This VR Rig From Microsoft Will Show Users A VR World While Walking In The Real One

The ongoing VR experiment of Microsoft will be of great help for those who have to live in a not-so-appealing neighborhood to take advantage of more affordable rent. Named DreamWalker, the rig will show users a different VR as they walk in the real one.

With smartphone-enabled VR is on the rise, companies like Microsoft are pouring millions of dollars in making what they call a killer app, the software so appealing that people will flock to buy the hardware coming with it. DreamWalker is hardly the answer to that, but the way it works is exactly what we expect from a VR headset, hardware that can take us to another reality.

Before going out, users will have to provide the software with the path they intend to take as well as the final destination. What the software does next is to analyze the path and calculate so that it has to change as little as possible to the real world the user sees. So what it does is not exactly making up a new neighborhood.

When the route is set, users will have to put on a quite cumbersome rig consisting of virtual reality goggles, GPS, a portable computer, a smartphone, and a pair of RGB depth cameras. As the users walk in the real world, their movements and motions are mirrored in the other world.

The most obvious challenge users will have to face when wearing Microsoft’s DreamWalker rig is how they can avoid the obstacles in the real world. The solution here is the depth-sensing cameras and the sensors of the rig.

In the video below, the rig’s computer will create pedestrians in the virtual world so that users can avoid them in the real world too. Other barriers and obstacles will also be recreated in the same way. For example, if there is a pothole in the real world, the computer will show the wearer something like a car to signal them to walk around.