Full Dive VR is a type of theoretical virtual reality technology that would allow users to completely immerse themselves in a virtual world.
Unlike other forms of VR, which only provide partial immersion, Full Dive VR would give users the ability to interact with their environment in a realistic way. This means that they can pick up virtual objects, move around freely, and even interact with other people in the virtual world. The full dive experience features prominently in many science fiction books and movies – Ready Player One for example, or even The Matrix.
Full Dive VR is still in its early stages of development, but there are already a few companies working on developing aspects of this technology.
Where did the term full dive VR come from?
The name full dive VR originally came from Sword Art Online, a Japanese light novel series that was later adapted into an anime series. In the story, a group of people becomes trapped in a virtual reality massively multiplayer online game where they have to fight for their lives. The concept of fully immersive virtual reality has been around for much longer (as early as the late 1800s), but Sword Art Online (SAO) was the first to use this name.
How does a full dive VR system work
The dream of full dive VR is that when you put on a VR headset, you are transported into a completely artificial world. This world can be anything that the creators of the VR system want it to be. It could be a realistic recreation of the real world, or it could be a completely fictional world.
The key to making full dive VR work is the feeling of complete immersion. When you are fully immersed in a virtual world, your brain starts to treat it as if it were real.
What are the components of a full dive VR system
The main components of current VR systems are:
– A display device
– Head tracking system
– Other Input/output devices
The display device is used to generate the virtual world that the user will be immersed in.
The head tracking system tracks the user’s head and eye movements and adjusts the view accordingly. This allows the user to look around in the virtual world just as they would in the real world.
The other input/output devices are used to interact with the virtual world. In normal virtual reality today these can be things like controllers, keyboards, or voice recognition. But in full dive VR the input/output devices would need to be able to track movements and applied force from the full body, and also transmit physical sensations and force from the simulated reality back to the physical body. Some theorize that this will be best achieved by a direct link with the user’s brain.
Is full dive VR possible?
True full dive VR is not possible with today’s technology. However, many aspects of full dive technology do exist or are under development. It’s almost certain that the current gaps will be solved in the not too distant future – to full dive VR is definitely possible in theory, just not with current technology.
What are the current limitations of full dive VR technology
Currently, there are still some significant limitations to achieving true Full Dive VR. The biggest limitation is that the current VR technology is not yet advanced enough to allow users to completely forget that they are in a virtual world. Additionally, the virtual reality products that most closely approximate Advanced VR systems are very expensive, which means that they are not yet widely accessible to the general public.
Full dive technology is a hot topic in the VR world and a lot of engineers are working hard on improving the tech.
The way I like to think about this is, to trick a human brain into ‘full immersion’ mode (approximating physical reality), the VR should be able to connect on the level of all five senses. Let’s look at where VR stands today against each of the senses:
Sight (Advanced development)
Existing VR headsets do a fairly good job of stimulating our sense of sight. However, they are not perfect. The human eye can process around 10-12 images per second, and current VR headsets have a refresh rate of 60 or even 90 Hz which means in theory headsets can make changes faster than the eye can even detect and at very high resolution – definitely enough resolution to make it feel like you are in a physically different place when in virtual space.
However, the biggest challenge is lag or latency between the time that you make a movement (such as turning your head) and the time that the image in the headset updates to reflect that change. Even a slight lag can cause simulator sickness (more on this later), so it’s important that latency is as close to zero as possible.
Sound (Advanced development)
Existing VR headsets do a fairly good job of stimulating our sense of sound. High quality headphones and stereo surround sound have been around for decades now, and even newer concepts like spatial audio are well-advanced. Generating good enough sounds to create a full dive virtual reality world is easily doable with current technology.
Touch (Developing quickly)
The current trend in virtual reality systems is to leverage haptic technology to provide a sense of touch and force feedback to users. Haptic technology recreates the sense of touch by applying pressure or vibration to the body, and it’s very effective in making virtual reality feel more real.
However, the challenge with haptic technology is that it is difficult to generate different sensations over a large area of the body. For example, it’s easy to generate the sensation of a light touch on the hand, but it’s much more difficult to generate the sensation of someone hugging you.
Smell (Early development)
Smell in VR is a really interesting concept because it’s one of the hardest things to recreate artificially. There are a few different ways that developers are trying to create smells in VR, but nothing has been perfected just yet.
Companies like OVR Technology are working on a product that has refillable scent cartridges which can combine to create many recognizable scents and then trigger for release to the nose via software.
There is a lot of related scientific work in progress here (including by Jas Brooks at the University of Chicago) including direct electrical nerve stimulation and it will be interesting to see how the space develops over the next few years.
