the first word: overstimulation
Look around. Go ahead – right now. Just take a moment to look around whatever room you find yourself in and reflect on that experience for a moment. The ability to look around, to take in 360 visual degrees of our environment is an experience that is so secondary to the way we process the world that we often take it for granted. For a long time we’ve been able to create virtual environments that simulate real ones, or showcase things that would never be possible in real life. But interfacing with those environments has never been as easy or as instinctual as turning our heads and opening our eyes… until now.
This is the value of the Oculus Rift: a virtual reality headset designed to let users take in the virtual world the same way we take in the real one – by looking around.
When you put the Oculus on, there is certainly a wow moment. Its almost irrelevant to talk about the weight, or comfort of the device. Once the visuals kick in, you won’t care. Because at that point, you are looking at something – a 3D rendered architectural model, a protein structure, the inside of a car – not by clicking around with your mouse, awkwardly pressing key combinations on your keyboard, or rotating the screen on your phone. But by twisting your neck, turning your body and opening your eyes. It feels natural and like the future has arrived simultaneously. To look around with the Oculus requires no explanation, tutorial or guide because it recreates in a virtual context an experience that requires no instruction. Technically speaking, the device uses positional tracking sensors to capture the orientation of your head, so if you want to see what’s to your right 90 degrees, all you have to do is … you guessed it, look 90 degrees.
Really awesome words, extremely awesome words and then even more awesome words about this product which does things.
Our First Question
The first question: Does virtual reality make sense for learning?
Step Into A World: Zac Zidik explores a virtual classroom environment using the Oculus
If you can put a headset on, you can use the Oculus
The Opportunity
But the question remains: what is the educational value of a device like this?
Imagine loading up a forensics science simulation and looking (*literally looking*) around the room for clues from the comfort of your own living room. Or giving a supply chain student the chance to walk a factory floor without leaving their classroom. Or giving an engineering student the chance to look around the inside of a fracking hole. And perhaps just as importantly these kinds of experiences could occur without the need for interface instructions. If you can put a headset on, you can use the Oculus.
The Challenge
In some ways, the dream of the Oculus as a more natural user interface device sounds too good to be true, but despite the potential, the device is not without its flaws. As a note, this review is based on the DK2 or developer kit version 2 – a pre-consumer release of the device (the consumer version is not yet available for purchase), so things may change. To begin, freedom begets the demand for more freedom. The ability to look around freely compels you to want to move through virtual spaces just as freely. But the Oculus is very much a tethered device with a lot of wires. You’ll find yourself wanting to move and turn around, but you it won’t take long before you get tangled in technology, which creates a very immersion breaking effect. You’ll also be very inclined to interact with such a rich world, but because the headset covers your eyes, you’ll find using a keyboard, mouse, or other traditional interface device very difficult (we recommend something a bit easier to navigate by touch alone, such as a joystick of video game controller). Perhaps most importantly though, while the Oculus can allow some very engaging experiences, it essentially requires game developer level skills in programs such as unity to create programs for, which can be a barrier to creating your own content.
Summary
The Oculus is an incredibly exciting device that generates some equally exciting possibilities for improving educational engagement in simulation activities. And its clear that the company is making strides in this, their second version of the technology. But while it is easy to use, that ease also serves to highlight some of the less polished aspects of VR, such as interfacing with objects or moving through virtual space.
Intrigued?
Are you interested in trying out the Oculus? Are there questions you have about the device or VR? Have you used it and would like to share your experiences?