What do you know about the Faroe Islands? I didn’t know anything until today. If you are the same, I report: this is a group of 18 islands (17 of which are inhabited), which are located in the North Atlantic Ocean between Scotland and Iceland, are part of the Kingdom of Denmark, but at the same time, since 1948, they independently solve almost all issues, with the exception of defense, justice, police, common currency and foreign policy. And just the other day, the director of tourism of the Faroe Islands, Gudrid Haygaard, said that due to the coronavirus, they do not accept tourists (which is logical), but they have freed up a huge amount of time to implement the project, which I call Avatar. This is when one person can control another from a distance. Intrigued?
Do you want to control a person? It's already possible!
In the video below, Ms Heygaard reveals that they have created an app that will help people enjoy the beauty of the Faroe Islands from a distance. The essence is very simple: you install the application, launch it and see on the screen what your "avatar" sees. This is an employee of the tourism company of the islands, who wears a helmet with a camera on his head, and you can control it using the on-screen joystick. There is even a "jump" button available, clicking on which you give a command to make a real person on the other side of the smartphone jump.
Agree, a very original idea that was on the surface, but so far no one has taken advantage of it. Thus, the country (if you can call it that) made virtual video tours around its territory. But not in the usual way, like Google Maps, but in an interactive way. You yourself decide where to go, where to see and what to do next. At the same time, you are in no way limited in maneuvers, which Google Maps does not allow. A person can get almost anywhere, he does not need a road to take a panoramic view. Therefore, in fact, we have an avatar that is able to carry out any of your commands (within reason, of course). And this concept turned on my imagination. And very much.
The Faroe Islands are located here. But few people know anything about them at all.
The simplest and most understandable application of this concept is tourism. Imagine that you are launching an application, choosing any part of the globe and activating your "avatar". At this moment, a person on the other side of the planet puts on a special helmet (or something like that) and starts broadcasting the picture to your smartphone. Basic control keys (forward, backward, turn left or right) are available to you. It is possible that you can give voice commands to your avatar, and he has an earpiece in his ear. This is how he receives commands from the virtual joystick and hears you at the same time. It sounds fantastic, but there is nothing unrealistic about it, right? Such "helmets" could be sold for $ 50, say. Anyone can buy it and register themselves as an avatar. For 50 dollars per hour (or 30 or 100), many would agree to connect to such a system. It's almost like Uber, only you don't need a license and a taxi license. The prospects are truly endless.
The Faroe Islands have amazing views.
Promotional video:
But let's not dwell on this. Such systems can be used in a huge number of areas. For example, to overcome your own phobias. Let's say you are afraid of depth, height, spiders, or something else. We find an avatar for whom this is not a problem and give him real-time instructions to overcome our phobia. Agree, touching a spider or looking at how you touch a spider are completely different things. Being on this side of the screen, we feel safe, but at the same time we are in complete control of the situation with our avatar. So you can jump with a parachute, dive to the bottom of the ocean or ride the worst roller coaster. Is that great? And if we go even further and imagine that we are not holding a smartphone,and a virtual reality helmet? And if on the side of the avatar there is a 360-degree camera and we can look in any direction where we want? It already seems like a step into a completely new world, but technically, nothing prevents us from realizing it, right?
How far can your fantasies take you?
We continue to develop the topic. How about the adult entertainment industry? It's one thing to watch videos on popular sites, and quite another to take direct part in them. The most unimaginable fantasies can be realized with the help of avatars (if they agree to it, of course). There is a question of legal regulation, of course, but I am sure that all this is being resolved. You can enter several levels of avatars from ordinary walking, to extreme or "adult" avatars. Price question. Moreover, any person can connect to this network. The entry threshold is the purchase of a "helmet". Although I can quite imagine a business case in which such helmets are issued for free, and a commission is simply taken from the avatar for each communication session, why not?
Finally, let's not dwell on our fantasies. Want to fight a stranger on the street? Why not. We give the command to the avatar and rushed. It is clear that it will cost more, because you will have to at least pay a fine or serve a couple of weeks in prison, but if they pay well, then maybe there will be performers? What about some group actions? 10 people collect their avatars and arrange some kind of mass events. From fan fights to street closures. In life, few people are ready to go against the law, but here, for a small (relatively) money, you can find an avatar from a third world country and arrange something that would never even occur to you to do it yourself in your homeland.
I think by this time you have already had a lot of all kinds of ideas on how you can use avatars in your head.
Renat Grishin