Posted on 12/02/2016 1:53:17 AM PST by SMGFan
It's expected to be the hot holiday gift of the season: Virtual reality headsets. It's a cool new experience but there's still a lot unknown about the technology, especially when it comes to kids. The headset completely immerses users in a new 3-D virtual world. "I felt like I was actually there." said one first-time user. "There's no age limit to this," said another virtual reality fan
(Excerpt) Read more at clickorlando.com ...
Turn on, tune in, drop out
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroanalgesia
Imo....all first person games...drain endorphin and debilitate response to natural “real” stimulation.
Reducing the need for investment in ....well reality.
apathy ...enhanced ......so add a little electronic stim...and ....”they push the button....they dont eat...they dont have sex...they dont drink......”they push the button”......until they die.”....from a 1960s record of electro stim...in monkeys “
A college education in two phrases ... VERY good.
No, thank you. Sometimes I think that my kids think I will “re-spawn” into the kitchen if they kill me.
Good topic. Good comment, and a good link you provide.
A college education these days is questionable and for the most part nothing more than liberal indoctrination institutions with safe zones for the snowflakes and buttercups who are incapable of rational thought. That’s what a lot of colleges have become.
Anyone sending a kid off to college these days needs to do some serious research on where there sending them.
As for virtual reality headsets? Anything in excess is not good. Reality vice virtual reality is where it’s at and many people can’t tell the difference.
My oldest son has had the developer’s Occulus Rift since it came out several years ago, and has devoted a lot of his spare time to experimenting in developing educational material for the Occulus in VR. As a high school teacher he feels there are ways to use it for valuable lessons and I agree. I have seen some amazing things in VR. One that comes to mind places the viewer in the cockpit of Apollo 11. The experience is very realistic and educational.
One of the projects that my son developed is called “Project Time Travel” where the viewer is sent to “time and place” of historical interest where he/she can explore and experience and then has to come to the conclusion on his own where and what time it is based on clues experienced ..... a
great history lesson.
But there is a downside to VR that all users experience and the best way I can explain it is that it feels just like seasickness .... Dizzy, nausea, headache. The early versions were worse and the later versions have much improved, but still it existed to some extent. Also the faster your movements are the greater the “sickness”. It appears that most people get used to it after several months and quit feeling the “sickness” for the most part, or perhaps they just compensate by keeping their movements slow and easy. Thus the typical fast moving shoot-m-up games are just not good in VR. Games like the Apollo 11 Mission that do not allow the user to control his own movements (with a gaming controller), but rather the user just sits back and enjoys the ride, do not have the seasickness problem.
I do agree that in this stage of VR development, young kids will not be able to handle it, but there are many valuable ways for older kids and adults to enjoy it.
“Is crack safe for kids?”
“Hey honey... you seen the porn goggles?”
MY comment was a praise that SMGFan actually educated in two phrases
PS ... actually LOOK for an opening and run for the school board ... we CAN change the government indoctrination centers but it's a numbers game.
The Patriots and Conservatives MUST outnumber the commies that have been on the board for 12 years or longer.
It is EXACTLY like congress and the lifetime members need to get out.
Is a Viewmaster safe for kids? Really that’s all these things are.
Almost everything comes with a good side and a bad side.
So I walked into a Microsoft Store with my 11-yr-old son.
First, I should say I restrict his screen time as much as I can and require him to complete all homework and chores before having access to Xbox, etc.
So I’m in the store to look at the new Surface products which I love. I am going to consider if I should upgrade my Surface Pro 3 to a Surface Book, leaving him the SP3 for homework and play. He uses it quite a bit anyways so it would become 100% his. Of course, he’s negotiating for a Surface Book as well but tells me he might settle for a Surface Book 4. At 11 years old, did he read ‘The Art of the Deal’ without me knowing about it? Because he acts like he’s mastered some of the material.
So before we hit the Surface island we see a setup in the corner with an HTC VR headset demo area cordoned off with a waiting entry. No one was in line at the demo corner at the time so he takes me by the hand and leads me to it. So much for my plans to survey the Surface line. At the entry. we find one person is in the demo area wrapping up their demo time. The person with the VR headset is apparently not wanting to leave but the MS demo area attendant is politely having them wrap it up as we are waiting in the line.
As the demo area attendant approaches us, I am told that only one person is allowed at a time. As the entry is opened, I point to my 11-yr-old as the tester and player for the VR set. My son is asked how old he is and he answers truthfully that he is 11 years old. The attendant quickly informs me that only 13 and up are allowed in the demo area. Of course, my son is disappointed as he asks me to check it out for him.
The demo runs about 5 to 10 minutes and so I enter the area and don the VR headset and take the controller. I am thinking I detest video games and have no time for such nonsense. 10 minutes later the attendant is politely hinting I need to wrap it up as there are others in line now. I think ‘no way’ and I say let me check out a few more things such as shooting the bow and arrow, touching the sharks, diving around the sunken wreck, etc.
I am mesmerized.
Ok, I am thinking I can resist just about any addiction in life but this one will be hard to beat. The reality looks well, like ‘reality’, almost too real; 4k HDR enhanced imagery in immersed 3D and I’m a kid again. It puts everything else to shame. It makes flat screen anything look lame.
Ok, so I can see this in the future in every home with people spending evenings ‘experiencing’ rather than ‘watching’ a movie or a documentary, etc. Rather than watching the latest reincarnation of Starwars or Jurassic World, I could be inside the movie running for my life.
Now as to why the demo attendant said the demo was restricted to 13 and up? She said it had to do with kids possibly having seizures and to prevent the liability of that, etc. I mentioned on my way out that my kid wouldn’t have a seizure, I would, especially if one of Spielberg’s T-Rex’s was running after me causing the ground under my feet to shake like a terrifying seismic fault in play. Seizures? That might be understating it.
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