While Windows Mixed Reality was originally launched alongside the HoloLens (providing a proper mixed/augmented reality experience), nowadays it’s being used to promote headsets that aren’t all that different from a standard VR headset. If you’ve been missing a proper “mixed reality” experience, you aren’t the only one: Imverse does too, and recently they showed off a proper mixed reality demo.
This rendition of “mixed reality” makes your actual human body, clothing and all, visible in VR. It does this using a combination of cameras and external sensors, alongside a standard VR headset. Imverse has presented a pretty fascinating implementation of mixed reality, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see it become a standard in the future.
However…it’s time to address the elephant in the room. The pixelation of the mixed reality image is intense, enough so at points that it almost looks like a real-time 144p feed of your human body. Enough to add a sense of presence, sure, but not enough to maintain full immersion in virtual reality. Blurry, pixellated visuals like this only serve to remind users that what they’re seeing isn’t real, and that visual effect on your own body has got to be jarring.
For now, this is forgivable: this is an early version of the technology, after all. It’s a proof-of-concept that shows that, eventually, we’ll be able to see our full-fidelity bodies in VR if we want to. Until Imverse’s tech is able to power a more lifelike experience, though…it probably isn’t going to see a mass market release.
