VR Fish Tank (PatricioINTP & Xancha)

[Perlin]

An IT company in cooperation with a cutting edge medical based corporation started a project to allow safe and realistic virtual reality, and its now nearing completion. In a near by city where the company was located, they rented a building for the sole purpose of beta testing. And having a university that was just the right size was perfect, as a lottery for those interested in participating was sent out to it. Winners of this lottery will have the chance to be one of the first outside the development team to try out the state of the art hardware and software. The lottery was done, people were picked, and appointments made.

Its Sunday, 1 PM, when a batch of five university students were waiting to come in. A woman unlocked the front door and checked their names, and then told a payment for their college expenses will be delivered upon completion of a questionnaire, which can go for books and/or tuition. They can pick it up after the testing, but were encouraged to talk about the experience while in it. They then were led into the main room with the VR machines.

The VR machines resemble a fancy and sleek reclined chair with a large, hollow semi-sphere dominating the head side, and a number of medical monitors on the side. A middle aged 6 foot tall man was leading the beta, with four others for the other machines. His dress was formal casual, with slacks and a navy blue polo shirt. He was slim and seemed to just starting to prematurely bald, though he still had almost all of his hair. “Hello!”, he said with a large smile. “My name is Patrick and one of us will be guiding you through the process of setting up and running. Please choose one of the seats.”

 

[Xancha]

Annie was ecstatic to win the lottery for this new virtual reality world that her university had created as she was raised on video games her whole life. She remembered her first super Nintendo as a small child and even to this day she still played games on almost every video game station that came out, so being the first to test something so ground breaking was a dream come true to the young girl, especially since it was her first year of college and she was only 18, but then again their target audience was probably going to be her age.

The wait was horrible, and she almost lost her cool in that little room as she awaited the entry to her special reward for being so devoted to video games her whole life. She kneaded her thin pale hands in nervous anticipation and when the doors finally opened she bounced out of her seat and almost fell over as her brown hair got in her eyes. This feat of foolishness on her part didn't deter her as the prize that awaited her was far more important than the awkward stares she got from the other people in the waiting room.

During the introduction she was listening with amazing attention, despite her desire to begin the actual testing of the system, and if anyone was watching her, they would have noticed her eyes darting to the machines every now and then. When the man in front of her finished talking and asked the students to find a machine she was the first one in to the machine closest to her. She shook with excitement as it was so close now that the real world might as well have not existed anymore.

 

[Perlin]

Patrick noticed one of them, a young girl, who seemed the most anxious to begin while the others seem more average compared to the others. A few even looked nervous at all the equipment that was required. Seeing her grab the first one, he walked up to it and said, “Well then, I will be monitoring you with your stay with us. Not to mentioned I am one of the head designers for this system.” He starts on the preliminaries as he continued. “There is a lot here, but don’t be too intimidated by it. The system is in beta and we want to confirm data to the government that its perfectly safe. Me and my colleagues have used it without problems. But for the government to be happy, testing on a variety of people is needed. Now, close your eyes. What is your name?”

As Annie gave her answer, Patrick started to slide the head gear into place. He covered her ears with what resemble headphones, muffling all the other sounds in the room. Next came two tiny cushion like parts that covered her eyes. While deaf and blind to the rest of what is happening, she can feel him work as he attached things to her arms and body. She heard through the headphones his voice, calm and reassuring, as he explained everything he was doing. It took several minutes, “... but it will be worth it”, he promised. Finally came down the hollow semi-sphere. Annie felt something or several things being placed all over her head. “Relax now. The sudden jolt of entering may take some getting use to.”

Patrick went over to the console. Before kicking on the Sensory Output Generator, he first started the Feedback Input Monitor; SOG and FIM to the creators. SOG was the real beta test. FIM was technically just leaving alpha, and not being fully run. The medical portion was not only for regulation. FIM records the users biometrics so that if the user seems to be reacting to the simulation negatively, it can do an emergency shutdown of SOG. But it can do a lot more. It can control the body itself. Being in a roller coaster won’t feel real unless FIM fools the body into thinking it is feeling gravitational forces. It can increase or decrease heart rate, cause mild coughing and tears if one is exposed to smoke, and so forth. It does keep more negative aspects to a minimum. [Expect me to use this on your character, just to warn you] While FIM isn’t needed, without it the VR world will just appear to be a video game than the real thing and at the same time keep the user medically safe. Still, hearing FIM can do all of this was deemed, though necessary, potentially scary for new users. So its function and existence was kept from the participants. What wasn’t being used was it more brute force abilities. Amplify brain chemicals or inject drugs into the body. Fool the user to feel hungry or full. Things that can cause someone, who knows this is a simulation, great alarm if abused.

For Patrick, in or out of the VR world, it allowed him to monitor what Annie was experiencing along with her health condition. When FIM was up and running, he said through the headphones, “Starting the sensory output. This might be a bit jarring at first. Your brain expects to see nothing since your eyes are closed and covered. Take a few deep breaths and you should see it kick on in a few seconds.”

A robotic sounding woman’s voice came one saying, “Sog on”. Gradually, a ground and sky appeared, along with trees till the whole area was filled into a thick forest, covering the entire sky. The temperature got hotter, though FIM stopped when it detected Annie reaching the highest temperature she feels comfortable with. Next, sounds of birds filled the landscape and finally the smell of a rain forest. The robotic voice came on again. “Sog loading of sim finished. You are free to walk around.”

Patrick’s voice came back on. “You should have heard the computer. Please explore the environment and tell me how real it seems. Then I’ll run some things and see how you respond.” FIM reported all of Annie’s biometrics was normal. He looked at her, wondering who she is in real life.