Samsung
has dipped its toes into the waters of virtual reality with the
consumer-friendly Gear VR, and now the company is looking to dive deeper
into immersive technology with its latest invention – the Samsung
Entrim 4D motion headphones.
The
cutting-edge 4D aural tech combines algorithms and a process called
Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation to submerse wearers in a sensory
overload by “tricking the part of the ear that regulates your balance
and motion into making you feel like you are a part of the excitement.”
This
technique, which ironically leaves other senses well-worked as it’s
quite the mouthful, “sends specific electric messages to a nerve in the
ear, the VR accessory synchronises your body with changing movements in
video content,” according to Samsung’s ear experts.
Admittedly,
the prospect of experiencing a premium VR experience on the sub-$100
Gear VR and a pair of fancy, if obscenely ugly, headphones, will no
doubt appeal to those unwilling to throw their money at the pricey,
PC-powered, alternatives like the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive.
That
being said, a video showcasing the headset like the one released at its
unveiling at SXSW 2016 in Austin (below), isn’t doing its best to
convince doubters. VR has never been an easy technology to demonstrate
outside of first-hand experience, but the answer is not filming a person
enjoying VR on one side and acting out an Entrim-induced flail-fest in
the other.
The
Entrim 4D is an on-going development and is being tested and readied
for a future release with experiments on over 1,500 hardware
professionals, software engineers and biomedical engineering experts all
joining forces for the project. As yet, no price has been mentioned.
The accessory was also tested with a first-person view drone, which
reportedly created a physical illusion of flying thanks to the drone’s
own motion sensors.
Steve Jung, the team’s Creative Leader, told Samsung Newsroom
that “virtual reality shouldn’t be experienced only with the eyes.”
Instead he hopes that through Entrim 4D, “people can experience VR the
way it was meant to be—with their whole bodies,” a sentiment the
flagwavers of the VR porn revolution will be happy to hear.
One
genuinely interesting aspect of the Entrim 4D is Samsung’s interest in
solving the most dreaded side effect of VR: motion sickness. By tricking
the brain into thinking the motion of your body matches the image on
display, Samsung claims the Entrim 4D will diminish the onset of nausea,
dizziness and even headaches while being mentally interpolated into the
world of VR.
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