My first experience with the future of Virtual Reality

By Tyler Goucher

Reporter

March 19, 2015 
Filed under Features, Uncategorized

Bakersfield College: The Renegade Rip Newspaper

Everything is black. There is little noise, except for the communication going on between the man in the room and myself. As the view in front of me brightens, I start to see what could only be described as a three-dimensional menu, almost like an Xbox dashboard. Everything I look at pops out at me. I start to turn my head to look around, and to my surprise, I am completely surrounded by this visual experience. I tell myself, ‘so this is what virtual reality is like’.

The feeling is indescribable, yet I want nothing more than to describe to you how this experience completely blew my mind.

After exploring the menus for a few minutes, I was instructed on how to use the touch-pad on the side of the Samsung Gear headset, to choose the content I wanted to check out.

The first app I chose was called the Oculus Cinema.

The screen goes black for a few moments and then slowly fades into a virtual representation of a giant movie theater lobby. In the center of the lobby, it gives me a choice of choosing the movie I want to watch and in which theater I want to watch it in. I choose by simply looking at the title of the movie I want and tapping the touchpad on the headset. Once the decision is made, you are transported to an empty movie theater.

Once I took a minute to look around, I had this strong sense of presence. For a moment, I really felt as if I was actually inside a movie theater, waiting for the movie to start, wondering why there was no one watching the movie except me. Of course this feeling fades as you look up and are given the option to play the movie. The best part about the Oculus Cinema app is the ability for the user to upload any movie, or video file for that matter, into the app to experience on the big screen.

After having some fun with the Oculus Cinema, my next journey took me to Iceland, as I soared over the lush scenery in a helicopter in one of the Samsung Gear’s 3D videos. Although there were a few moments I experienced a little bit of dizziness, the beautiful imagery compelled me to continue on.

The sheer magnitude of how big this could be in the tourism industry was beyond anything I ever expected. No longer will people be forced to spend thousands of dollars on expensive trips across the world, just to experience something we should all have the opportunity to experience.

When I was finished messing around with the Samsung Gear, which is the mobile VR headset created by Oculus, I was asked to put on the big boy headset, the Oculus Rift.

Being that this headset was powered by a gaming pc with an $800 graphics card, I was expecting the experience to surpass everything I had just gone through with the Samsung Gear.

The first app I was shown was a space exploration game called Titans of Space.

I look down, and I am in some type of a pod, floating in the middle of the solar system. There are controls and buttons in front of me that light up when I look at them and give me a sense that I am actually in control of where I get to go.

As the game starts, it takes you from planet to planet and shows you a larger-than-life representation of what each of them look like, along with a description of the planet, with fun facts and interesting insights.

This is going to be huge for education and space enthusiasts. Imagine learning about space in virtual environment that allows you to actually see what you are reading about, rather than relying on outdated textbooks and boring lectures.

After conquering space, I was interested in how horror games would be experienced in VR. I was then launched into a horrifying game called Dreadhalls.

I open my eyes to a dark, underground-animated maze, lit only by a lamp that my character is holding. I look down and see a map that only shows where I have been, which at this point, is nowhere. Now being that this game actually requires you to move, I was handed an Xbox controller so that I was able to walk around in this maze. As I started to get the hang of the controls and the disorienting feeling of being able to look around in 360 degrees while controlling the camera at the same time, I started to really get into the experience.

As I walk down the halls trying to find my way out, I start noticing shadows in the distance of random horrifying characters. When you are spotted by one of these characters, the music picks up and pretty much forces you to run away and try to find a way out before you are caught and the game ends.

I must admit, my heart was beating pretty fast in this game. My anxiety usually doesn’t get to me when I play horror games, but something about being virtually “inside” this game, made it that much more realistic and unnerving.

The last experience I had was probably the most immersive one of them all. As part of a marketing ploy for the new upcoming Divergent movie sequel, Insurgent, some VR developers created a 3D VR experience unlike anything I had experienced yet. In Insurgent: Shatter Reality, you become a character in the movie.

When the app started, I opened my eyes to Kate Winslet’s character, speaking to me in a lab, explaining to me about being divergent. As the dialogue continued, I looked down to see my arms and legs, strapped in a chair. This was really crazy to me. It really felt as if I was there, being talked to by these characters. It was awesome. Confusing. Horrifying.

I won’t spoil the experience, but I will say that there was times where my brain actually made me feel some of the physical reactions to what I was going through. This in itself made the Insurgent app the most memorable experience I had.

All in all, my first experience with these new VR headsets won’t be my last. I highly suggest anyone with the time, money and interest, to get your hands on one of these prototype headsets, so that you too, can have your mind blown.

