Eric Greenbaum of Jema VR talks about some of the on hygiene considerations that you should take into account if you’re giving public VR demos. Specifically, the open foam on the Oculus Rift DK1 should either replaced with closed-cell liner, or at a minimum be wiped down with an alcohol swap in between uses.

Eric has been developing a number of hygiene and ergonomic solutions called About Face VR that include hygiene barriers & removable liners for your VR HMD. He talks about how to use these for public VR demos in order to prevent the spread of potentially contagious dermatological conditions.

Eric ran into these hygiene issues in the process of developing an exercise bike rig and series of exercise environments for VR called “Velo VR.” He talks about the hygiene issues that he ran into, and his approach to solving them. He also talks about some of the things that you can do to minimize simulator sickness in an exercise simulator including not having too steep of an incline or decline, and to avoid sharp turns.

Finally, he talks about how he’s applying his neuroscientist and patent lawyer background to solve new problems in VR, and productize them into a business. And he sees that most of the really big problems in VR are being addressed or coming soon including positional tracking, having multi-user networking, and being able to capture and display facial expressions for authentic social interactions in VR.

Reddit discussion here.

TOPICS

0:00 – Jema VR creating an exercise system for VR, but ran up against hygiene and ergonomics issues with VR HMDs

0:38 – Need a removable liner for your HMD, and should have a closed seal especially if you’re publicly displaying VR demos.

1:05 – What’s the worst that can happen? There are a variety of contagious dermatological conditions like a staph infection, but they can be prevented with some simple hygiene steps.

1:40 – What are some best practices that people can do with their existing VR HMDs? Consider replace open cell foam with closed cell foam. Have users wipe their faces, and then wipe down the rift between uses.

2:15 – How do you wipe it down? Alcohol swap to disinfect it

2:28 – Swappable foam mod kits. Have a personal HMD, but also want to demo. Have a variety of different interchangeable foams that you can swap out and use in different contexts. Uses magnets as a connector

3:30 – Creating mod kits? Or working with VR HMD manufacturers? Both. Engaging HMD manufacturers to raise the issue of hygiene. Willing to consult and help out. Planning a Kickstarter with a mod kit. VR is a grassroots movement, and you have to see it to believe it. We want people to share VR, but we have a responsibility to do it safely and create a safe environment for VR evangelism.

4:51 – Created a VR recumbent exercise rig, and you start to sweat after 5 minutes, and the foam liner gets pretty nasty quickly. Initial interest is VR exercise. Gamifying exercise into a video game. Make health benefits of exercise more transparent. VR is poised to fundamentally change exercise.

6:04 – What do you see in your VR environment? It’s a mountain bike simulation in a forest and high mountain passes. Convinces user that you’re outside exercising somewhere pretty. Want to have more city and fictitious environments. VR exercise frees from the reality-based physical limitations of how we exercise

6:50 – Dealing with motion sickness in VR with this exercise bike. More of an issue at the beginning. But going up or down should trigger the vestibular senses, and if you’re not going up or down, then that’ll cause motion sickness. Keep things flat and mostly straight with some gentle curves and gentle inclines and declines.

7:41 – Possibly biked more miles in VR with a HMD than any one else. Building up tolerance as VR dev. Important to let others try it out.

8:17 – Neuroscientist and patent lawyer. Scientists dissect and approach problems, and confidence to look at a new area and figure it out. Patent lawyer helps with being familiar with the IP landscape for starting a new business

9:17 – Open problems in VR. A lot of them are being solved quickly. Absolute positioning for eliminating motion sickness. Networking multiple users into one place and time. Another big challenge is capturing facial expressions for having a meaningful social interaction in VR.

Theme music: “Fatality” by Tigoolio