The experiments that are pushing Oculus Rift beyond gaming

April 11th, 2014, 22:44 Posted By: wraggster

Oculus Rift may not be available to the public yet, but a rich subculture has emerged of modders, hackers, and developers who are using the development kit to experiment with the possibilities of virtual reality beyond gaming. The open nature of the platform means developers have been able to let their imaginations run wild, going so far as to augment the Rift with other hardware.In Salted Perception, an experiment by German augmented reality developer Undev, a Kinect is strapped to the Rift headset with cable ties. When the software is activated, it relays the camera feed back to the Rift with colourful psychedelic filters applied. The resulting image is abstract and distorted, but you can pick out human movement. The weight of the Kinect means this retrofit isn’t exactly elegant, but hints at the AR possibilities if future Rift models were to incorporate a front-facing camera.BeAnotherLab’s fascinating Gender Swap experiment also uses headset-mounted cameras, allowing two people of different sexes to see through each others’ eyes. The feeling is amplified by having both people agree to mimic each others’ hand movements. The Spanish studio behind the project says the idea is to use the Rift to teach empathy, and planned uses for the technology include giving people in wheelchairs the experience of being able to walk.Frequency Domain’s surreal landscapes are generated entirely by music. It was created in Unity 3D by Sagar Patel, a computer engineering graduate turned indie game developer.

Indie developer Sagar Patel, formerly of Q-Games, has developed an experimental game for the Oculus Rift called Frequency Domain, which generates surreal landscapes with music. Import an audio file and the waveform of the track forms abstract polygonal mountains and canyons around you. Patel says seeing music visualised in this way has revealed intricacies in songs he never noticed before: “Seeing the sound in the game helped me focus on it, and actually hear it through the rest of the sounds.” In a future build he plans to implement the Leap Motion controller to introduce an additional element of interaction. “The Rift really is a whole new frontier, and I can’t wait to see what new methods of interaction people come up with, especially when combined with other types of devices.”In Chaotic Moon’s , a Leap Motion controller is attached to the front of the headset. This USB stick-sized device is designed to be placed flat on a desktop, allowing you to control software and play games with hand gestures. But by placing it vertically on the Rift, you get the sensation of ‘seeing’ your hands. SharkPunch is a fairly simple game, whose premise you can probably guess, but it’s a clever use of the gimmicky Leap Motion hardware. Razer’s Hydra is another way to simulate arm movement in VR, but having to hold two controllers isn’t as convincing as using gestures.

http://www.edge-online.com/features/...beyond-gaming/

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