The future of Virtual Reality is now

By Tyler Goucher

Reporter

March 19, 2015 
Filed under Features

Bakersfield College: The Renegade Rip Newspaper

Imagine the world you live in is replaced with an alternate reality. One where anything is possible and nothing is as it seems.

What was once considered to be science fiction when we were younger is now becoming a true possibility, if not a probability.

Virtual Reality, or VR, is a computer-simulated environment created by computer programs and presented on digital displays. The main goal of VR is to create life-like experiences by incorporating user interaction, immersion, and presence into the content so that one day, we are able to do just about anything we can imagine and have it feel as close to “real” as possible.

Although VR has had its ups and downs since its consumer launch in the early-mid ’90s, it is finally stepping into its prime as we are being introduced to the most powerful, technically advanced VR systems ever created in this day and age.

Through thousands of hours of work and dedication, and with the help of crowd sourcing, a man named Palmer Luckey, in 2012, created a new, highly advanced head-mounted VR display, called the Oculus Rift. Since it’s spawn, it has brought VR back into the multimedia spotlight and has opened up new doors and avenues for both software developers and engineers alike.

In 2014, after being acquired by Facebook for over $2 billion, the Oculus Rift became the next big thing in emerging technology.

Already, Microsoft and Google, as well as other major competitors, have jumped on the bandwagon and have started developing their own VR equipment that will be compatible with their own products.

Much like there have been videogame console wars in the past, this will be the first type of war for VR equipment since the mid ’90s.

Even outside of the professional world of VR, many individuals have become hardcore VR enthusiasts.

Ian Hamilton, a journalist by trade, is a VR enthusiast who has been following this movement for sometime now. Hamilton got interested a while back when he was a technology reporter for the Orange County Register and was introduced to the Oculus Rift developer’s kit by a friend.

After having a first-hand experience with the prototype headset, he was turned on to purchase his own developer’s kit, which fueled his newly found interest in VR.

Since his purchase of the Oculus Rift developer’s kit 2, he has started a blog dedicated to VR news and updates, and has even started to develop his own VR content.

Now many people believe that VR is going to change the world forever, and that may very well be true, however there is a lot to consider.

“It’s hard to gauge how quickly VR will become influential,” Hamilton said. “Society will be fundamentally different when space doesn’t separate us, and you can go to any world you can imagine.”

There is also much to be said about the effects it will have on the human mind and whether or not it could potentially have negative effects on our mental health.

“It’s not going to be for everyone,” he said. “I’d think people who don’t have a solid grip on what’s real to begin with and those who don’t like this world anyway, might have problems handling alternate realities too.”

It may never get to that point unless the experience becomes fully immersive and as of now, there is a lot that stops it from being just that.

Where the Oculus Rift relies heavily on head tracking to give the user that feeling of immersion, it still hasn’t gotten to the point of incorporating full body sensors to capture movements of the arms and legs.

Some of Rift’s competitors including Microsoft’s HoloLens and Google’s Magic Leap, which are also still in development, are focusing on a different type of technology to pierce through the world of VR.

Augmented reality takes a real-world environment and augments it by using computer-generated sensory input such as audio or video.

Since this technology isn’t replacing the real world with a fake one, it won’t rely on sensors to track body movement for a virtual character.

It will instead allow the user to experience the augmented reality, while still being able to see their bodies and interact with the environment in real time.

When the time comes for consumers to choose a product, there will be a lot of variety in the type of VR headsets that will be available.

“There are mobile VR setups like Gear VR and Google Cardboard, desktop VR systems like Vive and Rift, as well as console VR like the Morpheus,” said Hamilton.

What consumers should keep in mind, is whether or not how powerful the device is, will outweigh the price and mobility of the unit.

“Desktop VR is where all the excitement is right now because of the powerful sense of presence that can be produced using the highest end graphics cards inside desktop gaming PCs.” He said.

“Mobile VR is so much more convenient though, because it’s less expensive, wireless and you can get into bed or get on a plane to use it. But because mobile VR relies on a fully functioning cell phone, there are weight and heat limits to how powerful it can be.”

There is so much potential for this technology in more than just gaming and entertainment.

Hamilton explained, “Education could be enormous. Every person could learn any subject from the best teachers in the world.”

Facebook even plans on taking social networking to the next level with the Oculus Rift. In the future, we may experience Facebook in a completely different way.

“Social VR would be even bigger,” Hamilton said. “You could meet with anyone you want, to do anything you want, anytime you want.”

At the end of the day, though, this is all speculation. All of these companies have now, are beta versions of what will hopefully be everything they aim to be, revolutionary. “The next five years are going to be about improving software and hardware so prices come down for consumers, while the capabilities improve, to bring more of who you are, into VR,” said Hamilton.

If VR enthusiasts like Hamilton are interested in experiencing what these headsets have to offer in their early stages, development kits and beta versions are available. However, the consumer versions of these products will be vastly different in quality, appearance, and content.