Advances in this space will also take additional work on the software development side, as most game developers and XR studios today don’t have artists or engineers dedicated to scent design associated with their virtual reality experience.
Taste (Conceptual / Very Early Development)
Taste in VR is an even more difficult challenge than smell, and one that hasn’t been explored nearly as much. There are a few different ways to think about how to taste could be incorporated into future technology for VR, but nothing is available on the market yet.
One possibility is using electrical stimulation of the tongue to create certain tastes, similar to how virtual reality developers are already using electrical signals to generate aspects of touch and even smell.
While you could argue that taste is required for true full immersion, the reality is that with the other four senses in place, a very deep sense of place and full body immersion could still be achieved.
How might full dive VR be used in the future
Despite the current limitations, Full Dive VR has the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with computers and digital information. In the future, these virtual reality systems could be used for everything from training simulations to playing video games.
Additionally, Full Dive VR could be used to create virtual reality versions of real-world locations, which would be perfect for tourism or education. For example, you could visit a virtually recreated version of the Great Pyramid of Giza, or take a tour of the human body without ever having to step foot in a hospital.
In fact, healthcare professionals are already using VR systems for medical training such as surgery simulations or autopsy simulations.
What is Nerve Gear?
Nerve gear in VR refers to the concept of a full dive virtual reality system that is able to stimulate the user’s five senses directly via the brain, such as by an implant or connecting electronics to a person’s skull. This would theoretically allow users to experience a completely realistic and immersive VR environment.
The term “nerve gear” comes from the fact that this type of system would need to be able to interface directly with the user’s nervous system in order to provide all five senses with input stimulating brain activity.
However, this technology does not currently exist – yet. Somewhat related areas of brain computer connections are in the works, such as the work going on at Neuralink and Synchron – two companies racing to implement chips that can interface with the human brain. But even those are in early stages and don’t yet have a clear roadmap to directly stimulating nerves in a way that would simulate entire body physical movement.
What are the risks of full dive VR?
There are several known risks that have already been flagged related to full dive virtual reality. Some commonly discussed risks are:
Cybersickness or simulation sickness
Just like with regular VR, if you spend too much time in virtual reality you can start to feel nauseous or dizzy. This is because your body is trying to adjust to the input it’s receiving from VR and it can’t keep up. It’s not fully understood but it seems to be exacerbated when there is too much latency or inconsistent latency between the timing of your actions and the time you see the result in the virtual environment.
If you have motion sickness or are prone to getting nauseous easily, you should take breaks often when using any type of VR system. It’s also important to start off slowly with VR – don’t try to spend hours in VR right from the start.
It’s worth noting that cybersickness is not unique to full dive virtual reality. Any time you use a VR headset, there is a risk of feeling nauseous or dizzy.
Dependency
There is a risk that people will become addicted to and dependent on full dive virtual reality. This is similar to how some people become addicted to video games or other forms of entertainment. This already happens to an extent today with social media and gaming, but it’s easy to imagine how much more powerful the effect could be once VR becomes more fully immersive.
If you find yourself spending more and more time in VR, it’s important to take breaks and make sure you’re still spending time in the real world with real people. It’s also important to keep up with your real-world responsibilities – don’t let VR take over your life!
Privacy and security
There are concerns that full dive virtual reality could be used to collect sensitive information about users without them realizing it. For example, if a full dive VR system was able to track your eye movements, facial expressions, heart rate, it could be used to gather information about your preferences, emotions, or even health status.
There are also concerns that hackers could gain access to full dive virtual reality systems and use them to spy on users or even control their actions. There’s even a potential to use it for torture or abuse especially if the right failsafe approaches are not built into the tech.
Like any technology, it’s important to be aware of these risks. The more discussion they get, the better VR engineers can design systems to mitigate the risks.
How far are we from full dive VR?
Currently, the main gaps between current VR technology and full dive VR technology are:
- Latency in tracking and responding to human movement
- The level of realism in graphics
- Challenges with reproducing the same physical sensations you would experience in the physical world (including sense of full body touch, smell, and taste).
Despite the current limitations, there has been a lot of progress made in VR technology in recent years. It is likely that full dive VR will become a reality in the relatively near future. I would be pretty surprised if we don’t see really strong immersive technology with full body haptic feedback become accessible within the next 5 years or so.
As for full dive VR that can directly modify brain activity, I feel we are 10+ years out at a minimum. This type of technology is called a brain computer interface, and there are some promising progress in aspects of this type of technology.
However, there are too many risks that would need to be thoroughly understood and tested before rolling out this type of technology on a broad scale. In addition, that type of testing takes significant time even after the technology itself is available and ready for testing.
