One day, John Nilson, a 38 years old swedish system engineer, decided he wanted to play in an immersive environment and that everybody should have the same chance. So he created the jDome:

And so as I’m in a big trend of making interviews, here’s his interview :

- How is the project born ?

I’ve always been interested in VR, I even wrote a paper on it back in 94 and thought we would all wear goggles by now. But that didn’t happen, because the tech doesn’t work for the consumer market at the moment, for a number of reasons, which the jDome solves - now.

My main inspiration has been visits to a local omnimax theater. When I’ve been watching the movies, I’ve thought - it feels like I’m here, flying over grand canyon; what if I try this at home? So I made a prototype out of regular printer paper (you can see images at gallery.jdome.com) and saw that it worked. I got some funding to make a better prototype and get a patent.

- What’s the material of the dome ?

It is a thin white plastic - almost like paper actually. It isn’t the finished material, though.

- On the video we can see that the material is not perfectly stretched on the sides, will you improve that ?

Yes of course, but I can assure you that it doesn’t bother you when you play, because that is in your peripheral view - all you need there is motion. (Watch other movies about the jDome and see what other people say)

- When do you think you’ll have a production line ?

We hope to get it out by next summer.

- What will be the launch price?

We are aiming for $200, but then there is the cost of a projector if you don’t have one.

- For the jDome to be successful, the targeted games should support a change in FOV (and as you say moving around the HUDs). How big a challenge is that ?

You can of course play without changing the FOV, it is as immersive actually. But when you have the chance to get near 180 degrees field of view, why not crank up the FOV in the game if you can? We don’t set it to 180, because that needs a special driver/ option in the game, but we can set it to 125 and the game still works great and the objects you see in the corner of your eye is actually to the left or right in the game world.

As far as the HUD elements are concerned, it depends on the game - Call of Duty 4 for instance, has the compass (where you’re supposed to go next) in the center of the screen, and that’s all you really need. There is plenty of ammo to go around and if you ignore the effect of your eyes popping out when you get hurt, you always get messages in the center of the screen when you should get to cover.

We don’t have any plans to change any games - we feel that enough games work “out of the box”, at least as far as PC-games are concerned.

If the jDome takes off, the modders will want their games to work with the jDome, and we think that applies for the game developers as well.

Thanks for your time John and hope to have that with stereoscopy and tracking at home for $200, say for next christmas?  :p

Tags: dome, Game, jdome, sweden

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Index

- Design, prototyping

- Marketing

- Training

- Data Visualization

- Architecture

- Scientific, medical and research

- Entertainment

Updates

[25 Nov 2008: Added link to Dr Rizzo interview on therapies in Medical section]

[07 Oct 2008: Added excerpts from Ford article in Design/Prototyping section]

[28 Aug 2008: Added link the Everyday object prototyping article]

[4 Aug 2008: Added link to Miners traning and Agoraphobia treatment articles]

[23 Jul 2008: Added Sivic, VR Learning Mastic Videos in Training section]

[1 Apr 2008: Added paranoia study article link]

[25 Mar 2008: Added phobia treatment article link]

[29 Jan 2008: Added autistic children therapy, Audi link, Panoramic Quake3 video]

[17 Jan 2008: Added a link to Dentists training]

[13 Jan 2008: Added a CaveUnrealTournament Video]

[11 Jan 2008: Added the gambling addiction link]

Design, prototyping

Car, aircraft, boat, tractors, household appliances manufacturers, and even factory planners are using VR to prototype their products. They can create interactive virtual prototypes for far less money and time than a real prototype.

© PSA Peugeot Citroën Mediatheque.

This has a lot of advantages. Products or work environments are tested in VR, potentially with the end user, and problems are identified early in the design process. Once these virtual prototypes are built, all the actors, engineers, designers, ergonomists, marketing and end users, can communicate around the project in a more efficient and sexy way than traditional forms like paper or movies.

