Friday, 15 April 2016

VR Hackspace/Lab/shop




I came across this great app video via N_O_D_E.net on their cyberdump 11 vlog.... It is a VR app (out on steam) that allows you to have your desktop within a VR environment....It got me thinking..

I've not paid massive attention to VR and AR for a while.. part of that is that I'm not a gamer and lots of stuff is aimed at that community. I do however do a lot of online collaboration so am quite interested in it's applications for that.. I have become slightly enamoured with the idea of a VR hackspace/LAB/workshop. What I'm thinking is a place where machines (cnc router/3dprinter/cnclathe etc) could be emulated and work run in simulation, refined and then the resulting gcode or whatever brought back into meatspace for realisation. It appeals to me on numerous levels, one is that I could carry my various machines around virtually and continue to trial things anywhere and the other is that it could be an interesting solution for those who are reasonably isolated from makerspaces/hacklabs/fablabs etc

EDIT.. It just occurred to me.. the premise for teaching skills in safe environments here is also a massive bonus.. people could learn about how to perform machining operations either for the first time or on a new machine in virtualisation before potentially hazardous meatspace work.

I don't have the skills to realise this but am probably going to have a tinker around the idea.. I have a google cardboard kit somewhere and this video about creating VR environments in Unity might give me a start.




1 comment:

Raymond said...

I'm definitely interested in this idea. Been fascinated with online meeting places for many years and with the recent uptick in VR, we might actually get the metaverse we've always wanted. I'm also one of the founding members of Makers Local 256 in Huntsville, AL so you can see how overlapping these ideas is of interest to me. Basically you could do any of the things you've always wanted to do at your local hackerspace but couldn't due to lack of space. Permanent physics displays or mechanical linkage displays. Whole rooms dedicated to a single project. Endless possibilities really.