Oculus Rift experiment simulates living real life with lag

Stream:

News Bot

Your News Bitch
3,282
0
0
0
Console: Headset:
News By James Plafke Apr. 28, 2014 12:58 pm
Along with impressive (or totally broken, unimpressive) tech demos and limited game support, the Oculus Rift has been used for social experiments. One such experiment used the Rift to allow a male and female to see through each others’ eyes, as if they had swapped bodies. A new experiment, called Living with Lag, uses the Rift to simulate what it would be like to go through life experiencing lag that you’d normally find in online experiences.
The experiment is actually a cleverly disguised commercial for Swedish ISP, Ume.net. The rig is composed of an Oculus Rift, a Raspberry Pi, a webcam, and noise-canceling headphones. Using the rig, which could deliver delays of up to three seconds, four volunteers were charged with performing everyday tasks, such as jogging or making pancakes. As you can imagine, it’s not particularly easy to do anything while experiencing real-life lag.
The ISP isn’t exactly making a completely new observation: dealing with lag is difficult. In real life, you pretty much handle it the same way you do in video games — with delayed reactions. However, it’s a clever campaign — if you wouldn’t tolerate lag in real life, why would you tolerate it in your digital endeavors?
Though the results of a ping pong match where one person is living with lag aren’t surprising, it’s still amusing to watch him try to compete — or even attempt to pick the ball up off the floor after he misses a swing. Similarly, watching a girl dance out of step with her peers is infinitely more amusing when it’s because she’s lagged, rather than because she’s rhythmically challenged. Even making pancakes becomes a quest when you realize the measuring cup fills before you can actually see it fill.
It’s a commercial, sure, but just because a company is trying to get your business doesn’t mean it can’t be clever about it.



More...