Disney has unveiled virtual reality technology its research lab has been working on, which theoretically makes it impossible to not catch a ball.
The impressive demonstration of the technology sees one individual wired up to a VR headset and a compatible pair of gloves, with a ball equipped with VR tech then being thrown in his direction. The receiver is then able to catch the ball by way of three visualizations from the ball being displayed via his headset, through to it projecting its trajectory and providing an exact target of where it will land.
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This latter function is the most interesting, with the receiver shown holding out his hand long before the ball has actually reached his hand, allowing him to predict where he will land. This effectively makes it impossible to miss such a throw, with very minimal hand-eye coordination required by the individual receiving the ball.
Though the technology isn’t perfect right now, with Disney noting that small latencies exist in the new system, the product that the company’s research lab is working towards will eventually allow receivers to catch with incredible accuracy. “We believe this work provides valuable insight which informs how interactions with dynamic objects can be achieved while users are immersed in VR,” a published paper detailing the research reads. “As a result of these preliminary findings, we have discovered many more avenues for future work in dynamic object interactions in VR.”
It’s unclear exactly how Disney plans to utilize this technology in the future, with there being no immediate plans to put it into use. However, it’s great to see such a major company coming up with innovative ways to break boundaries in the VR space.
Check it out below:
