
Start multi-tasking with your virtual reality headset - T-A
https://getspace.io/
======
harryf
Despite plenty of studies showing multi tasking for humans is less efficient
than single tasking ( e.g. [http://news.stanford.edu/2009/08/24/multitask-
research-study...](http://news.stanford.edu/2009/08/24/multitask-research-
study-082409/) ) here we are inventing new ways to be even more distracted.

~~~
StavrosK
Why do you say that? I'd love something like this product, and my work flow is
single tasking. I have all my windows open in full screen all the time and
switch between them, and usually have a movie playing on the second screen
while I work.

Yes, it takes me a day to watch an hour's worth of movie, but it's a nice and
easy distraction when waiting for stuff to build or doing other low cognitive
impact work.

~~~
kabouseng
That's what's commonly known as multitasking...

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Artlav
Nothing to do with "multitasking" \- instead of putting real, cost-$, monitors
around you, just put virtual, free, monitors around - as many as you wish!

Sounds like something awesome, but kinda impractical for now - at least not
until the Oculus-grade headsets become the size of eyeglasses.

I guess that should work great with AR headsets, since these won't constrain
your situational awareness.

~~~
phire
The bigger problem is pixel density.

I've tried both the DK1 and the vive, and the vive is basically at the point
where games are very playable.

Some people complain about the "screen-door" effect, which basically
translates to the pixels are so large that it's like you are looking a screen
door. But in my experience that's not a problem. If you stop and concentrate
you can see the pixels, and they are quite large, but with game-like graphics
your brain is more than happy to fill in the gaps between pixels.

This doesn't translate to text. Text needs to be massive before you can read
it. There is no way you can have multiple monitors at desktop distances. Best
case is a single, low resolution monitor (about 720p resolution) so close to
your face (or far away and massive) that it takes up your entire field of
view. To see any extra monitors, you would have to rotate your entire head.

~~~
noir_lord
Resolution is the reason I haven't bought one yet.

When the 'in-world' resolution can match 1920x1200 at 2ft then it will replace
my 3 monitors otherwise it's a headache inducing experience.

If the technology takes off and follows the usual S-curve I think we'll have
that inside 5 years.

~~~
stcredzero
_When the 'in-world' resolution can match 1920x1200 at 2ft_

Sitting about 2 ft from my 24" monitor at work, I'd estimate that it would
take 9 such monitors to get to around the same field of view in my HTC Vive.
So you're talking about 5760x3600 pixels there.

Maybe we're going to need iris tracking as an optimization? That's a lot of
pixels to push at 90 Hz.

~~~
noir_lord
> That's a lot of pixels to push at 90 Hz.

It is but considering the current pace of GPU development it's what 5-6 years
away on the really high end and maybe 7-8 on the midrange $200 cards.

VR has already re-invigorated the competition between AMD/nVidia as they both
want to get a foothold in the potential new market, interesting times.

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ckdarby
In terms of programming this is nearly useless. I have to change my font size
usually 4-5x the normal size I have in my IDE to even feel comfortable looking
at it.

~~~
augustl
Hopefully it is just a question of time before we have retina resolution even
for panels that are a few inches from our eyes and magnified with optics.

~~~
mhd
Never mind properly using the hardware and its capabilities. A headtracking VR
setup has other constraints than a static rectangle. Arranging overviews,
subpanels, minor buffers could probably be improved.

On the other hand, we still haven't escaped the VT100 in 99% of our IDEs so
I'm not holding my breath for an ultra-immersive new-fangled "I can breathe
code" style.

~~~
empath75
Yeah, projecting a 2d desktop onto the surface of a sphere is I guess pretty
neat, but not a great use of 3d space. Why not have applications be actual
physical objects you can walk around? Why do they need to have 2d view ports?
What if you could pick an app up and turn it to the side to change settings on
it with physical sliders and knobs?

Just sort of pie-in-the-sky-- imagine a programming language that worked like
a 3d spreadsheet, where your functions where literal 3d objects you could wire
together, and the parameters had physical affordances so you could adjust
them...

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lux
I've read that you don't need to go through Greenlight for VR apps right now,
just to contact Valve. Not sure if that's true, but might be of help if it is.

~~~
drzaiusapelord
Devs on /r/vive claim this is true. Appparantly, Valve is hurting for good VR
content and will fast track anything VR related.

It also doesn't make much sense to Greenlight VR. You need x amount of votes,
but because the VR population is so low, its much harder to get those votes
compared to a traditional 2D game.

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datamoshr
Exciting and innovating as this is; this particular idea seems like it'd be
more apt in an AR setting. It could address the issue of non-touch typists,
those of us that use notebooks on our desk, also working in an office, being
able to see people can be quite handy.

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anqurvanillapy
It seems to be a new Shanghai-based company started by an ex-Google engineer
this year. I found some news in Chinese
([http://qianbidao.baijia.baidu.com/article/503760](http://qianbidao.baijia.baidu.com/article/503760)),
which says there will be a specific 3D engine developed for SPACE, not using
Unity. It is exciting to see the 3D desktop/multi-tasking environment become
popular one day.

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mjsweet
Can anyone who has used this comment on it's general usability?

For instance, if I lean in closer to a space will it get closer, or is my head
position locked?

Would this be useful for coding? e.g. is text clear enough?

What kind of resolution is needed for text to approach the level of retina
displays that we have become accustomed to?

Does anyone have any thoughts on developer experience... toolchain and IDE
opportunities that would take great advantage of GetSpace?

~~~
draugadrotten
> Would this be useful for coding? e.g. is text clear enough?

It's not clear enough with todays headsets but who knows what the next gen
will deliver.

It could be useful to use a headset like this when the light from a normal
screen would disturb others

~~~
MaulingMonkey
I doubt we'll reach parity with my multi-4K setups in non-custom hardware for
another decade or so (and this is the first generation where I no longer want
for increased pixel density in my monitors.)

I should try and see how well a 80x25 terminal works on current gen tech
though.

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anotheryou
Demo Video (hidden in the press-kit):
[https://youtu.be/B4JqN0uxnzw?t=16](https://youtu.be/B4JqN0uxnzw?t=16)

~~~
canada_dry
Nice catch.

I think their concept is brilliant. A bit hard to gauge in a 2D video.

I so want to jump on the VR bandwagon. But... my brain is telling me to hold
off for V2 or V3 when the hardware will likely be orders of magnitude better
than the current crop.

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cortesi
I've been playing with this sort of idea on the HTC Vive, and I strongly
believe that this is the future. Unfortunately, none of the available VR
devices have anywhere near the resolution needed for this to be a workable
proposition. Give it another 5 years or so.

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johnm1019
So excited we live in the future. I talked about this idea with so many people
when we first put on the Occulus prototypes so long ago. It's awesome to see
someone putting in the effort to make it a reality. Can't wait to see this
application of VR develop. After all, the foundational elements could also be
used in an AR type setup if that technology approves more human-centric in the
long term. Especially in the workplace, having your field-of-view completely
covered by a screen is probably not the most socially ideal.

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petewailes
This reminds me of SphereXP. For anyone who doesn't know, it was a 3D desktop
environment from years back.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhLbDyE-
MQc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhLbDyE-MQc)

Obviously this takes the concept and advances it somewhat, but overall I'm
glad to see this sort of interface returning. It was a fantastic experiment
and worked surprisingly well.

~~~
wildpeaks
Also back in the day, SpaceTime 3D:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMw7ftk5-1s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMw7ftk5-1s)

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aaronwidd
It sounds like there's more than a few people working on this idea now.

I just feel like it's a little early to be expecting users to go about
multitasking like a desktop when we're still at a point in the evolution of VR
tech where prolonged sessions of VR HMD use is not common behavior. Even
getting users to put the headset back on after stepping away, is still a
challenge. Not to mention the difficulties of reading text in VR among other
issues.

That's not to say there isn't a use case for a multitask desktop in VR, it's
just that this is a problem to be solved in the future. In the present, we
simply need software that gives users a good reason to put the headset back on
again after the novelty wears off

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dharma1
I've been thinking about the same thing. The window manager needs to be built
into the OS, really. I think we'll see something built into Android for this
soon -(standard 2d app surfaces in a 3D360 VR environment).

I'm not sure the current display tech is that good for your eyes/brain to be
staring at it 8 hours a day, never mind the current screen resolution. But
eventually it will be, and using something like this will enable you to work
anywhere without having to carry large screens with you.

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zimbatm
That's like looking a black and white movie on a color screen. Why are they
still using a 2D window manager when we could take advantage of the full 3D
spacial navigation?

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blkhawk
uh, because a GUI based on a flat "desktop" metaphor with overlapping square
interfaces works so damn well.

And the places where the metaphor differs from a RL desktop its because its
more convenient that way - say like how documents (windows) have no thickness
or how its easier to look straight ahead with a 90° to a surface instead of
downwards onto a desktop at an angle?

this concept actually takes advantage of 3d spacial navigation by basically
giving you an functionally unlimited of desktop area.

~~~
zimbatm
It's not an unlimited desktop if they are projected inside of a 3D sphere.
Granted text is best displayed on 2D tiles that you can look straight ahead,
but I was talking about navigation. There is only one text that you can read
at the time, the rest doesn't have to be arranged in a sphere. It could be
laid out around the room or even in bigger fields.

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ugolino91
Would pay for something like this with Hololens + my own keyboard and mouse.
Virtual desktops in Rift or Vive give me headaches and I use the headsets
everyday.

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majewsky
Interesting proposition. If the image quality is good enough, then even a good
VR headset might actually be less expensive than an array of physical screens.

Obvious disadvantages: having to wear a VR headset all day, and you cannot
collaborate with others over your screen contents anymore (unless they strap
on and plug in a second headset maybe).

Another thing: This would be really cool for desktop sharing.

~~~
noir_lord
> (unless they strap on and plug in a second headset maybe).

On the other hand with a high resolution headset and good bandwidth, you can
pair review/code review with anyone/anywhere and they see _exactly_ what you
see.

In the longer term you could create a 3D virtual office where all the screens
exist in the same space and you can jump from one set to another, as a
collaboration tool that would _exceed_ a real world office in some ways since
you there would be no physical limitations.

Could be incredible for online tech-talks and such as well since you wouldn't
be sat 50ft from the speaker trying to read slides from a crappy OHP.

This is the side of the technology that really excites me, not the games.

~~~
8note
for online tech talks, you could also have some kind of phone app that would
show the slides

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alexcroox
The constant rocking from head movement would make most feel sick before they
got any real work done I imagine. Seen in the demo video here:
[https://youtu.be/B4JqN0uxnzw?t=28](https://youtu.be/B4JqN0uxnzw?t=28) I know
I'd struggle to focus on lines of code or paragraphs of text with it
constantly moving around.

~~~
croon
That's how your head moves constantly yet you have no problem focusing. The
reason you don't feel sick is because it's your own head. In that video you're
watching someone elses head movement.

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aphextron
As someone extremely familiar with the current state of VR tech, this is
simply a non starter right now. The level of resolution, pixel density, and
comfort of current gen HMDs is nowhere near what it will need to be to be an
actual useful productivity tool. It's great for gaming, but we're just not
there yet for every day use.

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ogrev
That's strange, how is this better than
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXEE8R4UUuc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXEE8R4UUuc)
?

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EGreg
I think using this for an hour will make you tired quickly. You're really
staring at some screen centimeters from your eyes.

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anonbanker
Not important for devs until it works in MacOS and Linux. Until then, this is
a toy for a toy OS.

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fapjacks
I came here to say this.

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k__
Is this the VR-desktop monitor replacement I dreamed of?

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ska
No.

But give it 2 or 3 more hardware generations and maybe.

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stanislavb
Nice. I'd really love to experience this!

