Apply HN: Digital Teleportation = SocialAR/VR

[joak]

Talking with a previously unknown person is common in the real world but is quite hard to do online. Thanks to VR that mimics the real world it should be possible now to meet people on the internet...

Imagine a never ending street fair welcoming people from everywhere...

First we need to solve two problems:

- break the limit "no more than ~100 can attend an event in VR"

- build a virtual world with relevant content

DiveReal networking technology: a distributed system, a 3-layered overlay tested with 20k simulated avatars together in one place. Long story short: add more servers to accommodate more users in your room. btw: there is only one "room", planet-sized.

DiveReal virtual world: we use streetview, we use the whole planet, you can send your avatar anywhere on earth. With AR devices you'll see the avatars coming to your living-room (see "holoportation" from MS Research)

Go at http://divereal.com and try the software for Oculus Rift DK2 (0.7)

Also I am working on a new release due in few weeks, to betatest the dev version send me an email at contact@divereal.com Builds available for: GearVR, Oculus Rift and desktops (Windows, OS X, Ubuntu)

This is an application for YC fellowship, if you like the project and want to help, upvote and discuss, see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11440627

Questions, comments, ... your valuable feedback is very welcome

[9erdelta]

In the real world I pretty much never talk with other people unless I have a specific reason to do so. On the other hand, I talk to random people on the internet everyday via channels like IRC, reddit, Twitch, video games etc. So your initial claims are a little hollow to me. I'd rather VR/AR interaction not become more real worldy b/c real world interaction sucks.

[joak → 9erdelta]

You make a point: SocialVR is not yet a success, I still believe it will.

However, actual systems for realtime communication with "random" people have the merits of existing but are less than perfect.

- Reddit: not realtime, you post and hopefully get an answer. Most of the time, never.

- IRC: most channels are empty, some are overcrowded, rarely there is the right number to an interesting chat

- twitch: better than irc, but still the most popular chatrooms are overcrowded and then useless. So people are not chatting or interacting, just watching tv.

- video games: the interaction is around the game, you rarely start talking of something else

I strongly agree with you: online is better than real world in many ways, for example: you do not need to physically move yourself to meet people. Also maybe online is useful to overcome shyness. SocialVR have to take what's good in real world and what's good online.

I have to stress that last element in my pitch. Thanks for challenging me.

[buss]

> Talking with a previously unknown person is common in the real world but is quite hard to do online.

My personal experience doesn't match your claim. Are you sure about this?

Aren't the people who have trouble meeting someone online going to have the same problems in VR? Wouldn't people who have trouble talking to people face-to-face have the same trouble in VR?

[joak → buss]

Yes, I understand is not so easy to meet new people in the real world.

But look, check your facebook friends, where have you met them? How many online?

I am curious: how do you meet people online ? Can you describe how it works ?

What social service, app or website, will you recommend ?

[sharemywin]

So it's got a really cool Facebook like factor to it. But, How do you out facebook, facebook and microsoft with their own tech. So, you need to provide access to this world with as many options as possible. Kind of like dropbox did with file sharing. You can connect to this platform with what ever tech you bought. At least my opinion.

[joak → sharemywin]

Thanks for yours comments/questions.

Peter Thiel in Zero to One asks "What Do You Know Is True That No One Else Agrees Upon?"

Actually facebook et al. only imagine SocialVR with rooms. But rooms are a fiasco.

Do you remember https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Lively ? The hype on Second Life was high and google decided to enter the social VW arena. In google lively, you could spawn a new room for free, 20 users max per room. It end up with thousands of empty rooms and a bunch of full ones with everyone trying to enter those already full. It was a total failure, stopped after few months.

Every SL user know how it works: you spend a lot of time and energy organising an event, sending invitations, preparing new content, etc... Hopefully people start arriving and then you have fifty attendees and things start lagging and you need to repel new people arriving. There are maybe thousands willing to attend but no avail you will only get <100.

DiveReal have no "rooms", only one contiguous space that never gets too crowded. This makes a huge difference.

Facebook don't know that. They do not understand that with multiuser rooms they are going to have many empty rooms and few overcrowded.

But I agree with you: DiveReal has to be open to all devices. I just started with Oculus Rift because they were more developer friendly than alternatives.