"Exit the body" for a few days with Oculus Rift



    Brief historical background


    A little over a hundred years ago, the American psychologist George Stratton thought about the question: how tough is the algorithm of human vision in the brain, namely, how much is the brain tied to the orientation of the image that hits the retina (as we know, the image gets upside down on the retina)? As a result of his curiosity, he built an optical device with mirrors, worn on the head, which turns the image upside down (sometimes called an “invertoscope”).

    On the seventh day of constantly wearing the device, Stratton adapted to a new vision of the world, and the picture began to seem completely natural. When he removed the device, at first the world seemed strange to him, however, later the scientist’s vision returned to normal.

    My idea


    Having received the first Development Kit of Oculus Rift glasses, I thought: what if to make a similar experiment, only to distort human reality even more?
    (caution, traffic)

    The idea was to hang two webcams on the wall (the distance between them corresponds to the distance between the eyes), and broadcast the picture from them to Oculus Rift glasses in real time. The cameras should hang statically in the same place and see a picture with most of the room and, accordingly, people in it.

    According to the plan, I had to stay in glasses, seeing myself from the outside all the time, for many days, ideally, long enough for the brain to adapt.

    The key difference between this idea and the Stratton experiment is that in my case there is a kind of "exit from the body." In the Stratton experiment, when a person turns his head, the picture follows his head in the same direction. In my case, the picture is static, and when I turn my head, I just see how the person in the room turns his head.

    Of course, all the time I have to be either in glasses or with my eyes closed. So that the brain always sees the world in the form that it needs to get used to.

    Of course, I was primarily interested in the question: will the brain get used to the world in the style of 3rd person view? And if I get used to it, will I not only see, but also represent the surrounding reality from a third party?

    Implementation on the knee


    The assembled system consisted of two cameras, a laptop, a Chinese 5V 25W source, an HDMI splitter (for displaying a picture for two Oculus Rift glasses), two Oculus Rift and a bunch of wires.

    As cameras, I used two modified Logitech C310 with lenses from Genius WideCam F100 cameras (to increase the viewing angle). Here I followed the path of William Steptoe , who used two cameras for augmented reality.


    The cameras were connected to a laptop with Windows. As software, I used the combination of Stereoscopic Multiplexer + Stereoscopic player. I must say right away that, unfortunately, the result was a rather large delay (by eye - 300 ms). In addition, screenshots were periodically taken from the screen, and video was also written all the time from the laptop’s own webcam.

    The signal from the screen went via HDMI to the Chinese no-name HDMI splitter, and from there via two wires to two Oculus Rift glasses. From the splitter came two long HDMI wires to the docking stations of the virtual reality glasses. The dock itself is in the pants pocket. As the HDMI wires, I used the thin and flexible Rosewill RCHD-12007.

    Two wires connected to each pair of glasses were connected: an thin HDMI wire and power for virtual reality glasses (in order for the glasses to start, 5 V must be supplied to the power input and to the USB port). The HDMI splitter and the Chinese 5V power supply, from which the wires go to two Oculus Rift, are qualitatively tied to the table with electrical tape so as not to fall when they pull on the wires.

    In the photo, a 5 V source that feeds virtual reality glasses, an HDMI splitter and long wires leading to the glasses docking stations (the docking station is stored in a clothing pocket). The photo was taken substantially after the experiment.


    On the computer, I set up voice reading of mail and private messages, on the smartphone the mode with the pronunciation of text on the screen turned on, in addition, voice control of the phone helped.

    Experiment


    I carried out the experiment from May 1 to May 4, 2014, i.e. just four days. The girl who wanted to participate lasted another day less.

    The stereoscopic pictures in the article show real images that I saw through virtual reality glasses.



    I must say right away that there was no significant change in perception (probably, it did not last long). But still, I will describe the subjective sensations.

    1. He was very dizzy, especially in the first two days. I had foreseen this in advance, and bought pills for motion sickness. But it turned out that they did not have one hundred percent effect.
    2. There were significant problems with orientation in space and with body control. That is, in order to go in the right direction, there is a certain conscious process with feedback (here and there, turn-here-another turn). Similarly, in order to take any item with your hands. Such actions took a lot of time. On the third and fourth day it became easier, but probably because the brain just learned to do such strange actions faster
    3. There was no strong feeling that the picture on the screen is you. Although, in general, the experience is very unusual and vivid.
    4. Trying to imagine the surrounding room, I began to represent it from a side in a small percentage of cases.
    5. I saw ordinary dreams, not from a third person.
    6. When I took off my glasses, the whole first day I had an unpleasant sensation with every turn of my head (apparently, my brain was used to the fact that the picture should not move). The sensation is slightly reminiscent of motion-blur and alcohol intoxication.
    7. In addition, on the first day after taking the glasses, it constantly seemed to me that I saw pixels on top of the surrounding reality. That is, I saw everything qualitatively and clearly, but the feeling was as if the pixels on top were a translucent layer.
    8. I didn’t really like the sex in 3rd person.


    The experiment became unbearable due to the large delay (by eye - about 300 ms) and low resolution (I used the first development kit Oculus Rift with a resolution of 640x800 px in one eye). Therefore, on the fifth day, I took off the Oculus Rift and left this venture until better times.

    Future plans


    I’ll wait for the release of virtual reality glasses with a resolution of 4k, I’ll take the cameras better, I’ll probably write my software and spend at least 10 days in this world.


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