“The number of expensive, physical models and prototypes can be radically reduced by CAVE, and this ultimately saves a lot of time and money”, says Andreas Enslin, Miele’s senior designer. (…)

“CAVE creates a quite different form of communication and cooperation. Marketers, designers and engineers can now deal with one issue simultaneously. Regardless of what comes up with me as a designer or engineer, I am able to immediately try it and see if it works. As everyone is seeing the same thing, those people who are not directly involved in the process of development and construction can also immediately see the consequences and effects of decisions.“ (…)

The speed gained is also expected to increase the willingness to experiment, Miele’s senior designer believes. “In this respect, our innovative strength will also increase. It has become much easier to try out something crazy in between.”

From the article : “Carmaker embraces VR“, New Zealand Herald :

“We can understand it from a person’s perspectives, rather than what analytical tools tell us,” says Elizabeth Baron, an advanced visualisation technical specialist who carried out Ford’s virtual reality programme. (…)

Four years ago, the carmaker would have spent four to 10 weeks building prototypes each time engineers wanted to experience a different beltline height, Schiavone said.

But the Programmable Vehicle Model at the Immersive Virtual Reality - or iVR - lab can simulate the change at the touch of a button.”

More infos : Everyday object prototyping, Mercedes and VR, PSA Peugeot Citroën VR Center, Renault and VR, VR Cave for Jaguar and Land Rover, Ford researchers get virtual, It’s a Virtual World at Audi design.

Marketing

VR is also used for marketing and pre-sales: potential clients can now test the product before it’s even finished, and be implied in the choice of configurations. For example you can take a walk in your future plane, and interactively place seats where you want. Even better, the system will make sure your decisions comply with security norms.

(c) University of Gronigen

(c) Virtools

Procter&Gamble and Kimberly Clark are using VR to create, in every detail, virtual stores to conduct marketing studies about product packaging, store layout and displays. With eye-tracking technologies, they can see precisely what aspect of their configuration influences your shopping experience and purchasing decisions.

More info : Virtual reality takes shopper to another world, Kimberly-Clark uses VR.

Training

One of the most fascinating aspects of VR is its ability to train people. A lot of companies and administrations are using VR to train their staff to complicated and/or dangerous procedures.

VR allows you to really perform the gestures, thus what you learn in the virtual environment is directly applicable to real life situations. Pilots get their flight certifications for some planes without ever flying this particular plane!

It also allows you to to test different scenarios instantly, review errors in slow motion and from different viewpoints, restart as many times as needed. Learning in such a simulator is a lot more efficient, and people are much more willing to take the training; the trainee is active in the simulator and acting alone as he would in real life, when before he was passive with other trainees, watching the teacher do the procedure or looking at photos on a CD.

Fiacre, Simurat (c) D’Angelo SNCF

A recent article in the Nature magazine even suggests that VR medical training should be mandatory : “This approach has great potential to allow inexperienced physicians to acquire meaningful new procedural skills…without jeopardizing patient safety in the process”.

More info : Miner training, Haptik Implant (Dentists training, [FR]) First responders train with gaming technology, Scène de crime en 3D pour futurs policiers (Crime scene [fr]).

Education : Teaching about Antique Rome in VR, Cyber-Anatomy.

Data Visualization

One of the oldest applications of VR, along with flight simulators, is data visualization. Mainly used in the oil and gas industry to study geological data and find new energy sources.

Architecture

VR allows the architects, engineers and clients to design a building, to valorize a project by showing it to a large audience, convince all actors, and do the maintainance of building. It also allows citizens to visualize and give their opinion about a project in their neighborhood.

(c) CSTB

More info : CSTB VR equipment

Scientific, medical and research

VR is particularly suited to study the human being. It allows the manipulation of a reality that is close enough to ours and conduct research on cognition, perception and psychology, that would not be practical or ethical to perform in real life (see the Virtual reprise of Milgram’s obedience experiments). Moreover you can reproduce the exact same environment conditions indefinitely.

(c) Centre de Réalité Virtuelle de la Méditérranée

Virtual Reality for therapeutical needs is a field that is also rapidly developping. Better therapies through VR are studied for speech therapy, physical therapy (video), some therapy for autistic children, motor rehabilitation after a stroke, even smoking, gambling, drugs and alcohol addictions ! And new areas are being explored everyday.

