Hi all! It's been a while! But I haven't been idle... while I've been gone, I've been working hard on the next generation of gaming technology. Minecraft is awesome. There's no question about it. But what if you could reach out and ACTUALLY punch a tree or swing your sword at a mob? How cool would that be? Well... now you can. An early prototype of the NullSpace VR suit I'm working with a small team to create NullSpace VR - a haptic feedback suit that lets you reach out and touch virtual reality. We recently entered a contest sponsored by Make Magazine and Cornell University called the "Pitch Your Prototype Challenge", that allows people to vote for their favorite pitch. Here's ours: Pretty cool, huh? We'll be on Kickstarter later this year if you want to get one for yourself, but in the meantime, we need your help. If you like the project, head to THIS LINK, find NullSpace VR, and vote for us! Help us get our technology to you! Once again, for clarity: If you like the idea, and you want to see... ehem... FEEL it become a reality, 1. Go to http://makezine.com/pitch-your-prototype-2015/gallery/ 2. Find NullSpace VR 3. Vote for us! (you can vote once per day, so come back and vote later too) 4. Get your suit when we release! Watching videos about it is cool. But just wait until you get one for yourself. It's AWESOME If you have any questions after you watch the video, feel free to ask , and I'll answer them the best I can. Thank you guys! -Jabr
I never thought someone from EMC would go on to develop game changing software/mechanics that could revolutionize future VR and gaming. I am very impressed with the progress! Keep growing strong!
Wow, must be an amazing experience to work on a project so large an important like this. How much will you guys be aiming for via kickstarter when you go live?
We shall get along nicely then. EDIT: I deleted the first meme, re-read it and it was not appropriate. Sorry if you read it!
That's for me to know and you to find out In all seriousness though, I can't tell you yet. We're hoping for enough to move our operations off campus, and potentially enough to churn out the first few dozen suits for a handful of lucky backers. But, I'll reiterate: that's a ways off. We're not quite at that point yet. For now, you don't have to spend money to support us (isn't that awesome? like when does that ever happen?)! Just vote if you want to see this become a reality!
I voted for you guys today, you keep bumping this thread daily and I will vote daily. I cant wait to see this become a thing.
How are you guys going to be able to produce enough suits to meet demand while also working with body types/sizes? Are the "feels" that are made going to be just general feelings, or are they going to cover the extremes as well (punches, bullets, crashes, etc)? Are you guys using the same quality of "feels producers" in the entire suit, or are sensitive areas (such as the hands) going to be priority points? Instead of it basically being a one piece suit, have you considered making it modular?
Do you have an idea yet of how much each of these suits will cost? I mean, I know they won't be cheap, but will they cost an arm and a leg?
wow. so many questions. let's see if I can answer all of them 1. We've taken adjustability into account in our design, and we're considering two different versions of the suit - one with a few different sizes, and one that's adjustable for anyone, from kids to very large adults. As for producing enough suits, we've got that covered once the Kickstarter gets going. 2. Without going into too much detail, I'll tell you two major things about the feedback: First, the feedback zones are based on a patent-pending grouping system that makes the most of the way that your brain feels touch. What that means in practice is that, for example, the hands are higher-detail than the body, because the brain can sense smaller differences on the hands. Second, force feedback systems are very limited or very expensive, so we rely on vibration motors and something called "proxy feedback", which refers to the tendency of the brain to connect what it expects to feel with what it actually feels. This ends up meaning that if you expect to feel a virtual wall, and you feel something (even vibration) when you reach out, your brain is tricked into thinking "oh! a wall!". I was amazed the first time I tried it - it works WAY better than you'd expect. 3. Yes! We'll have a gloves-only version in addition to the suit. It's more aimed towards professionals and researchers than gamers though. We definitely don't have a price nailed down yet - we have to look more closely at production, but our tentative initial consumer price is around $500, give or take a bit. That price will likely drop significantly as time goes on. That said, the gloves alone will probably be around $90.
I have a feeling once this goes onto KickStarter, it will get TONS of backers. Also, where is this company located?
We all go to school in upstate NY, but we'll most likely move in a few months. Boston, San Francisco, and Seattle are all good options (though certainly not the only ones) for us.
For those of you that have read "The Eye Of Minds", this is starting to sound like it, eh? For those of you that has not read the book, get it. It's really good. Anyways, good luck on your project! And one question: Is the suit hackable? And if it is, what can the hacker do to the suit wearer? And can the hacker cause death if he wanted to by hacking the suit? Just wondering. ( Man I need help )
But...but...the whole point in video games is eating chips and NOT exercising This seems really cool, I would totally play some COD if I had this This is really cool, any idea what the price will be?
