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Hold your breathe for VR’s next gimmick

The AirRes Mask makes virtual reality even more immersive than it already is, writes Alan Martin.

information, Kugler says, could make it easier for people to harass their local Starbucks barista or jeopardise the lives and safety of domestic violence victims, sex workers or those in witness protection programmes.

In 2019, Kugler published research showing that Americans aren’t interested in being surveilled on that level.

More than 70% of participants said theywere uncomfortable with companies using facial recognition to track people’s locations and serve targeted ads.

Interestingly, most participants didn’t express concern over workplace fingerprint scans.

‘‘It isn’t that people value or don’t value biometric privacy – it’s that what it means to value privacy varies a lot from context to context,’’ Kugler says.

‘‘The same underlying technology might enable both the innocuous uses and terrifying results.’’

The lawsuits and settlements are already making an impact. Earlier this month, Clearview AI agreed to halt access to its facial recognition databases to several companies in the US, shifting a majority of its services to solely law enforcement as a part of a recent settlement.

Facebook and Instagram users in Illinois and Texas can’t access ‘‘face filter’’ services any more.

For now, Kugler says, national legislation is probably a long way off – but you can expectmore state-by-state lawsuits and settlements in the years to come.

‘‘For national legislation, it’s going to be quite awhile before there’s any consensus,’’ he says. ‘‘But from my understanding, a lot of similar lawsuits and settlements are likely going to follow now that people know you can make money on it.’’

Facebook, Google, Shutterfly, PretA Manger and ClearviewAI did not immediately respond to CNBC Make It’s request for comment. –

Ever thought thatwearing a virtual reality (VR) mask doesn’t look unfashionable enough? Researchers from Salzburg University, Austria, have decided that what could really complete the look is taking a leaf from Batman villain Bane’s style with breathing apparatus to cover the nose and mouth.

This will, on the bright side, obscure your face, making you slightly harder to recognise, but that’s not themain intention.

AirRes is a proof-of-concept device that can ‘‘precisely and robustly measure a user’s breathing’’ in VR, and the demo shows all kinds ofwholesome activities like blowing out candles, inflating balloons and steadying your hand with a toy gun by holding your breath.

Very neat, albeit in the kind of gimmicky way that early Nintendo DS games were.

But then it takes something of a darker turnwith the second capability of the AirResMask.

A resistance valve inside allows developers to ‘‘communicate the conditions of a user’s visual avatar or the effect of environmental conditions such as smoke’’.

In other words, shortness of breath can be simulated to match what the wearer is seeing inside the headset.

And the demo shows a fire obstacle course where breathing is restricted until the fire is put out.

This could, the researchers say, be used for training simulations, or for ‘‘psychotherapy by providing additional physical stimuli’’.

Of course, this isn’t the first time researchers have decided that VR could do with adding a bit of discomfort to trick the brain into thinking it’s more real.

Last year, researchers from the

University of Chicago’s Human Computer Integration Lab created awearable that could simulate cold, heat, an electric shock or even a little bit of pain to match the action onscreen.

If you have to put on all these wearables on top of your headset just to simulatewar, there does come a time when it’s probablymore practical just to go and sign up for some paintball.

But you can’t fault the ambition of those who want tomake VR evenmore immersive than it already is.

Technology

en-nz

2022-05-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282595971535892

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