Month: June 2016

Columbia's researchers tested a few maximum FOV restriction levels before settling on the box here labeled (e). So long as VR users' views were reduced gradually, most of the testers didn't even notice—and the ones who did said they preferred their sit-down VR experiences that way. (credit: Columbia University)

The launch of the first consumer-focused VR headsets has researchers and 3D content developers focusing on the nausea issues that arise with head-mounted displays. The Oculus Rift and HTC Vive can make users feel immersed and comfortable in their virtual worlds, but that's easier in limited virtual environments, especially ones without movement. What can be done about the pukey feeling brought on by harsher forms of virtual movement, when the brain and the body don't agree on what's happening?

While some people recommend adding a fixed focal point to a VR world, like a cockpit or a peripherally visible nose, a group of Columbia researchers decided to test an idea that was patented years before the current VR boom: a dynamically shifting field of view [FOV]. The system works by recognizing rapid artificial movement during a seated VR experience—like when users press a joystick to rotate their first-person view, or when elevation rapidly changes thanks to objects such as stairs—and then gradually blacking out the peripheral edges of a VR headset's lenses until that upsetting movement dissipates.

In its report, which was published last week alongside a demonstration video (shown below), the Columbia team concluded that "even though we had a relatively small number of participants [24 after removing people who were considered "immune" to virtual motion sickness], our data indicates that FOV restrictors helped participants stay in the virtual environment longer and feel more comfortable than they did in the control condition." Users largely didn't notice the dynamic FOV changes until they were informed well after the study concluded, and the few who did notice reported preferring the limits, since they didn't obscure the primary VR viewpoint. Worth noting, this study's results included unanimous praise from its limited test audience, compared to mixed opinions on the aforementioned VR-nose study.

The Global Commission on Internet Governance, set up in 2014 by the UK-based Chatham House and the Canadian Centre for International Governance Innovation, has presented its "One Internet" Report. Its 140 pages provide "high-level, strategic advice and recommendations to policy makers, private industry, the technical community and other stakeholders interested in maintaining a healthy Internet."

More concretely, it comes down against crypto backdoors, the overuse of opaque algorithms, turning companies into law enforcement agencies, and online attacks on critical infrastructure. On the other hand, it is in favour of strict legal controls on the aggregation of personal metadata, net neutrality, open standards, and the mandatory public reporting of high-threshold data breaches. Along the way, it offers opinions on areas such as the sharing economy, blockchains, the Internet of Things, IPv6, and DNSSEC.

The Global Commission was chaired by Carl Bildt, and consists of 29 members drawn from various fields and from around the world, including policy and government, academia, and civil society.

Enlarge (credit: Flickr user Plonq)

You might not guess that economists spend a whole lot of time thinking about auto mechanics, but they actually have a technical term for the service that the mechanics provide: credence goods. Credence goods are typically services where the person who receives the service is incapable of evaluating whether the service was provided quickly and efficiently or even if the needed service was provided at all.

These types of services aren't limited to auto mechanics—other examples include medical care and cab rides in unfamiliar cities. Economists find these services interesting because we can learn from them about human financial interactions in cases where one of the parties might have an incentive to be dishonest.

A study of Austrian computer repair shops shows that plenty of said parties succumb to that incentive. The study also shows a common feature of modern economics that makes matters worse: insurance that covers the cost of the repairs.