VR And Back Again: An XRobots Tale

Our friend [James Bruton] from XRobots has engaged in another bit of mixed-reality magic by showing how one can seamlessly step from the virtual world into the real world, and back again. Begone, green screens and cumbersome lighting!

Now, most of what you’re seeing is really happening in post-production — for now — but the test footage is the precursor for a more integrated system down the road. As it works now, a GoPro is attached to the front of a HTC Vive headset, allowing [Bruton] to record in both realities at the same time. In the VR test area he has set up is a portal to a virtual green room — only a little smaller than a wardrobe — allowing him to superimpose the GoPro footage over everything he looks at through that doorway, as well as everything surrounding him when he steps through. Unfortunately, [Bruton] is not able to see where he’s going if he is to wear the headset, so he’s forced to hold it in one hand and move about the mixed-reality space. Again, this is temporary.

In action — well, it gets a little surreal when he starts tossing digital blocks through the gateway ‘into’ the real world.

Need more? We recently featured another essay into mixed-reality that combines an HTC Vive and a Microsoft Hololens allowing multiple users to interact in the same digital space.

8 thoughts on “VR And Back Again: An XRobots Tale

  1. “Our friend [James Burton] from XRobots has engaged in another bit of mixed-reality magic by showing how one can seamlessly step from the virtual world into the real world, and back again.”

    Kind of like the A-ha “Take on me” music video.

  2. Neat. My only fear is that in a couple more iterations of this technology that we’ll have glasses that make other people look like idealized versions of themselves. :-/

      1. yeah, or take a look at blackmirror, tv show… soldiers are manipulated to fight monster…. except that they are fighting innocent people that the government wants to get rid of… not that i say we must forbid this tech, far from it actually, just that we need to be careful.

  3. This will eventually evolve into real-life Portal.
    In fact, both Vive and Portal came from Valve. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

    BTW, am I the only one to spot the (hopefully unintentional) subliminal message?

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