David Cole, a VR developer and human-dolphin relations enthusiast, wants everyone to play with dolphins. But most people will never make it to the areas in Florida, Mexico, and the Bahamas where human-dolphin swim facilities exist. So he and his friends (who call themselves a band of "hard-rocking neuroscientists") have developed an elegant way of bringing the dolphin-swim experience to people everywhere.
Cyberfin, a dolphin encounter simulator, isn't the standard "kill-anything-that-moves" VR we've all grown so bored with. No clunky headmounts, uncomfortable chairs, or motion-sickness headaches - Cyberfin qualifies as the first VR that's at least as comfortable as it is enticing. Lie back, on a heated "vibrasonic table," floating on a sea of liquid-crystal transducers that feels like something between a waterbed and a lava lamp. Add some ultrasonic transducers (nicknamed "neurophones") on the temples and conventional headphones with binaural sound, and Cyberfin can express what sound "feels" like to a dolphin.
Dolphins can stun prey with powerful sonic blasts; they can even recognize the signature whistles of their friends. As with most sea creatures, the ear has been emphasized over the eye. Cyberfin brings this refined ear to human beings: coupled with the vibrasonic table, dolphin clicks feel more like a massage than a message. Low-frequency sound waves pass through the body like an irresistible force, and - floating on a warm sea - you find it's easy to daydream that you're really playing with dolphins, somewhere off the Florida Keys.
When Cole displayed Cyberfin at SIGGRAPH in Orlando last summer, he found himself inundated with serious requests for Cyberfin installations from across the world; soon the Cancun Convention Center in Mexico will sport six Cyberfin simulators. Others should be appearing on the West Coast before Yuletide. Cyberfin probably won't be hard to find - one well-known proprietor of a chain of VR arcades was heard to exclaim, "We can charge more than five bucks for this!"
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