| I had a similar feeling without VR: working from home + having friends far away meant I spent a lot of time on video chat du jour. One day I set up the TV with a spare computer and webcam, and used that instead of phone, laptop, or even desktop. The difference was huge, and exponentially so when the other party was doing the same. With selfie webcams we got person-centric mugshots, with room webcams we connected places. It was like having opened a portal to another place, we could move around each one's place very naturally, which only reinforced the connection between people. Just a little bit of care with placement and angle went a long way to drive the illusion. I remember that a couple of times we honest to god unconsciously tried to hand over objects through the screen. Brains are so easy to trick. As it seems to be currently my cobbled up setup looks better than floating mugshots. Also not addressed and never shown is how the VR user shows up to these FaceTime users. I mean the wearer doesn't have themselves captured by the device? And it can't take into account other people naturally walking into the room. |