Irish researchers working with Facebook’s new 3D acquisition

“You get to experience what it would be like to be guillotined during the French Revolution.”

It may not be the sales pitch that gets everyone on board admits UCD robotics and virtual reality researcher, Dr Abraham Campbell, but it's just one of the many immersive experiences available for those using the Rift virtual reality headset from Oculus - the company bought by Facebook in a $2 billion buyout this week.

The ‘guillotine app’ was one of the many Rift experiences and games developed specifically by a dedicated group of advocates for the device since its launch in 2012.

For Campbell and his colleagues though are using four Rift headsets - and the 110 degree field of view display they offer - as part of two experiments in remote control drones and virtual learning.

In the case of the latter, when combined with a live webcam feed you can feel “like you’re sitting in a lecture” (even going so far as to place “small robot” in a seat to raise a hand should you have any questions) while the drones can help in areas like daily inspections of wind-farm networks.

“You can even project a virtual avatar of yourself outside to take all the data,” adds Campbell.

Oculus was originally created after a phenomenally successful Kickstarter project that sought $250,000 in funding but has since raised more than $90 million in venture capital funds.

The aforementioned guillotine app allows users to experience what it's like to be "jeered and yelled at" and that may be an experience that Oculus founder, Palmer Luckey empathises with after the somewhat vitriolic response to the deal.

Luckey’s actions are “understandable”, says Campbell considering the amount of “needed investment” needed to bring the device to the mass market. There’s been 75,000 headsets sold so far - adopted by the “hardcore gaming community and academic research” in the main as Campbell notes.

“We’ve had multiple devices over many years,” says Campbell, but there’s “no comparison really”.

Certainly when he allows The Irish Times to try out the headset, it's pretty easy to see why Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was impressed enough to sanction the investment.

Slightly uncomfortable on the bridge of the nose admittedly, the boxy design is still relatively light, while alternative lenses are available should the user be short-sighted. Campbell first shows off a 'Virtual Campus' experience created by UCD researcher Kevin Santiago.

“Floating” through the building may seem odd at first - the researchers are currently looking into creating an even more immersive experience that combines the Rift with an “omni-directional treadmill” to allow the user to walk around - you can look up and around the classroom, and it genuinely feels as if you’re there, despite a mildly “cartoonish quality” to the graphics involved.

Then came the more experimental stuff, with a virtual rollercoaster that isn’t for the queasy giving a decidedly realistic feel to proceedings. An impressively rendered virtual cinema that could become “a social experience with your friends if you’re in totally separate places”, is then followed by a role play scenario where you can ‘pick up’ a basketball or throw logs on a roaring fire.

“There are privacy concerns,” he adds of the Facebook investment, noting that, for example, should someone be in a game involving a typical street scene depending on where that person directs their attention “you could possibly tell if that person is straight or gay”.

Having used one of the headsets to play popular games such as Half-Life 2 and SkyRim though he says the gaming experience should be enough “to convince most people”.

Says Campbell: “It’s not that you’re necessarily ‘better’ at the game when you’re using the headset, but you are getting a totally different experience”.