Against boredom: Flat becomes a mixed reality game

Creativity is needed to escape the Corona-induced camp fever. What could be better than VR? A developer reprograms his flat into a mixed reality game without further ado.

Greg Madison lives in two realities at once. Earlier this year, the developer released a video that shows a Virtual Reality-version of his flat. Madison had digitally recreated his physical dwelling, complete with furniture, to the millimetre and superimposed it on the real home.

With the Oculus Quest, he has since been able to move around in a pixel version of his flat and do things there that would not be possible in physical reality. The surface of a table becomes a Google Maps map, virtual sheet music floats above the keyboard and the armrest of an armchair is equipped with a digital menu that can be used to operate a monitor floating in the room.

Space Invaders in the Mixed Reality Era

The Corona crisis taught us that necessity is the mother of invention, which is why we are now converting the flat into a digital playroom.

Madison's mixed reality video game is called Room Invaders, in reference to the classic 1978 arcade video game Space Invaders. Using a bow and arrow and a blaster, Madison fights off alien creatures that invade his flat from the outside or have already taken up residence in it.

The digital replica of his flat is so accurate that arrows get stuck in narrow window jambs and that Madison can take cover in his kitchen. "If you're going to be cooped up in your flat all day, you might as well make it entertaining," Madison comments on his mixed reality demo.

No distant science fiction

He plans to present the software behind it soon on the Sidequest so that owners of an Oculus Quest can try it out for free. A video tutorial is also planned, which explains how to digitally recreate your own home.

Madison's experiment is not just for entertainment. It is an attempt to show the potential of Mixed Reality with today's technical means.

Advanced MR technology is already in development: the next generation of VR glasses should already be able to digitally reconstruct the physical environment by means of integrated cameras, so that, for example, one's own home can be expanded with digital elements at will.

Well then, nobody can get bored with VR equipment...

Source: Mixed