a simulated world.
AltspaceVR is building social virtual environments, ranging from a Japanese-style garden to an amphitheater to a dark, sleek lounge. The hope is that headset-wearing users will hang out together in these places in the form of avatars that display real body language thanks to motion sensors, and do things like watching movies, playing games, or shopping together using a shared virtual Web browser. AltspaceVR also hopes developers will use the software development kit it’s building to bring all kinds of applications—a giant chess game, for instance, or a 3-D model viewer—to its social, virtual world.
Virtual-reality technologies aren’t yet consumer ready, but they’re coming. Oculus VR, Sony, HTC, and others are working on headsets; and the HTC Vive is planned for release late this year. Devices aimed at developers are already on the market—one example is the Gear VR, a $199 virtual-reality headset developed by Oculus VR and Samsung that uses a Samsung smartphone as the display.
AltspaceVR is among a growing number of companies trying to figure out what, exactly, we’ll do with these devices when they get here. Facebook, which owns Oculus VR, said in March that virtual reality gaming will be coming this year, while Philip Rosedale, the creator of the online virtual world Second Life, is building a virtual-reality universe called High Fidelity (see “The Quest to Put More Reality in Virtual Reality”).
Technology Review: A Startup’s Plans for a New Social Reality, Rachel Metz
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