VR and AR platforms review

During this first week of classes, I got to know many different applications of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, and some of them were really impressive and astonishing, this is a review with my impressions on them, pros, cons, applications and what I think could be improved.

My experience started with something unique: CAVE2, state of the art Virtual Reality technology. The possible applications of this huge platform are so many, and the best thing about it is that you just need a pair of cheap glasses and you are all set, just walk in and find yourself immersed in a 3D virtual world, also, the fact that you can still see the real environment around you allows the possibility of interacting with other people and real objects. Unfortunately, my pessimistic attitude shows me also the disadvantages of such a platform: it is not portable nor affordable, as much as I would love to have something like this in my house to be entertained for the rest of my life, I guess it can only remain a dream, and I will just be happy to stick as long as I can around it while studying at UIC.

Since I started by talking about the thing I liked the most, I might as well continue in decreasing order, and without surprise the next device is HTC Vive, a more affordable and portable device without doubts. What I really liked about this device with respect to the other virtual reality glasses, is the resolution, the wide angles of view offered and the fact that it’s really comfortable. The other glasses like Google CardBoard have the very big disadvantage that they use your somewhat limited phone screen, leading to bad performances, narrow view angles, and bad resolution on most devices, moreover, they are not very comfortable to put on if wear your own glasses too, and when I tried them I couldn’t keep them on for more than two minutes because I was starting to feel dizzy. This is why I don’t enjoy those cheap devices, and even if the fact that they are accessible to everybody is a pro, I would rather not us VR at all if these were the only possibilities, I also think that one of the reasons why Virtual Reality hasn’t really taken root yet is because of this, people don’t really enjoy using it. Luckily enough there is HTC Vive, whose only big disadvantage, I’m afraid, is that it could be addictive and make social life even worse than it already is nowadays, but if you are a computer science student with already a poor social life and you like to travel but have not time nor money, Google Earth VR could be a good alternative to satisfy your dream to visit the world.

Switching subject and talking about Augmented Reality, the best device I tried is HoloLens by Microsoft, what I liked the most about it is how stable the virtual objects are in the real world, it almost looks like they are really there, the possible applications are countless, but I mostly see them in the fields of education, learning and training, rather than having ludic purposes. What I did not like and think that could be improved is the small dimensions in which you see the virtual objects, the fact that if you tilt the head too much the object might be partially go out of the screen, leading to an immediate understanding of its fakeness, as well as the impossibility to keep your own glasses on while using it. If I had to redesign the visor I would do it with a shape similar to a helmet or a mask like HTC Vive.

The last type of Augmented Reality devices are basic Android applications, like Quiver or Spacecraft3D, they allow to experience with Augmented Reality in an easy and fun way, in particular, their main advantages are that they are free apps and extremely portable, as well as very good at recognizing and tracking objects, in this case simple papers, onto which they have to project the virtual elements. Even if they are not as thrilling as the other devices they could still have ludic-purposes or training applications, especially for kids, and the only drawback of these kind of devices is that you’re very limited in your movements and you always have to keep your phone pointing at the right direction or the virtual object would immediately disappear.

In conclusion, I think these somewhat new technology fields have great potentials, what is missing is large-scale productions and usage that would lead to the development of new applications and consequently an even greater use of them. Moreover, it’s very crucial that these devices are comfortable and don’t create bad sensations in order not to make a first bad impression, otherwise a user would just stop using them straight away.

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