Aovr. A New Group.

[AOVR]

Hello, Hypography,

 

We would like to setup a new group to work in the VR field. We aren't going to shout about how we're making a "NerveGear" which is a fictional device. We aren't going to say we're going to beat DARPA. We aren't going to claim we're the best.

 

We've looked at past groups and seen a lack of coordination, a lack of maturity/focus, unreasonable goals, sometimes they say they want to exist and then fade... We've considered all this so we don't repeat the past. We are here to do actual work, focusing on reasonable deadlines, so we can grow, learn, and try to be a part of the VR boom. Our first order of business exemplifies that.

 

The first goal for our group is simple. Looking at existing designs but without copying from them, we will try to design (and build) a dry EEG headset for testing use within our group. The circuitry to amplify the power signals, the microcontroller code, the data bridge to the computer, the library to use said bridge with… The largest component we want to use is an AtMega with no software on it.

 

This sounds lackluster but can be a challenging task, from scratch. It will test our coordination as a team and being able to say, "We did it!" will feel great. It's a statement that we can do something, despite being small and made up of people from the internet.

 

We encourage all to join, yet we are trying to keep our group small and do actual work, so we will ask for a bit of info about you (skillset and such). I hope that can help show how serious we are. We won't take anyone purely for numbers.

 

Here is a link: https://discord.gg/duE6tpd

 

We hope people do care about joining, and also hope that this isn't in violation of the rules (self-promotion isn't allowed yet this ontopic, has plenty of precedent, and is about creating a group with above ideals and a quick Discord we set up; nothing to promote except the concept). We have no intent to cause trouble :)

 

--The AOVR Founders

 

Edit: *"AOVR. A New Group." I hate when typos slip past you on launch day. They make you seem so unprofessional...

Edited March 11, 2017 by AOVR

[lordofharry]

Albeit being glad does not necessarily help you, I am indeed glad there is at least one serious sounding group working toward something like nervegear, of which you said is not your goal, but it is similar enough.

[AOVR]

There is more than one group working towards this goal. Publicly, I cite 17Robot's group (which accepted people from this forum, no longer does, yet still exists and does work, IIRC). Privately, I cite DARPA and numerous colleges (who may not be working towards a 'NerveGear' but are making great strides in the BCI VR field).

 

We are working on way smaller things for now, yet if we do well, we will tackle bigger projects.

 

Also, I dislike the term "NerveGear" as it is a fictional object. I think we (the community) need to think of a new term. "BCI VR" has been used yet doesn't describe just the end goal. "Full Dive" is also fictional... I've heard "True VR" and use that myself.

[BrainJackers]

I believe DARPA is trying to make somehting very similair to a True VR.

Here's a proposal form that DARPA made in January last year:

https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=d6357be260091fd05c950d159e3e9473

 

"DARPA seeks proposals to design, build, demonstrate, and validate a neural interface platform capable of recording from more than 1,000,000 neurons and stimulating more than 100,000 neurons in proposer-defined regions of the human auditory, visual and somatosensory cortex. The complete system must demonstrate high-precision detection, transduction, and encoding of neural activity."

 

Note the: "....human auditory, visual and somatosensory cortex."

 

 

--@weamy

[lordofharry]

Wow that document does sound really promising. I read a few pages of the pdf for that and it really is talking about a high resolution device for reading tx and rx brain signals. 60 million USD is quite the incentive for it too. And it will be made open source it seems to, so NerveGear will be here possibly sooner than before assuming such an official thing gets someone to create it.