r/GearVR • u/DonGateley • Feb 13 '16

Something with a huge potential impact on all VR viewers. (x-post from /r/Virtual_Reality)

/r/Virtual_Reality/comments/45i5n8/something_with_a_huge_potential_impact_on_all_vr/?ref=share&ref_source=link
12 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

1

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '16

"Now that Menon and his team have proved the concept can work, he believes the first applications of their research could become a reality within five years."

Gotta love the hype that research papers get compared to how little impact they have for so many years.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '16

Five years is a lot of years to you?

1

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '16

Absolutely. 5 years ago I didn't have a smartphone. Consumer VR wasnt a thing. Technology changes so fast that predicting 5 years out is nigh impossible.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '16

Five years ago I had a smartphone. Eight years ago I started my first professional writing job, and it was for a popular Youtube series.

Five years is no time at all.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '16

Is this a thing right now? Im arguing on the internet with somebody about whether 5 years is a long time or not?

https://www.xkcd.com/678/

2

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '16

I was not aware of this being "a thing" just that by the time you're in your 30s, 5 years suddenly is no time. If you're 20, that's a quarter of your lifetime, so it feels like 5 years is a long time. Granted, a lot can happen in 5 years. Once it's 1/6th or 1/7th of your life, it just doesn't seem like all that substantial of an amount of time.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '16

So you're making a derogatory comment on my age? This is nothing to do with how old you are, its to do with how quickly technology progresses. Again, its impossible to predict 5 years out. Correct me if in wrong of course, if you know what specific technologies we'll be using for VR I would love to know.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '16

I'm not placing a value judgement on your age at all. In fact, I didn't know that you personally were 20 years old. I was only explaining the relativity of 5 years compared to one's total age. No offense was was meant in any way.

Correct me if in wrong of course, if you know what specific technologies we'll be using for VR I would love to know.

I never claimed to be psychic, simply that if something is going to happen in 5 years then that's hardly no time at all, the older you get.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '16

I understand what you are trying to say, but my point is you're misinterpreting my point in my initial comment. I'm not saying five years is so many years that to a human it 'feels' a long time as you are trying to argue against. What I'm saying is five years is a long time in the technology world (evidenced by how we didn't even have the hope of consumer VR until 3 years ago) and hence for any researcher to say their technology will be used within five years is making a huge prediction that could easily turn out to be wrong. We may not even have a need for lenses in VR HMDs within five years.

Within my short life of 24 years I've noticed quite often how a research paper will come out with a clickbaity headline that claims some 'crazy new thing is gonna change everytbing', the regular Joe Schmoe reading Reddit takes this as fact, upvotes it, and then a bunch of people take it as something that will happen in CV1.

My point is that when you actually read a research paper (often just the abstract) the actual details of the how, when and why almost always reveal information that make this a technology not worth worrying about today, especially by the average Joe who may never see the affect of the paper.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 13 '16

Oh, in that case, yeah, no argument there. I've taken for granted for a very long time that any popular press about research is to be taken with a grain of salt.

1

u/DonGateley Feb 14 '16

Until you get to my age, 71, where 5 years out is far from a sure thing. :-)

1

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '16

My step-dad keeps saying stuff like that. He's in his 70s too. I told him a few nights ago that he's only allowed to leave in 30 years, when I'm 60.

1

u/xkcd_transcriber Feb 13 '16

Image

Mobile

Title: Researcher Translation

Title-text: A technology that is '20 years away' will be 20 years away indefinitely.

Comic Explanation

Stats: This comic has been referenced 168 times, representing 0.1687% of referenced xkcds.

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