Impressive as they might be, many early virtual and augmented reality experiences are focused on a personal, insular experience.
So right now, one of the biggest challenges for new tech such as the Oculus Rift and Microsoft’s HoloLens is creating experiences conducive to social interaction in a virtual space.
In an effort to tackle the problem head on, researchers at the Microsoft Lab of Jaron Lanier, who was heavily involved with mixed reality tech in the 1980s, have begun experimenting with multi-person VR and AR.
As reported by the MIT Tech Review, Lanier’s project, simply called Comradre, has seen the researcher team up with a number of students who’ve each developed headsets that let multiple users see or interact with the same virtual object.
The devices have been built using smartphones and laptops, and come equipped with external head tracking sensors.
Speaking about the difficulties of getting multi-user VR to work, Jeremy Bailenson, founding director at Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, explained that the most prominent issue is accurately tracking the head movement of more than one person.
Although it seems like the most obvious application, Lanier has stressed that his research won’t influence the development of the HoloLens headset, which will be made available to developers early next year. Assuming, that is, they’re willing to meet Microsoft’s $3000 asking price.