Virtual Reality HomeWork 9 - Analysis on Magic Bench

One of the nice research work currently being done at Disney is virtual reality experience for its users called magic bench.The best way to describe this research project will be as a watching yourself in a movie right in front of you. I opine so because the experience it creates is the same as we can see ourselves right in front of us along with the Disney characters. This can be a best commercial way to fulfill dreams of people who want to meet their Disney world heroes or stars. Disney loves will have a great time as they see themselves interacting with their favorite animations and the point that this is responsive and also the bench makes is feel that what is happening is real with the help of sensors attached to it.

Though this can be great commercial technology it has both plus and minus points in it. Considering the technology aspects I feel that they are some flaws in this as it can only be enjoyed or loved by people who are there just to see them with their loved animated characters. For others who see it as a normal virtual and augmented technology could sense the flaws. In this technology the research people describe that with the help of bench we will be able to feel the surroundings but in some cases we cannot feel this as in the video we see the example of rain, it could be a bit difficult to see that we can hear raindrops and bench vibrations correspond to it but we can not feel it as rest of our body is in no way interacted with the bench.

Rain scene

Gap in projection

I opine that tracking will be a big trouble in this as we have to be tracked always to be displayed, as the researchers say that the gap between rgv camera and depth sensor can be fulfilled by aligning the image in a particular way so as to display in 2d, But if we are not tracked properly or if this alignment is not exactly done then the display which we see will be very annoying as we see an improper image of ourselves. If we are not in the right position then the tracking will be very hard for the cameras so we will have a fixed boundary for ourselves to make this work. The researchers also say that with our position on the bench we can say about our actions, but I feel this is not always possible as sometimes we may not be tracked properly and this may misinterpret our actions on the bench.

Projecting the camera and depth view together

One of the best parts about this technology is that we need not have a head mount or any other hardware like wands, as there is no hardware we hold there will be no wires with us so we will have a free motion. If we have a head mount or any other display we will have trouble with wires which restrict our motion to limited parts. As we are not completely immersed in the environment it does not affect our health. The feedback we get from the characters is a plus as we feel it be real and as most of the augmented reality will not be with any feedback this makes the application very special and interesting. The feedback from the bench we sit could be effectively used to give best-suited experience depending on the situation.

Sensors on the bench

Another cool thing is collaboration in this technology is very good and simple. As the environment remains same more than one person can be in the space dealing with the system. As there is no relation and limitation on the people it makes it look composite as there is no disturbance even if we have people joining and leaving the environment. It could be a problem wherein if a person is walking and there is an animated character over the area in which he is walking then it actually makes the scene more lifeless as we feel a sense of unrealistic nature as we pass by a creature or object.

Collaboration made easy

The following are the pros and cons of magic bench in my analysis

Pros ->

• Free Head - As we don't have a head mount we are free from the network of wires so we will have free movement.

• Collaboration - As we have no limit for the number of people to get involved in the scene, collaboration will be easy without any hustle.

• Interaction - As we have no wands or anything of such kind and we interact with the world with our free hands it becomes easy and realistic as in case of hololense.

• Effective feedback - As the system responds to out actions it makes the sense of being in an augmented world much real and interesting.

Cons - >

• Tracking - As we will be tracked by the cameras,we will be having the limits set for our movement and any disturbance in this can cause misleading images to be displayed.

• Improper reactions - As in this case only bench has machinery to make us feel the image to be real, we can only sense it by few ways but not in all possible ways. Like in case of rain we can not feel rain drops but we can only sense them hitting the bench.

• Gap in recreating image - Any disturbance in recreating our image could lead to the improper gap and can cause image distortion.