Watch TV?
What a quaint idea.
Roses are red, you're feeling blue, 'cos no one wants to watch VR telly with you
It's a question that has long concerned us all: when you're at home watching TV on your VR headset, how do you avoid that sense that if someone looked in the window, you might appear to be the saddest individual on the planet? Well, worry no longer because Hulu has taken up Mark Zuckerberg's widely mocked offer of "social VR" …
-
-
Tuesday 14th February 2017 11:16 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Motivation
For people whose best and only options at present are living with their parents or in a house share (and there's probably a good overlap of this group and those early adopters of new technology) I can see that being able to meet up with several people virtually rather than having to use the living space you awkwardly share with others or some relatively expensive pub / cinema option might be quite attractive.
Plus it's quite cool and novel which makes it enough fun to at least have a go at.
The endpoint of this is something like the Matrix with living space shrunk to the bare minimum but the virtual tech improved to make that much less of a restriction.
Mines the one with the blue pill in the pocket.
-
Tuesday 14th February 2017 14:21 GMT Kane
Re: Motivation
"Mines the one with the blue pill in the pocket."
I'm gonna have to Red Pill you here, matey...
"For people whose best and only options at present are living with their parents or in a house share (and there's probably a good overlap of this group and those early adopters of new technology) I can see that being able to meet up with several people virtually rather than having to use the living space you awkwardly share with others or some relatively expensive pub / cinema option might be quite attractive."
Expensive relative to what, exactly? The price of a VR headset and associated peripherals/apps? Times the number of people you want to meet with? Surely the cheaper option would be to...actually go to the pub/cinema?
-
Tuesday 14th February 2017 21:34 GMT Captain DaFt
Re: Motivation
"The endpoint of this is something like the Matrix with living space shrunk to the bare minimum but the virtual tech improved to make that much less of a restriction."
Brings this to mind: http://wondermark.com/c1291/
"Huh. So you're saying... You've escaped the reality of your cramped quarters by inventing a big beautiful place that you can look at but never touch?"
"A house with a hundred rooms but you can only step foot in one?" "I dunno. You've never felt like you've devised yourself a prison?"
-
-
-
-
-
Tuesday 14th February 2017 23:14 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Friends live all over...
Stop drinking the grape Kool-aid or the marketing people will get you!
Here are the answers to the quiz:
* Why not get a life and have your friends actually come over to your house to watch TV rather than strap a tiny mobile screen two inches from your face?
I work in the tech industry on many many computers BECAUSE I do not like people in general. I would rather watch TV alone and not be bothered by other people wanting to; change the channel, go to the bathroom, ask a silly question, skip episode they saw already, watch something other than my Golden Girls marathon and we're only on season 1, baby!
* And second, is the system really as smooth as the video suggests?
No. Not really. Sorry.
-
-
Tuesday 14th February 2017 23:25 GMT Andrew Hodgkinson
Advert sent straight from the 1970s...
...or am I supposed to just ignore the bit around 10 seconds in where there's a close-up of a women's arse and a fast cut to a smug pervy guy grinning in appreciation?
I suppose it's close to honest advertising, given that the most likely way this will catch on - if at all - is for porn; perhaps since kids wearing headsets can't even *see* their parents walking in on them in the bedroom, they just won't care. Out of sight out of mind.
-
Tuesday 14th February 2017 23:58 GMT Herby
It's all blurry to me...
Look I've got presbyopia, and things that close just DON'T FOCUS. So unless they get a re-focusing program that pre-distorts the image, it just won't work for me.
So, enjoy it while you can. Of course it has been observed that those who spend a good chunk of their life doing "up close" things don't focus on distant things as well as those who take a while and enjoy the scenery, so I can recommend it for those either.
Good luck!
-
Wednesday 15th February 2017 10:19 GMT Roj Blake
Facehuggers
There's a reason why people wear contact lenses or have laser surgery rather than wear glasses.
There's a reason why Google Glass failed.
There's a reason why 3D-TV still hasn't taken off.
The reason is that people don't like having things strapped to their face.
And that's why VR headsets will never be mainstream.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
