Just look at this nonsense [1]. We have brand new technology with unlimited potential for new abstractions and paradigms. So, what do we do? We make a virtual desktop workstation, the same one we had since 70s! We limit all rendering to a 2D surface, make it curved and put a nebula in the background. Is this really the cutting edge of information technologies?<p>Also, we need both mechanical keyboard to sense key presses and 3D tracking of finger movements? I get it, Logitech wants to keep selling keyboards, but for VR experience I would rather have tracking of facial features and eye movement.<p>[1] <a href="https://d201n44z4ifond.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2017/11/02095838/Logitech_G_Bridge_VR_Keyboard_Hands_A.gif" rel="nofollow">https://d201n44z4ifond.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/sit...</a>
Combine this with the new Pimax, and infinite workspaces start to become a practical reality. Which could help propgate the technology more which would lead seamlessly into more teleconferences, which have a feeling of personal interactions... which is important, even if we as programmers don't always appreciate it.<p>The other day I was playing a game of onward. It was the rare instance that a team wanted to work together on a shared goal. In the 15 seconds before the match, while planning some tactics... it occured to me how natural the meeting felt. It was like we were all in the same room. I felt engaged with EVERYONE. That doesn't happen on conference calls.<p>I work from home full time, I think the biggest downside are the missing meaningful interactions with other people. I think VR has huge potential to bridge that gap.
As someone who has been a developer of virtual worlds for 17 years. I can say that this is a very incremental change, as all of the changes have been since 1994.<p>Personally I think we need to reimagine interfaces to the world around us, even the virtual worlds (VR/AR/MR) around us. Voice input, AI, hand sensing technologies could make for new ways for changing the worlds. The book Daemon by Danial Suarez and his eSpace holds much promise. I have been experimenting with those idea in a new VR world I have been working on for a few years.
I'm more impressed by the videos of the hand tracking around the keyboard than the tracker in the keyboard! Is that fidelity just using the Vive's outward facing camera? They don't show any tracking gloves in the mockups.
If you want to explore this kind of thing, you can mount a camera on your HMD (Vive's is crippled), use a WebVR stack (simple), track objects using visual markers and javascript tracking libraries (jsartoolkit5 and/or tracking.js), and do selective camera pass-through AR. It's crufty, but not hard.<p>EDIT: You can simply use the Vive's camera, with tracking.js color tracking, especially with a small minDimension (number of pixels) threshold. Yellow is good.<p><a href="https://artoolkit.github.io/jsartoolkit5/examples/" rel="nofollow">https://artoolkit.github.io/jsartoolkit5/examples/</a> <a href="https://trackingjs.com/examples/color_camera.html" rel="nofollow">https://trackingjs.com/examples/color_camera.html</a> ; <a href="http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/" rel="nofollow">http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/</a>
<a href="https://joric.org/keycaps/#GB-Retro-DSA" rel="nofollow">https://joric.org/keycaps/#GB-Retro-DSA</a> etc
now we can properly have ides and desktops in VR.<p>but i'd would rather use a wider range of motion (at some point, if someone makes that) to input to stay active.
I understand Logitech wants to keep selling keyboards and I agree that keyboards are currently the fastest way to enter text. However, it IS the wrong direction. The better direction is what will be opened with tools such as the Vive Knuckles enabling a more complete language of gestures. It seems to me that the better way forward is to stop clinging to an old paradigm that requires bulky equipment that can obstruct the user's volumetric interactions and instead to build off of those volumetric interactions even though there is a cost of a learning curve. I doubt businesses will implement it since they run the risk of alienating current gen customers and thus losing money. I think there will be some VR experiences aimed at younger customers that will implement it and over the next decade we will wonder why we ever tried to bring a keyboard into VR/AR instead of just using our hands.
I could see the hand tracking being useful for people who don't know how to touch type (and have to look at their keyboard and fingers) and who need to type while using a headset.
I don't think non-fanatics are willing to go through such painful process for a large field of view. Maybe it would be more profitable to start working on a 360 projection screen.