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Lecture 25: Virtual & Augmented Reality (20)
jenzou

Virtual reality avatars in teleconference provide the opportunity for full body expression in 360 degrees. Given the more formal and serious nature of business meetings, I don't think VR will be widely used in virtual conferences over phone or video call because work meetings emphasize distribution of information over all else like facial expression/body language. Looking at https://vrchat.com/ mentioned on this slide, the platform offers many features that augment real-world interaction such as emojis, drawing, and sculpting -- VR worlds are more applicable to entertainment utilities, as they allow people to use their imaginations and do what they couldn't in real life, like flying. For business, I'm skeptical of VR's utility over current tools and real-world interaction.

Staffrishiu

VR teleconferencing is getting more and more advanced every day, with recent systems capable of emulating a full browser and keyboard experience fully within VR, including Skype, Email, Youtube and more. Check out this company for more: https://dreamos.com/.

CptTeddy

Another VR application that would be very useful is virtual apartment tours for those looking for housing. A VR open house would be much more convincing than a 3D model or even just a floor plan, especially for those looking for housing in another state.

gprechter

There are many other possible applications for VR other than the ones listed in this lecture. I think the wide variety of applications for VR make it a very impactful and growing field of importance. One of the most striking that comes to mind are the applications of virtual reality for mental health purposes and for medical purposes in general.

https://thinkmobiles.com/blog/virtual-reality-applications-medicine/

For instance, there are companies and researches using VR for PTSD and phobia treatments, and there are researches incorporating virtual reality for virtual for surgery training as well, as it allows students to practice in the virtual world to make fewer mistakes in the real one.

isaaclee06

VR Chat is also an interesting application. it allows complete strangers to meet and talk in a virtual world. The platform allows people to have custom avatars and build communities online. It feels way more personal than if a bunch of people were just in an online chatroom together and I wonder if these kinds of relationships produce different neural responses than from other online relationships or even real-life relationships

sandykzhang

What about taking video/photos in real life and augmenting that in a VR setting to help some of the issues posed by classmates above (i.e. facial expressions)?

AnastasiaMegabit

This is along the lines of what Facebook has been talking about doing. https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-oculus-codec-avatars-vr/ I am also very curious about the transmission of facial expressions and body language in these more serious situations as the person above mentioned. The video of the face chat in that link is interesting and made me think about the difficulty of the problem of getting the microexpressions right.

x-fa19

I'm also curious about what the social impact of VR chat might be, assuming that it gains popularity and becomes a main method of communication. There are several cases of people leaving rude messages and such anonymously online (which they would not necessarily verbalize or say in real life), and I wonder if that might change if there exists the virtual equivalent of "face-to-face" in these interactions instead, or whether it might actually end up being worse.

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