Lately, there have been lots of attempts to transfer life in to virtuality. Flight simulators are being used since ages to train commercial pilots. A gaming freak can never forget the revolution started by the games like unreal tournament and Quake, or even the flight simulator by microsoft which offers almost realistic graphics and physical feel to the user. Formula 1 racing games and formula one simulators are largely used by aspirants and rookies of the formula 1 driving world. Then stared the second life by linden labs where we could create our avatar and go about living the virtual life. The person could even buy virtual property using the linden dollars represented by L$ which has real conversion value with USD. Godrej has forayed into this environment by introducing Gojiyo, the new social networking site.
Another invention, which is poised to add a new dimension, or rather diminish the physical barrier between virtual and real world is already into commercial production. It’s called the Virtusphere. It’s basically a 10 foot hollow sphere mounted on rotating sensors which allow for its rotation in all sides. When connected with the compatible applications, and a heads up display, the user walking in this sphere gets transferred in to virtual world, literally. The possibilities to its application are vast. Gamers will have a more realistic feel of the gaming environment when playing in a sphere(just imagine an earth quake, or a exploding grenade’s vibrations being transferred to the sphere using the feedback technology. Or a robot being controlled in war zones, without the use of those tacky joysticks.
Though, at 50000-100000$, the virtuasphere is out of reach for normal user, it can be used for military and industrial application. But the price can come down. Remember how the price of the PC has come down from 20000$ for the first IBM PC to around 500-1000$ of todays powerful PC’s.
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