VR parachuting is the future, and the height of weirdness
You're flying majestically through the air, all without getting in a plane. But to people around you, you look like a human energy pod from "The Matrix." Welcome to the future of virtual reality.
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Virtual reality was the talk of the show floor at Computex in Taiwan this year.
HTC was showing off three slick new VR experiences for its Vive headset, Microsoft was talking up the future of Windows Holographic, and we saw plenty of new VR headsets and even VR-friendly backpacks.
But it wouldn't be a trade show smack bang in the heart of Asia if there weren't a few strange VR experiences thrown into the mix.
Introducing VR Parachuting.
On show at the Cooler Master stand on the Computex main floor, the VR experience is run through an Oculus Rift headset, backed by one of Cooler Master's high-powered PCs.
Users are harnessed in and hooked up to a rig that suspends them mid-air. Then they're released into a free-hanging position, while the VR video shows them flying through the air over a simulated city. They'll even feel the wind in their hair, thanks to a fan at the base of the rig.
Revresh, the team behind ParaParachute, say they can run the experience for entertainment or training.
And there's certainly something very novel about extending a VR demo into a full-body experience.
But there's still something very strange about seeing someone wearing a black box strapped to their head, strung up in a harness and dangling above the ground, oblivious to their whereabouts.
As VR creators get more adventurous and mixed reality becomes more mainstream, is this what our future will look like?
Be sure to check out CNET's Computex hub for all our coverage from the show floor.