Virtual Reality

This is the fried egg tree. It doesn't have anything to do with the post subject today, but I wanted to include a picture of it since I used Amiri holding a fried egg blossom in the header. 

I went exploring in Newmarket this past Saturday and as I left the train station there, I noticed, while crossing the courtyard, that there was a new business in one of the storefronts. It was a virtual reality experience place. I was intrigued. I thought the boys might really like this sort of thing. I went in and talked to the owner, got the grand tour of the machines, and picked up her card and advertising brochure. I thought that it might be a good adventure for the boys during a school term holiday. However, when I told the boys about it later that day they both wanted to go see it NOW. 

So, this post chronicles our adventure in VR that we took the very next day. This was our Sunday afternoon guys only outing. We took the train. 

We had a ball. We tried different things of course, and all of it was impressive, but the boys each had their favourite. In fact, Amiri liked one of them so much he did it three times in a row. I had planned to buy each of them three games, but was talked into getting a fourth. The owner was having a 30% off promotion so why not? 

This is their first ride. They chose a roller coaster ride. At first, Arram was shocked by the realism and pulled his visor up to reassure himself that he was not really risking his life. Once he was sure, he completed the rest of the ride. Notice his open mouth expression in the next shot.  

 What doesn't show in these photos is that the car they are in is shaking, rocking and rolling in time with the visuals. 

This is what Amiri really liked. He is in a virtual business and can move through it as he likes. The handles he is holding are his hands in the virtual world and he started out by holding his hands up in front of him and realising that he now had extensions in the other world. He learned at one point that he had to use care when picking up eggs because his virtual hands could easily break them. Each session was about 10 minutes long and by the time he had completed his third tour, he was very adept at interacting with his virtual 3-D world. 

(The screen is for our benefit. Amiri doesn't see it.)

The floor doesn't move when you are in this reality. Amiri could however. He could walk anywhere within the circular game area. He could turn 360 degrees and move to the limits of the fence as he moved inside the game. 

I thought a little about the Star Trek 'holodeck' as I watched the boys. 

Arram is in a boxing simulation. He could choose the skill level of his opponents from 'baby' to 'monster.' He discovered that he could knock out the 'baby' fighters within seconds. The 'monsters' were pretty tough, although he beat several of them. When he did get knocked out, the screen went fuzzy and then white.  

(Again, the screen is for our benefit. Arram sees the boxer in 3-D. The fighters looked the same regardless of the skill level Arram chose to give them.)

I noticed something interesting from both boys. When they first put on the visor, it showed them a picture where they appeared to be floating above the earth. When the owner started their individual programs, they both would give a little involuntary jump, and say "whoa," as they suddenly appeared in whatever game they had selected. Bouncing between realities was startling it seemed. 

Here is Amiri again in his favourite. He spent a total of about 30 minutes in there and by the time he was done, I could tell that he was relaxed in the new place and was taking his time and accomplishing whatever it was that he had set out to do.  

Arram is in a space craft here and is being attacked by enemy star fighters. He was somewhat uncomfortable with the floor of this ride moving under him, so the owner disabled that part of the program and he would turn his head, rather than swiveling the entire machine to meet a new enemy. 

This is by no means a large facility. I am standing next to Arram while he battles space aliens and Amiri is being set up to spend his last session in his virtual world of choice. Clearly, the worlds inside the machines are larger than ours. 

( Have any of you read House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski? That house is larger inside than it is outside, way, way larger. Also, Mark's sister, the singer Poe, Anne Decature Danielewski, timed the release of her album Haunted to come out just as her brother's book was being released. Have a listen.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEsXbqUeJpQ

The boys had never been to Newmarket before so after we exited the alternate realities, we walked a few exploratory blocks to bring them back to earth and refueled their engines with some fancy ice cream.  

There was a rock wall just opposite the 'Casa' so we sat there and ate our treats.  I then took them down to No. 1 Chicken and we bought a container of crispy 'popcorn' chicken and a container of popcorn chicken with sauce on it. We tasted each of them, but brought most of these home to our ladies. 

As we walked home from the train, we ran into Allie on Sturges Road. She was just returning from a run. The boys told her about our adventure as we all walked down the Harvest Drive hill to our home. What a good day.     -djf