Lenovo shows off 'Microsoft-friendly' VR cosplay at CES The PC market may be flaccid but Lenovo is taking a punt on virtual reality headsets with Microsoft. Lenovo used CES in Las Vegas, Nevada, to show off prototype headgear that'll supposedly work with Microsoft's Holographic platform. We say "supposedly" – gadget-press reports say Lenovo's device isn't actually working yet. …
I've tried a friend's HTC Vive a few times now and they're awesome. One of the demos involves using a bow and arrow and I for the life of me cannot believe how realistic using that bow is, it's almost like magic. Then there's the shooting games where you actually get quite a bit of exercise by ducking and diving. I can really see these taking off once people actually experience them. Of course you need a decent size room to get the most out of it which is a pain for a lot of people.
Most VR in fiction seem to separate the virtual sensations in your brain from the physical sensations coming from your body, allowing you the freedom to move, react, and feel without physically moving. That's raised the bar and VR tech may need to go that far before it'll gain mass adoption.
Has there been any medical advancements in virtual sensation? Especially of the type where the body doesn't move in response?
There are some gloves that have actuators on the back. As you grasp objects in the VR world, the gloves provide variable feedback, per finger, so you actually get tactile feedback to each finger individually, as if really holding something.
Apparently it good enough for people to be able to recognise different objects due to their 'feel'. i.e. recognise if something is hard or soft, what it's shape is etc.
Early days yet though.
That's tactile feedback, a more physical research into VR. I'm talking more where you can feel and touch things in the virtual world without your physical body moving: disconnecting the brain from the motor functions, basically. That's the kind of VR we see in fiction now.
I have a solution for Lenovo's falling PC sales: stop making cheap plastic tat that disintegrates when you look at it. Maybe - just maybe - even get back to making devices with upgradable bits!
I.E. Build what people want and they'll buy it. Otherwise, they'll keep using their older stuff which is generally better than the new stuff. Especially if it's 6 or more years old...
@Trevor_Pott - The OEMs are faced with a problem, most kit (hardware and software) sold in the last 5 years or so is more than adequate for the user. Users have no need to upgrade if the box is working fine. Also, any new devices bought will likely be a phone, much more useful if one has a decent data plan when on the go. For example, me and Swambo took a trip and used the map app on the phone for directions in a city and for traffic problems. A laptop is just to bulky for this type of use.
The problem is that it may not be five years. It could be longer: past the point of diminishing returns. Let's face it. PC tech is reaching the "good enough" point for all but the most-demanding users. A mini-tower with 4GB and a recent OS will handle just about anything the casual user can throw at it. Basic and hobby gamers? As long as the CPU's pretty recent, 8GB and a video card less than two years old should handle the job for them, even up to 1080p. Not to mention because console tech is hitting a plateau, demands aren't rising as much as before; in fact some would say visual quality took an overall dip last year.
IOW, the market's probably approaching saturation in general. There will still be performance demands, but it won't drive the market in general the way it used to. Even in the PC world, product lifecycles are stretching out. In this world, five years is more likely to stretch out to seven, maybe even ten. Most PC makers can't afford to wait that long.
I meant to say in the enterprise PC world lifecycles are stretching out. It just hit me about how long such machines are left out when I read that the Virginia Lottery is just re-signed GTECH (a company that specializes in machines for lotteries) is for a generalized upgrade of equipment for their equipment. The current machines out there have been around for just over ten years. These are machines that run 800MHz AMD processors (1.4GHz if you're lucky), MontaVista Linux, and Macromedia Flash; that's how old the current machines are. And many machines had refreshes several years ago, right when the Intel Core i-series came out, and there hasn't been a whole lot of improvement since that time; diminishing returns is kicking in.
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