Learning to Sail in VR
Sailing is the ultimate multisensory experience, a brilliant target experience to recreate in VR
Haptics in virtual reality (VR) are a real game changer: immersive experiences that involve not just seeing and hearing the virtual world, but also touching it.
Using this third sensory modality makes a huge difference to the depth of immersion that can be achieved because of how sensory brain areas process the information.
Our senses are essentially trying to approximate what’s going on in the outside world. And if you give the human brain a continuous stream of visual AND auditory information it is better than the sum of it’s parts. With two simultaneous streams of sensory info the brain can make more reliable predictions about what’s going on in the world around us on the basis of moments of synchrony between the sights and sounds that boost the signal, so to speak.
With THREE sensory streams of information you get to understand at a much deeper level the effect your actions are having on the world because the improvement in prediction accuracy is multiplicative, not additive.
What do I mean by this? When you turn the steering wheel on a boat all three sources of sensory info streaming into your eyes your ears and the muscles of your body change simultaneously. And all of those changes mutually inform each other. The visual signal disambiguates the auditory signals and the haptic signals. The audio signals help to clarify the information coming in through the visual and haptic senses. And yes, the haptic feedback helps your brain make sense of the grey areas in the visual and audio streams.
Two sensory signals can only reinforce each other. In a three-way, so to speak, you get 6 opportunities for mutual reinforcement of the signal.
This is pretty hardcore multisensory neuroscience (which I have a Ph.D. in, btw) so if you’re still with me you’re doing amazingly well.
My point is: having three sources of truth about what is happening out there is hugely useful for our brains in terms of reducing uncertainty in its internal models about what’s going on in the outside world. And for the VR user, conscious perception of what’s happening in the outside world dramatically improves when events are conveyed in triplicate rather than duplicate; our conscious experience during this time can only deepen the immersion.
THAT is why I’m so excited to hear about this new projects in which an Aussie firm is Teaching people to sail in Virtual Reality.
You can already do SO much by giving people just visual and audio information - it is perfectly sufficient to trick their brain into feeling completely convinced they have been transported elsewhere.
They feel fully present in that world and the interactions they have with it seems perfectly plausible. Adding proper haptics turns this up to 11. (For younger readers, please see Spinal Tap)
Putting a steering wheel in a VR users grip so that as they turn it it pushes back to give information about the heaving virtual waves that are simulated crashing against the virtual hull of the virtual yacht will add significantly to the audiovisual experience in a way that must be absolutely intoxicating.
A couple of years ago I reviewed a VR game available on Steam that enabled you to be a pirate sailing the seven seas in the 18th century. It was brilliant even without a real physical steering wheel in my hand because the ocean was beautifully rendered, the tropical islands looked inviting and steering towards rival ships to blast them with cannon was a goal that felt entirely believable. I had a whale of a time even without the haptic feedback, but WITH IT? That will be truly amazing.
If VR Sailing in triplicate is done properly it will be absolutely incredible. If you want to have a go just with the audiovisual, you could always try this (if you have a Quest headset).
And of course if you want to sign your team up for a Brain Man VR Jumpstart session, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
