News
Virtual Reality Users Keep Suffering Horrible Injuries // Futurism
New technology typically comes with a user manual, but maybe VR headsets need additional warnings to help curb the growing list of injuries from new users reacting a little to strongly to what's happening on the screen. From running into walls to major injuries, the rise in VR related injuries is an unfortunate byproduct of its increased popularity among people whose fight-or-flight response kicks in a bit too hard.
Bitcoin pyramid schemes wreak havoc on Brazil's 'New Egypt' // AP News
Last issue we really played up the potential for good that NFTs and crypto has for funding the future, but we'd be negligent if we didn't also feature at least one cautionary tale in making sure your investments are sound and the people you give your money are ones that you can trust.
Godot Engine - Godot Engine receiving a new grant from Meta's Reality Labs
Investing in a future open source competitor to Unity and Unreal makes sense for Meta, and is a move reminiscent to Google's past and current investment in the Linux kernal that powers its Android Operating System. This makes us feel we should take another look at this up and coming game engine.
Experiences
Catch Foo Fighters in VR: Horizon Venues Concert to Air February 13 After the Big Game
The Foo Fighters. Performing in VR after the Super Bowl. Even if you're not into the yearly sportsball game this is a Horizon Venues VR 180 concert you may not want to skip.
Reading
The danger of AI micro-targeting in the metaverse // VentureBeat
It wouldn't be a conversation about the potential for bad actors to emerge without bringing AI into focus. This read is a good primer for thinking about how the same anonymity we enjoy online can be co-opted by AI whose sole goal is to influence your decisions. Things like this were once only possible in science fiction, but we're coming closer to a world where the technology is good enough to pass as human.
Business
70% of Virtual Store Visitors Have Purchased a Digital Item // Virtual Reality Times
Sometimes an article's title says just about everything you need to know, though we do recommend you read it as there are lots of good stats and user behavior observations to learn from.
Research
Sony patent could solve the “god ray” problem in PSVR2 // Ars Technica
We love reading and sharing news about fundamental research and problems being solved through technology. This new patent from Sony for a "precisely placed light absorbing layer" fixes Fresnel-lens artifacts that have plagued many of the earlier (and current) generation of VR headsets. This won't add resolution but with a simple lens replacement some headsets can have a much better experience, and may even be useable again.
Inspiration
This AR Lightning App Is Insanely Well-Made // VRScout
We have no stats to back this up, but we feel like at least 80% of all superheros shoot something from their hands. For anyone looking to play in AR this Github project is quite impressive in demonstrating both a "realistic" lightning effect in your hand, and lighting effect from shooting it into a room. This is worth downloading just to see how they managed actual lighting changes in a real room. Wow.
One More Thing
A virtual reality 'Shopping Task' could help test for cognitive decline in adults // ScienceDaily
Researchers have moved closer to using VR as a diagnostic tool reminiscent of the Parkinson's detector from a telephone call. Leveraging VR's strengths in immersing the user the virtual store (VStore) environment in the test showed more accurate results when compared to traditional verbal only cognitive testing. Should additional trials prove successful it could further engrain VR as an invaluable diagnostic tool. This definitely deserves to be this week's One More Thing.
Commentary
In every area of life there are bad actors. People who, sometimes unintentionally, do things that are harmful or morally offensive. Depending on your views on the world this may be a bad thing, but we tend to feel that when people are "behaving badly" it is a test of our systems and institutions to see how best to respond to their behavior. VR is no exception, and the social spaces where we encounter anonymous individuals is another arena to reinforce social contracts that we all rely on to keep us safe and to prevent harassment.
Depending on the game you may encounter offensive talk and actions playing online every now and then due to the system put in place to discourage it. VR social spaces are still relatively new and will need to create their own guidelines for preventing things like virtual groping or other "bad" behaviors.
This issue we included articles that show some of the harms that can come when people aren't able to fully rely on technology or their assumptions to be enough prevent harm. The VR world isn't bad, but we still need to be careful who we friend and how we behave.
Thank you for reading and subscribing, and we'll see you next week!
— Other Realities Directory | Other Realities Journal | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube —
Other Realities