“The devices out now are not ready for consumers yet. Wait for the consumer version unless you want to invest a fair amount of money and time to learn how to make VR experiences yourself with the tools that are available,” Hamilton explains.

More information and news on VR can be found at Ian Hamilton’s blog http://ianhamilton.net or by simply searching for Virtual Reality on Google.

Bakersfield College Computer Club

By Tyler Goucher

Reporter

March 19, 2015

Filed under Campus, Features

Bakersfield College: The Renegade Rip Newspaper

Drum roll please… Bakersfield College finally has a computer science club. Headed by computer enthusiast, Chad Hidalgo, Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is a new club that started in November 2014 and was officially recognized by SGA in January 2015. Being that there has been no computer science club prior, AI is a huge step forward for the department.

“We are hoping for the club to be a place for faculty and students to merge and create wonderment,” said Hidalgo. “The goal is to inspire students to be on a quest for intelligence.”

With only 11 active members, the club has already been involved in technology events on campus such as the Technology Conference that was hosted at the BC indoor theater on Feb. 5.

If you plan on attending this year’s Garden Fest on April 18, AI will have a booth set up with the old school video game, Duck Hunt, to promote the club.

Also, if you’re interested in joining, one of the fun things that goes on during their bi-weekly meetings is a coding challenge. The challenge is open to both current members and first time attendees and promotes the exercise of dissecting code and learning what could be done to make it better and more efficient.

“These challenges are a learning opportunity for all of us,” said Hidalgo.

At this time, the club is in the process of raising $5,000 through a local scholarship that will be available for students to apply for by either writing an essay regarding the emergence of technology in education or helping to write a code for a program that the club adviser will help choose. This could be a great opportunity for any student who is a computer science major with an interest in technology.

As to why the club was named Artificial Intelligence, Hidalgo had this to say. “The name was created to poke fun at ourselves. Everything we learn at some point is artificial after all.”

The AI club meets on the first and third Friday of every month from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Business building in room B11.

Better Call Saul: Series Premiere Review

By Tyler Goucher,

Reporter

February 24, 2015

Filed under Opinion, Reviews

Bakersfield College: The Renegade Rip Newspaper

The AMC follow-up to one of the most critically claimed shows ever made, “Breaking Bad,” manages to surprise fans with returning key characters and a story arch that explores events both before and after Walter White.

Although the show was written by Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan with intentions to stand on its own without having to rely heavily on success of “Breaking Bad,” it’s clear that they are not yet finished with the overall story.

The series premier opens up in black and white with a present day look at character Saul Goodman’s newly appointed life working as a cashier for a Cinnabon in Omaha, Nebraska. Now a balding alcoholic with a severe case of paranoia, Saul lives his life in the shadow of his legacy. I thought this was an intriguing way to start the series because it really does give viewers a sense that “Breaking Bad” isn’t necessarily over yet.

After reminiscing over his earlier successes as a shady defense attorney, the real story begins as we travel back in time to the beginning of everything.

The year is 2002 and good work is hard to find for small-time defense attorney, Jimmy McGill. The only paychecks Jimmy is pulling in are from being a public defender where the workload is at a maximum and the pay is at a minimum.

I love how they show a hardworking McGill doing everything in his power to make an honest living in a world that is anything but honest. Especially when we compare his character in “Better Call Saul” to his character in “Breaking Bad,” which at least in the first two episodes, are completely night and day.

After dealing with issues regarding his mentally unstable brother, Chuck, and Chuck’s law firm trying to rip him off, Jimmy finally comes to a breaking point. In other words, much like Walter White, he decides to break bad.

He sets up a scheme to have a couple of knucklehead skateboarders scam someone into becoming one of his clients. In the process of doing so, he ends up having a run-in with a one of Breaking Bad’s oldest, most feared villains, Tuco Salamanca, ending the series premier on a spectacularly high point.

In Monday night’s follow-up episode, Jimmy spends his day in the hot Albuquerque sun at gun point, in the middle of nowhere, attempting to talk his way out of a death sentence for both him and the two skateboarders he used to scam Tuco’s lovely abuelita. It was quite hilarious how the writers turned the whole scene into a courtroom as Jimmy fights for the two skateboarder’s lives as if he is their defense attorney and Tuco is the unforgiving judge. 

After all is said and done, Jimmy leaves Tuco and his squad of drug dealing cronies on somewhat good terms.

Although the episode was a bit long and drawn out, it was a good set-up for what’s to come in the future episodes of “Better Call Saul” and it proves once again that AMC is the still the reigning king of cable dramas.

- See more at: http://www.therip.com/reviews/2015/02/24/saul-shows-that-amc-still-has-it/#sthash.MQg9MqNF.dpuf