Microsoft's Patent on a VR Room Reminds Us The Future of 3D Virtual Worlds Won't Be on PCs or Tablets

Microsoft has patented a kind of immersive virtual room, the BBC reports, in which a console device will "beam images all over the room so that the gamer's peripheral vision does not conflict with what they seen on the main screen." In other words, rather than just displaying 3D on a flat screen, the very real world surroundings in the player's periphery will also become part of the 3D experience. From my perspective, something like this has a much better chance of becoming a mass market product than the 3D VR goggles Steam is working on, especially because this seems like an extension of Kinect, which already has an install base of over 20 million or so. And again, it's a reminder that we should start thinking about the future of 3D virtual worlds not in terms of PCs or even tablets, because roughly 5 years from now, both kinds of hardware will seem like a pretty old school way of rendering a world.

Hat tip: Joe Essid.

Comments

[John Branch]

I'm ready to see and play in a VR room, but not where _I_ live. Goggles are a lot easier to fit into a small New York apartment than an extra room would be. Or maybe I can convert my existing main room?

[John Branch]

Also: This is verging on the landscape depicted in Ray Bradbury's story "The Veldt," in which a future family has a VR room for the kids.

[Graham Mills]

Google are also in this space http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/07/google-opens-code-for-building-interactive-experiences-in-physical-spaces/

[Emperor Norton]

" From my perspective, something like this has a much better chance of becoming a mass market product than the 3D VR goggles Steam is working on,"

Really Hamlet, and were do you plan to set yours' up in your San Fransisco apartment?

[shockwave yareach]

Gee, it looks just like CAVE. Sounds to me like Microsoft is patenting something Stanford built years ago...

[Iggy]

I actually think this concept would catch on if it would work in a media room where the furnishings could be moved easily. Increasingly, I see fewer and fewer "hard copy" media in such spaces, in favor of places to sit and a big screen.

For that well-heeled demographic, I can imagine this to be far more palatable than goggles. But time and the market will tell.

[Jo Yardley]

Fun for people who have a modern room and a big media center sort of thing.
I wouldn't want this and I reckon most people wouldn't.
We want subtle media, stuff we can hide away.
I have a laptop for that reason, no tv, no mobile phone, nothing else.
I don't want media to take over my room.
I'll stick with VR helmets anytime.

[Ziki Questi]

Maybe you're right, but I suspect people will not want to be standing for hours, bouncing around as if they're playing a Kinect game, in order to experience a complex virtual world.

[Joker]

thats a pretty big "apartment" cave.
the future is 14 people living in a room like that. and 1% of MS stockholders playing games in there "man caves" like that...

toys for blind boyz.

[Dizzy Banjo]

I think this rocks and many approaches - headsets, cave type systems and augmented systems are going to all play a part, perhaps merging.

It has immediate value that everyone in the room sees the same thing - or perhaps that is a disadvantage ( ability to see additional augmented content others can't could well become one of the most desirable commodities )

I kind like the idea of it not just being in living rooms as well.

[elizabeth (16)]

i am waiting for a holodeck