This week, I had the chance to try out a few different virtual reality and augmented reality technologies. Although similar technologies have been around for several decades, it’s interesting to see what the current state of virtual reality and augmented reality is like. So far, my experience with these technologies has been through videogames like Niantic’s Pokémon Go, and the Oculus Rift my computer science teacher had.

I first had a chance to try out the Microsoft HoloLens, which I had been curious about since a video I saw showing the future of playing with Minecraft through augmented reality. The benefit of the HoloLens is that it provides an interface to create programs that can exist, seemingly, in the real world. It can have plenty of future applications that really benefit from appearing to be in the real world. I can imagine, for example, an app that utilizes the HoloLens for Ikea to display furniture in your room before you buy it. However, when I was using the HoloLens, I was surprised and a little underwhelmed by the power of the HoloLens headset. It was interesting to see a hologram of an astronaut in a real space, but my focus was strictly only on the hologram. The other issue is that the “screen” on the lens was a little small and it didn’t cover the periphery. The software on the HoloLens didn’t interact in any way with the space around it. I didn’t get to try out the object resizing demo, but by watching my classmates, it seemed like the interface had a learning curve. I’m sure after a few more generations of the HoloLens with improved technology, the HoloLens has lots of potential, but Microsoft has to start somewhere.

Next, I got to try out the CAVE2 room. Being both 3D, life-size, and nearly a full circle, it was incredible to be standing in it! It’s definitely not a virtual reality headset, but the effect is really cool. The Star Wars demo in that room was really cool. I felt like I was there with the Stormtroopers! For any kind of academic demonstrations or perhaps someday some videogames properly fit for a room like CAVE2 could be very effective. Being just a spectator in the room is very interesting. There were only two things that bugged me. When watching classmates try to use the remote device intended for this room, it looked like they struggled to get it to work properly. I understand if those issues were a result of it being the first time they used the remote or perhaps because other classmates were blocking certain sensors. The other issue I had was that when the camera view in the Star Wars demo would clip through walls or other objects. It was disorienting, and while it didn’t make me feel queasy, I’m sure some people may have a problem with it.

With my smartphone, I got to try out the Quiver app. I got to color in my own coloring sheet, downloaded an app, and got to see my creation come to life! It’s a quick gimmick, but the way the software works is still very interesting to me. It’s easy to find this kind of software because many people own a smartphone now, and those smartphones have enough processing power to make this sort of illusion look really cool. I grabbed a few coloring pages and accidentally brought them to my tutoring session. She colored it, downloaded the app, and she thought it was amazing! It felt great to see her smile, as if it were a magic trick. Even her mom thought it was pretty cool! This smartphone app, in my opinion, has the advantage over the HoloLens because it had the better technology of taking a virtual 3D object and making it come to life through camera on the smartphone and then onto the screen. The 3D model stays still and is almost perfectly grounded onto the page that the camera is focusing on. Some Snapchat filters have the same effect of projecting a 3D model onto “real life”, but this app did a really great job. However, if you wanted it to be immersive, you can’t do that through this app. If the strong suits of this app and the HoloLens could be combined, you can make the 3D images of the cow or the car you just colored on a page look life-sized inside your room. Maybe someday, technology can really be that good.

The last thing I got to experience was the HTC Vive with the Google Earth demo. I’ve used similar VR devices before, so this is not something very new to me. The first VR headset experience was back in high school, when my AP Computer Science teacher managed to get himself an Oculus Rift with a developer license. The resolution on the screen and the field of vision was still impressive, but the technology has clearly improved. The headset I got to use this week had higher clarity and it extended to my peripheral vision. It was a clear improvement compared to the Oculus Rift I used about 5 years ago. The remotes are very responsive, the headtracking is very good and I never felt disoriented (unless falling towards Earth). I remember that the Oculus Rift had worse head tracking, and that was probably my biggest complaint back then. I’m sure that even now, there will be people who are prone to car sickness that won’t be able to handle any virtual reality headset.

Overall, the HTC Vive is probably my favorite technology so far due to the Vive’s impressive ability to be both immersive and responsive.