[itcmcgrath]

I got the chance to play with it a few weeks ago, along with several others in our office.

1) It didn't make any of us sick, but I could see how it still would for users, particular if they didn't try to move their body in roughly the same direction as they would if it was IRL. If you have ever sat in a vehicle and watched the outside via a mirror - it's like that.

2) For me, while it was immersive (we had several users scream at things and dance around), it is still nothing like real vision. It still gives you one real focal point (or lack of one at all), which immediately makes it different from real life vision - particularly over long distances.

3) Unlikely. It would probably severely freak them out. Perhaps the rapidness of it would leave enough confusion that they worked it out, but it is still obvious it is computer generated graphics. See the focal issue above as an example.

Having said that, it was amazingly fun and I wish I had one now. I'd love to experiment with a 'Virtual Programming' environment. I'll leave what that means as an exercise for the reader :)

[xur17]

I would love a virtual programming environment. If they (eventually) get the resolution high enough, you could use it to replace all of your external monitors, and be able to use your full desktop environment anywhere.

[jonhohle]

I've been thinking about it for development as well, but I now think that resolution isn't as big a concern as I initially thought.

You'd be able to have a virtual desktop of (essentially) unlimited size. You're frontmost task could be high resolution, but ancillary tasks could be lower resolution or high resolution but partially occluded by your field of vision. This wouldn't be opening an IDE to fill the entire screen - it would be a multi-window environment with at most a few primary tasks using up most of the screen real estate. Like Mission Control with real time zooming in a 3D environment and no distinction between workspaces.

[itcmcgrath]

Indeed that would be assume. Solves the how many monitor's do you need debate, no longer restricts you by either available space or location. Would save money on power, etc. Seems like it could be a win for both the developer and budget.

[leoc]

There's one significant catch, which is a limited ability to look around by moving your eyes rather than your head.

[moistgorilla]

The screen spans your entire field of view. You can still look around with your eyes only. The only problem is the low resolution.

[leoc]

That's not the case: different headsets have different fields of view, and most, including the DK2, have a FOV that's considerably narrower than the Sensics dSight's. Likely the dSight doesn't cover the full range of eye movement either.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ApTBEPEA_odkdHp...

[sixothree]

I would love to get over a fear of heights and be able to enjoy some new places on this earth.

[dm2]

Some video games give me that feeling of "death is imminent" when the 1st person character jumps off of a cliff or falls, but it only happens the first time, so there's a good chance that it's possible to help overcome the fear of heights with VR.

I'm horrified about being near the edges of buildings and cliffs, and in my mind it's perfectly justified (less chance of death away from edge).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CCTV_Beijing_April_2008.jp...

Also this building freaks me out imagining actually being in that building. I'd much rather have a support column under me. If I worked for a company in that building and our offices were on those floors in the middle I would probably be forced to quit. Oh, and it's in an area known for seismic activity, nope.

[arrrg]

This is an actual in-use therapy approach, and one that will probably become much more widespread now that VR hardware is getting affordable and accessible. (Also used for social anxieties, like a fear of public speaking.)

[cLeEOGPw]

I wonder if it would be possible to detect from user eyes where he is focusing and adjust the focus point accordingly. Would you think that would add another level of immersion?

[erikpukinskis]

From what I've heard from the Oculus folks, it won't happen any time soon. Your eyes move way too fast for a VR system to react to them.

It will happen eventually, but it seems like we need cameras/computer vision systems/drawing pipelines with an order of magnitude lower latency for that to actually work.

[cma]

It's pretty close to happening; they can already track your eyes fast enough to render at higher resolution at the fovea area as your eyes move around:

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/fove...

Also, your eyes are very slow to focus relative to your eye movements, so it is probably doable now. It still will not feel like real life, just sort of eye tracked depth-of-field. Your eyes will still be focused at infinity, but near things will blur when you look in the distance, and vice versa.

[jbmonco]

I need this for my two monitor setup. When I look left the app on the left should take focus. That it doesn't has led to much confusion.

[itcmcgrath]

That would be an interesting research project. Track eye movement and focus. I could see how it would greatly enhancement the experience as well as introduce some fun & new rendering performance problems needing to solve.

[josephpmay]

One alternate possibility is to use a lightfield display. The problem with these is they are currently extremely low resolution and require consistent rendering at all focal lengths.

[Cacti]

Hrm. That's interesting, I've never thought about the focal point issue before. Do you know of anyone working on this problem or any general status on this in "the field"?