Immerse yourself completely in 3D Cyberworlds with the Virtual Cocoon.
Researchers have just presented a concept for immersive virtual reality (VR) with the helmet 'Virtual Cocoon'. With this futuristic device all five senses can be addressed in virtual worlds.
Do we actually need to travel to be somewhere to experience it fully? Usually we just rely on our senses to interact with the world around us. The 'virtual cocoon' will allow people to interact naturally with the world around us without actually travelling or being put in a particular real situation (which could potentially be dangerous).
The virtual cocoon will stimulate all five senses and hence provide a rich sensory 'real virtuality' experience. Special attention will be paid to the degree of naturalness perceived by the user in the virtual world
How will virtual cocoons change the world?
The virtual cocoon will revolutionise the way in which we do business by providing low-cost, high confidence, high quality multi-sensory knowledge directly to our current location.
It will significantly change, for example, purchasing via the internet because you could smell the flowers, feel the fabric of a dress, try out a sofa for comfort, examine products in any desired lighting condition and so on all before you buy them – and with the confidence that the purchasing experience is the same as if you were there in the shop examining the product using all your appropriate senses.
What can you do with virtual cocoons?
With a virtual cocoon, you could:
- Design sensory aesthetics and comfort levels for new buildings or garden parks.
- Select your desired listening position at a concert in the Albert Hall.
- Visit an African game park as a family, even if some members are distributed around the world.
- Examine a patient in a remote location from a local GP's consulting room.
- Mock up digitally organisational workflow incorporating environmental as well as locational attributes.
- Explore the past: Visit a prehistoric cave art as it was being painted.
- E-Learning: Be trained as a pilot to land in 'brown out' conditions in the desert.
- Gain experience as a driver in rare, but highly dangerous conditions.
- Visit ancient Rome during History or Latin lessons.
- Have virtual sex.
Or how about linking a virtual cocoon to Google Earth? This would enable users to investigate the ambiance of a restaurant on the other side of the world when they're planning a trip. And of course it will be used for visits to various 3D virtual worlds to give cyber-travellers a super-realistic immersive experience.
How can virtual cocoons become succesful?
What will people make of virtual cocoons and how will they change tomorrow's society? For the virtual cocoon to achieve economic success and widespread adoption it will need to be highly portable, low-cost and easy to interface with – something one can keep in one's pocket ideally.
To use experimentation with body image, and anticipation of the problems with sexual representation, will be an asset for the design of virtual hardware and software. Even if the work is unsuccessful, research will have pre-empted the first strike against the ‘ability to deprave and corrupt’ scenarios so envisaged by the public. With the Sexual Ghost, virtual reality can be one step ahead of the rumours and can quash any future proposed legislation with experience and researched argument. The censorship of creativity condemns choice. By fearing the virtual ghost, that choice is already self censored. Creatives like myself are denied a voice before we even start. Virtual Sex has the potential to be cathartic. It can create further insights for new environments for subject matter far removed from body suits and fantasies. It creates questions, debate and brings in the human emotional and physical development of many years of civilization. If the body is to be left behind in the non digitized world, how will sexuality survive? As the mind cruises through its virtual space, how will it respond to psychophysiolocal responses? Arousal is an essential part of virtual experience.