Part of my WIP is imagining what life in a 100 years from now might be like. To do so, I’m building on exciting-sounding technology news which will probably be everyday affairs in a century. Having loved Virtual-reality goggles after trying them out a few months ago, I was particularly impressed by the announcement on The Washington Post that Disney unveils a prototype virtual-reality jacket to simulate hugs, punches and a snake slithering across your body!
As Hamza Shaban explains in The Post, in addition to seeing a snake through a virtual-reality headset strapped to your face, you’re wearing a jacket filled with airbags that mimics the pressure and vibrations of a serpent moving across your body. The jacket is meant to give a heightened sensation that goes beyond playing a video game or watching a movie. The jacket can reproduce a variety of sensations, adding new kinds of perception and depth to VR.
The Force Jacket contains 26 inflatable compartments, which can reproduce more than a dozen “feel affects,” such as a hug, a punch or a snake slithering across your body. These sensations are created by modifying the speed, force, and duration of inflating or deflating the airbags. The pressure and vibrations can also correspond with visual displays, allowing users to feel the actions they perform and witness in a VR game.
The researchers developed three prototype VR simulations to showcase the jacket. One placed a person in a snow-covered front lawn in the middle of a snowball fight, while another allowed users to feel a “friendly” cartoon snake slither up their torso and squeeze their chest. The third simulation put the user’s avatar shirtless in a bathroom, as they see and feel their bodies transform into a “muscular hero,” their arms bulging like a bodybuilder’s.
Now, all we need for the technology to take off is for the porn industry to take notice…
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Interesting bit of technology, Nicholas. I am amazed at some of the future technology I read about each day.
As I often say, the future is now 🙂
How right you are!
Interesting stuff coming for the future, but I just don’t think a jacket replacing a real hug would cut it for me. 🙂
Lol-quite right 😀
Not sure I like the idea of feeling a snake ‘slithering’ across my body – yikes, can’t think of anything worse or more terrifying. Snakes have always given me the creeps – maybe ’cause we don’t have any in New Zealand. As for fake hugs – I’d rather have the real thing any day. That said, it’s truly amazing what people are coming up with, but the danger I think would be everyday people becoming lost in the vr experience and exchanging real life for something that is essentially not real. Great post, Nicholas 🙂
Thank you, Catherine! Have you watched the hilarious (virtual) sex scene from Demolition Man?
I can’t say I have, but might just have to check it out 🙂
It’s a little gem of a movie. Surprisingly so!
I can see the humour here of course. But I am left despairing at the amount of money spent on this meaningless stuff when so many people don’t have access to clean water, or proper food. The time will come when we have to get our priorities right in society.
I don’t mean to be a killjoy, but there really is no need for anyone to feel a snake is on them, whilst playing a video game.If Disney have that much money to waste, they should do something useful with it instead.
Best wishes, Pete.
Follow the money, Pete 🙂
If this is budding technology, I can imagine some wild experiences through the use of virtual reality software programs. Maybe used with books to let the reader experience the story. The door would be wide open to anything the mind could imagine. Almost scary, but exciting too.
Now, that would be something–to combine it with a book instead of a game!