Human perception is so perfect that even the most advanced virtual reality will not deceive him. Nevertheless, the developers of the corresponding systems expect a quick breakthrough in solving problems of depth of focus, widening the viewing angle, and improving optics. When to expect users to turn into full-fledged avatars.
Stereo world
The advent of virtual reality (VR) systems has been inevitable since the discovery of the stereo effect in the 19th century and the invention of stereo photography. The novel by the American science fiction writer Stanley Weinbaum, Pygmalion's Glasses, published in 1930, describes a device like a diver's mask that is filled with liquid. Putting it on, a person plunges into the virtual world, where he feels touches, smells, hears sounds.
“Virtual reality systems have many advantages: they give much more vivid, impressive pictures of the world, a lot of wow effects. As the content improves, understanding of how such devices work, there are more and more advantages from their use, and fewer disadvantages,”explains Galina Rozhkova, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor, Chief Researcher of the Visual Systems Laboratory of the Institute for Information Transmission Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences to RIA Novosti.
For many years, Rozhkova and her colleagues have been studying binocular vision, the effect of stereo cinema, virtual reality on the human visual system. Our perception is so perfect, she says, that it recognizes even the best imitation of reality.
“Our vision and other systems of perception are trained and trained throughout our life, from birth. We daily perceive the world around us, including unconsciously. The organism reacts to any situation as a whole. Our vision must be accurate and fast, and our assessment of situations must be adequate for us to survive as a species,”she says.
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Scientists explain discomfort
Let's take the simplest thing: head twisting twenty degrees. The image on the retina is displaced, and the brain, knowing about it, sends a signal to the oculomotor systems to follow the object. All this happens in a matter of milliseconds.
Let's say we out of the corner of our eye noticed a large object rapidly approaching us. This is a stressful situation that triggers a whole range of reactions to prepare the body for a side jump.
We initially perceive impressive scenes in cinema by sight and hearing, but then we react to them with the whole organism. Stereo effects create an effect of presence and cause an even greater response: the viewer can bend down to dodge a flying bird, scream in horror, being on the edge of the abyss. A person's pulse quickens, breath is held, tears appear, perspiration. These are, albeit artificially induced, but to some extent adequate reactions to what they see.
It is worse when the reactions to the perception of virtual reality are inadequate: then the person feels discomfort. It arises, for example, in the case of insufficiently competent imitation of situations when developers ignore the peculiarities of perception, or when what we see on the display does not match what we feel at that moment with other senses.
Movement imitation can cause motion sickness, similar to what is sometimes experienced when driving in a car or ship. The body also perceives virtual acceleration painfully, since it cannot react adequately.
“If there are contradictions, the body tries to explain them at the level of physiology by some kind of disturbance,” says Galina Rozhkova.
A person perceives virtual reality not only with his vision and brain, but with all systems of the body / Illustration by RIA Novosti. Alina Polyanina, Depositphotos / sciencepics / sirylok.
Keep under control
VR systems are still technologically imperfect. For example, a lens system that allows focusing the display plane is characterized by chromatic aberrations - the contours of objects become indistinct, iridescent. Even on the most modern displays, the image looks grainy.
Among the main problems that have not yet been resolved in VR is content imperfection.
“User discomfort arises when developers do not take into account the limitations of different sensory systems and do not understand the rules of their interaction. A trivial example: they want a person to feel like they are walking in a large room. In reality, he takes a step, the program tracks it, but virtually transfers it to two steps. And this mismatch causes discomfort for the user. Basic recommendations on how to avoid such mistakes are described in the Oculus developer guide,”says Maria Gracheva, PhD in Biological Sciences, Research Fellow at the Visual Systems Laboratory.
Programmers are actively working to avoid discomfort. It is believed that controlling the situation reduces the effect of motion sickness, as the driver of the car is never himself sick. Therefore, in high-quality VR applications, even when simulating a roller coaster, the viewer periodically presses a button to continue moving or to choose a trajectory.
Time of avatars
In 2016, Oculus founder Michael Abrash gave a forecast for VR development over the next five years. In his opinion, a breakthrough should be expected in solving problems of depth of focus, widening the viewing angle, and improving optics.
He considers the key technology to be "foveal rendering" - rendering only that part of the digital image that is perceived by the central highly sensitive part of the retina - the fovea. For this, it is necessary to improve methods of tracking the pupil of the eye - eye tracking.
In VR, the sound will be improved, and manipulators that convey tactile sensations will be added.
All this will allow creating more advanced augmented reality systems, where the surrounding world is mixed with the artificial one. The pinnacle of technology is the avatar. This is a virtual hero, through whose eyes the user looks at the drawn reality. The time is not far off when avatars controlled by real people will be able to communicate in virtual space.
VR systems are widely used in scientific experiments. The picture shows - an avatar that the experimental monkeys learned to control.
Tatiana Pichugina