Ready Player One’s OASIS not far from reality

Futuristic avatars adorn the virtual reality landscape of the OASIS (Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation) in Ready Player One. For the uninitiated, the OASIS is the centerpiece of a post-modern society where much of the real world has degraded into slums due to some unspecified international issues. Instead, the residents of this dystopian world turn their attention to the OASIS, a virtual reality game designed by the awkward James Halliday, who declared at his death that an Easter egg placed in the game would enable its finder to inherit Halliday’s wealth along with control of the game itself.

Throughout the film, slum resident Wade Watts and his allies compete with evil corporate overlord Nolan Sorrento and his force of indentured servants to be the first to find the Easter egg. With virtual reality goggles and full-body haptic suits that enable users to experience physical sensations, Ready Player One may seem far-fetched.

But the technology is not as distant as it may appear. Recently, Italian software developer Enea Le Fons announced that he would be spending 30 days completing all tasks other than sleeping and eating in a virtual reality rendition of his own room, showing that many of our day-to-day tasks can be replicated in VR.

Of course, haptic suits are still some distance away from reaching the consumer market. Though expensive, full-body haptic suits are already available from companies like Teslasuit. “We wanted the Teslasuit to erase the difference between the virtual and the real worlds. The gaming market, entertainment and enterprise in VR and AR are currently the natural applications for this technology,” reads a Teslasuit press release. Beyond allowing users to feel objects in the virtual world, the wireless suit also enables sensations of change in temperature and even pain using electrostimulation.

Perhaps in several decades, an immersive world à la Ready Player One will be commercially viable. Unfortunately, the sophisticated equipment needed for the OASIS will most likely not be widely available in the short run. Perhaps it would be a good thing, at least for Art Zhang (12A), who remarked, “I didn’t watch [Ready Player One],” commenting that the retro references were too overwhelming.

Featured Image – The Manus VR glove development kit courtesy of Manus VR via Wikimedia commons