The wild and wooly world of virtual reality offers limited potential. Do you want to float through space as you eat a delicious slice of pizza? It could do that, although you might have to import the pizza in from the real world. Do you want to talk to a girl you’ve never had the guts to talk to in real life? The virtual world could do that, although if the real version of her found out you’d be correctly branded a total creep. One great thing the virtual world also brings to the table is the ability to serenely swim in the sea without fear of those pesky sharks biting your good leg off. This system takes that idea and runs with it.
Here is a virtual fish tank designed just for humans to fake swim in. It was designed in tandem by 360World and Dive and uses Google’s Project Tango tablet, along with an eyewear device similar to the Oculus Rift. The system said Tango’s cameras, motion detectors and sensors to give you a sense that you are floating around with those cute, and not so cute, lil fishies. Of course, it also does this without the need for scuba gear, although you could wear some if it makes you feel better(but you’ll get strange looks at the convention center. I know this from experience.)
There is even daylight in this simulation. If you look up you’ll see the surface, which you can even reach if you stand tall enough. Neat! For now, though, you can only look at the fish and sharks and cannot interact with them in any meaningful way but the designers think that will happen at some point in the future. So, let’s go fishing.
