The Dissolving Screen
I was reflecting on the ongoing quest to make virtual reality truly immersive, a topic that surfaces frequently, including in publications like The Economic Times. The goal has always been to bridge the gap between the digital and the physical, to make virtual experiences indistinguishable from reality. For me, this isn’t a new concept; it’s a destination I’ve been charting for years.
The core idea that the industry is now grappling with is something I’ve long maintained: true immersion is not just about what we see and hear. It is about engaging our entire sensory apparatus.
The Morphing of Senses
Last year, while exploring the profound implications of AI and deepfakes, I wrote about what I call the "morphing of senses". I envisioned a future where technology allows for a complete convergence of our senses:
- Seeing a video of a rose and being able to smell its fragrance.
- Looking at an image of a food dish and getting a hint of its taste.
- Touching a device screen and feeling the texture of the object displayed.
This is the ultimate frontier for VR. It's not about better graphics cards; it's about haptic feedback, olfactory generators, and neural interfaces that can translate digital information into genuine sensory experience. The journey to make VR 'real' is a journey to build a reality synthesizer.
From Chatbots to Holograms
This convergence also reshapes how we interact with digital entities. I’ve predicted that the chatbots of today are merely the precursors to far more tangible forms of AI. In my blog, "Chatbots : Some for businesses , some for celebrities", I outlined their evolution from text interfaces to animated faces, and ultimately, to 3D volumetric holograms that can step out of the screen and into our physical spaces.
My own virtual avatar at hemenparekh.ai is a primitive first step on this path. The goal is for my digital twin to one day interact not through a screen, but as a presence, bridging the digital divide in the most literal sense.
Seeing the current push towards advanced haptics and sensory integration feels like a powerful validation of these earlier ideas. The technological trajectory is unfolding just as I had anticipated. The challenge was never if this convergence would happen, but how we would architect the experiences and what it would mean for our definition of reality. We are moving from an internet we browse to a metaverse we inhabit, and making it 'real' is the final, most crucial step.
Regards,
Hemen Parekh
Of course, if you wish, you can debate this topic with my Virtual Avatar at : hemenparekh.ai
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