(c) GLEANER/STEPHEN MACGILLIVRAY PHO

It is also a very good tool to treat phobias in a controlled environment through exposure therapy. The subject can be immersed in a virtual world on a high bridge to treat fear of heights, or in a room with virtual spiders, or in the middle of a war to treat post-traumatic syndrome disorder (Agoraphobia, Virtual therapy video, “Medecine meets VR“, PTSD for 9/11, “Virtual Reality used to fight phobias“, “Paranoia Study“).

See also:

- Intrepid : University of Manchester’s project “ for the clinical treatment of phobic and situational « anxiety» “.

- University of Groningen VR Lab therapy researches

- Virtually Better

- ImprintIt

- VRPhobia

- Elhit

Entertainment

Despite what you may think, VR games seem to have practically disappeared. I haven’t seen any recent commercial attraction. The best VR games so far seem to be done by enthusiasts: Cave Quake 3 by Paul Rajlich, Cave Unreal Tournament by Jeffrey Jacobson, and Atrium Experience by Alexandre Bouchet and Lionel Dominjon. (Oh and Atrium will be shipped with Virtools/VR Library 2.5

© Paul Rajlich

© Jeffrey Jacobson

Cave UT in the SAS3

© Alexandre Bouchet, Lionel Dominjon

Panoramic Quak3 (c) PanoramaScreen

Tags: architecture, engineering, Game, marketing, medical, phobias, reference, research, resources, therapy, training, VR Applications

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No 3D, no CD-Rom, that’s the Vii.

And there hardware is .. well, there’s nearly nothing into it !!

Tags: china, Game, nintendo, vii, Wii

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Did you know that in 1995 Nintendo released a portable VR console, called the Virtual Boy ? With a monochrome stereoscopic HMD with a 384×224 resolution, it was priced at 180$ and reportedly Nintendo sold 700′000 units. The failure of the system had them discontinue the project one year later.

A bit sooner, Sega also tried to release a VR console [and wikipedia here] in 1994, with LCD screens and inertial trackers:

The Sega VR console combined full color LCD screens and stereo sound. Weight was distrusted evenly, and the device was reported to be comfortable. Also, unlike the Virtual Boy, it was truly portable, not requiring a cumbersome tripod for enjoyable game play.

(…)

Due to limited resources, strategic planning, the complete and utter failure of Nintendo’s Virtual Boy, underwhelming graphics and performance, as well as motion sickness, Sega was wise in not bringing this cliché console to the market.

The company claimed the project was stopped because the VR was so real users would move while wearing the headset and injure themselves.

Hum. Lol.. =)

[update : here’s a video of the ad]

Tags: Anaglyph, console, Game, HMD, nintendo, OldSchool, sega, Stereoscopy, Virtual Reality, VR Applications

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Alex Bouchet sent me this video of him playing Jeffrey Jacobson’s Cave Unreal Tournament :

Alex says it’s a bit buggy (synchronisation problems), and the navigation is not very natural yet, but the immersion awesome.

Can I come play with your Cave? :p

Tags: cave, Game, video, VR Applications

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Here’s a really nice use of AR, by Julian Oliver (you should look at the higher res video on the site).
(from O-Town)

Tags: Augmented Reality, Game, video

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It’s official, the Wii is the best seller of the next-gen consoles, although it was released one year after the XBOX 360.

Tags: Game, ps3, Wii, xbox360

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Aha, who would have bet on these figures 6 months ago ?

From this Digg post : “With only 620,000 units seperating them and Wii selling around 200,000 units per week more than 360 worldwide we should see total Wii sales pass Microsofts console in around 3 weeks time! So in 9 months Wii will have sold as much as it took Xbox360 to sell in 21 months!”

Tags: Game, Wii

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by FUJIKI Ju for Sony, PS3 and PSP, 2008.

Tags: 3d, escher, Game, perspective

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A new cool device for the Wii :

Tags: Game, VR Devices, Wii

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