Reality was Great until the power went out

Hi,

You can walk around my place of work like a ghost some days. People are at their desks working at their PCs and listening to music. They don't even register someone passing their work space because they are too intent on a different landscape.

OK maybe not just working, but chatting, blogging, researching, networking and gaming.

Not too long ago we had a power cut at the office, along with the rest of the city, which lasted over 3 hours.

Cue alot of unreasonably angry and somewhat insecure people forced to relate to each other using old fashioned methods of communication.

This occurrence started me wondering about more extreme ways of creating artificial reality. I'm not talking about sci-fi VR such as Cronenberg's eXistenZ, but what is freely available right now on the open market.

Equipment like the Digital Escape mask being worked on by Frog Design really interest me. Its not there yet but will eventually allow the sight, sound and even sense of smell of the wearer to be under their own control.

Technology for projecting scents has come a long way recently, with new patents being lodged for all kind sof virtual smell appliances. My favourite is the smell gun.

Sensory suits have been around for a while, but have been beset by problems. Not least of all them being a bit rubbish.

Mass produced vests for use with computer games are hitting the market right now.

Did that guy shoot me in the back? Hell yeah my kidneys are complaining...

They also come in pink for the ladies.

But does all this equipment actually help to create a convincing virtual reality? The extra sensory inputs would no doubt help to impose a reality - but will it also be more restrictive than someone just using their imagination?

Maybe we're already there, and our minds are sophisticated enough to conjure our own reality without all the hardware.

Read a good book lately? They always have better special effects than their movie adaption.

NP Out