VR istorija: nuo svajonės iki industrijos klestėjimo

Virtualios realybes istorija

For those who don't think Zoom meetings are a good enough substitute for the real thing, Facebook has another idea: a virtual reality app that lets you and your coworkers feel like you're sitting around a table in a conference room. Facebook (FB) unveiled Horizon Workrooms, a free app for users of its Oculus Quest 2 headset, a device that starts at $299. The app stands out as the company's most ambitious effort yet to enable groups to socialize in VR and move the still niche medium beyond entertainment uses such as gaming.

HORIZON WORKROOMS - room to work like never before!

Workrooms allows up to 16 VR headset users to meet in a virtual conference room, with each of them represented by a customizable cartoon-like avatar that appears as just an upper body floating slightly above a virtual chair at a table. The app supports up to 50 participants in a single meeting, with the rest able to join as video callers who appear in a grid-like flat screen inside the virtual meeting room. 

Headset-wearing meeting participants can use their actual fingers and hands to gesticulate in VR, and their avatars' mouths appear to move in lifelike ways while they speak. A virtual whiteboard lets people share pictures or make presentations.

The evolution of Facebook virtual platforms to Horizon Workrooms.

Pirmoji tikra VR mašina sukurta 1962 metais operatoriaus Morton Heilig. Aparatas, pavadintas „Sensorama“, turėjo didelę kabiną, kurioje vienu metu tilpdavo iki keturių žmonių. Stebint trumpametražius filmus jie galėjo pajusti visus 5 žmogaus pojūčius: skonį, uoslę, regėjimą, klausą bei lytėjimą. Ekrane būdavo rodomas spalvotas 3D vaizdo įrašas, grodavo muzika, paleidžiami skirtingi meditaciniai kvapai, iš priekio pūsdavo vėjas ar purkšdavo vandens purslai, įvairius pojūčius sukeldavo ir kėdė. Vėliau mašinos autorius sukūrė ir „Telesphere“ – pirmąjį ant galvos pritvirtinamą ekraną su stereoskopiniu 3D vaizdu ir stereofoniniu garsu, sukeliančiu erdvinį įspūdį. 

The company shut down both VR apps in October 2019, however. Instead, it announced a virtual social world called Horizon, which was set to be released in 2020. Horizon has yet to appear for most users and Facebook confirmed this week that the app remains in a private beta testing stage.

Workrooms may offer users a sense of what's to come. It shows how far Facebook has progressed in blending hardware and software since its purchase of Oculus in 2014 — and how far it still has to go.

A step forward — but it's not the metaverse, yet. 

XXI amžiuje virtuali realybė patyrė didžiausią proveržį per visą savo gyvavimo istoriją. VR įranga pradėta naudoti žaidimuose, įmonėse, komandinėse pramogose, šventėse, tapo neatsiejama kai kurių darbų dalis. Be to, šiandien virtuali realybė leidžia atsidurti bet kurioje pasaulio vietoje ir apsižvalgyti po vietoves, kuriose fiziškai negalime atsidurti. Tai padaryti galima su 2007 metais „Google“ pristatytu „Street View“, kuris suteikia galimybę stebėti 360° laipsnių panoraminius pasaulio vaizdus. 

The app employs a slew of technologies and tricks to make the experience feel as in-person as it can be when you're represented in virtual space by an animated approximation of yourself. Headset wearers can view their real-life computer screen in VR via an accompanying desktop app. And Workrooms uses a combination of hand tracking and spatial audio — which accounts for room acoustics and makes sounds appear to come from specific directions — to allow users to interact with each other in ways that mimic real life, except for a sound cancellation feature that eliminates background noise. But it's clear Facebook is still working out some kinks. While Bosworth, the Facebook executive, was in the middle of describing how he sees Workrooms as a more interactive way to gather virtually with coworkers than video chat, his avatar froze mid-sentence, the pixels of its digital skin turning from flesh-toned to gray. He had been disconnected. 

Nors kuriami jau ne pirmus metus, iki šiol virtualios realybės prietaisai nebuvo paklausūs. Tačiau COVID-19 pandemija paskatino žmones ieškoti alternatyvų pramogoms namuose, todėl VR įranga tapo perkama visame pasaulyje. Pasirodo, jog pandemija turi ir pliusų, nes leido žmonėms atrasti nuostabų virtualios realybės pramogų pasaulį.