- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
At the upcoming SXSW Conference… Honda will give attendees a chance to try out a new mobility device… specifically designed for mixed reality entertainment experiences.
Users can steer… without the use of their hands — they simply have to lean into one direction to move forwards, backwards, sideways or diagonally.
As someone who uses a chair regularly…
-
No back support. Whoever sits on that will be hating life in less than 20 minutes.
-
Leaning to make the chair move, what if I’m just uncomfortable and need to change position?
-
The little caster wheels at each corner are useless and will get caught on any imperfection in the road or texture change, bringing the chair to a halt.
Did they actually, you know, talk to any disabled people while designing this?
There’s a really cool episode of the podcast Factually touching on what you’re talking about.
(Side note, I’ve never seen this website but I really dig that it has question and answer summaries on the bottom. That was super cool.)
Edit: also, as somebody who is disabled who can’t lean forward without intense pain, these wheelchairs would be hell.
Did they actually, you know, talk to any disabled people while designing this?
No, why would they when that’s not the target demographic or use case?
specifically designed for mixed reality entertainment experiences
Sounds like they’re not in use as mobility devices for the disabled but as a more interactive ride vehicle at an attraction, which also means the uncomfortableness is less of an issue and that they’ll likely be used in places where the caster wheels will be on smooth surfaces and not an issue
Frankly this sounds like a neat idea and could be something very cool, but we’ll have to see it in action first and the first generation or 2 are likely to suck monkey balls
Well, maybe the first generation or two wouldn’t suck if they had consulted people who use wheelchairs and know how they should be designed. Too bad they thought the same way you do and said ‘why bother’!
On top of what OP said, why aren’t disabled people one of the target demographics*? Its literally a gaming experience that is mobile was also being able to be super accessible physically for a lot of disabled people. It’s also bad design practices, you need to consider access from the start - trying to shoehorn it in later can lead to sub-par access measures, or much bigger re-designs, or worst case just, parts of it not being accessible at all.
-
I upvoted as soon as I saw the wall-e pic lol
Good, Gourd. Can we please just stop all this abstraction away from the real world? It’s all a little too Brave New World. We just need Soma and our AR goggles, and then we never need to leave the house again. 🤦
Too late … American pharmaceuticals basically medicate the entire world with all kinds of exotic drugs for all kinds of mental disorders, conditions and situations.
It’s so normalized now that most people don’t even acknowledge that they, their family, their friends or the people they know are taking some sort of anti depressant, anti psychotic, simulant or mood altering drug to treat some condition.
I get it some modern drugs are needed by some people to treat a debilitating condition but I refuse to believe that a large percentage of the world needs all these drugs on a regular basis.
People already sleep in SocialVR in VR headsets. Social Sleeping.
Thats just the tip of the spear.
Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t sleep in a VR headset. I can’t even sleep with a watch on.
Wtf?
We just need Soma
Maybe why our keepers are allowing pot to be legalized.
Lmao I don’t think pot is supposed to be the analog but probably in somebody’s mind, yes
Hasn’t a version of this existed like since at least 2015?
This path is disgusting
Soon, humans will forget how to walk
Wall•e
Exclusive to the American market I presume /s
No, the chair’s weight limit is 242 pounds. That’s not enough for the might of our bodacious temples.
First thought that comes to mind is ‘collision avoidance’.
Don’t move fast enough to dodge the dragon? Get hit by a bus. Adds realism.
I was literally on board a bus that damn near got in a head on with a wrong way driver when I received this.
Driving with a vr headset probably
The mixed reality actually makes this make sense.
The big draw back with that is weight and battery life. Throwing it on a scooter negates all that, only the display and audio needs to be in the head unit.
And hands free steering frees them up to navigate the mixed reality.
If they’re smart about it, it can monitor wait times and distance, maybe even how many are enroute to each ride. So no matter where you are, you know how long till your on any ride.
Like sure, dystopian as fuck.
But the people in Wall-E had a life sooooo much better than modern Americans. Unless there was some Morlock worker group we never saw
I watched Wall-E last weekend. They didn’t mention in the Buy-N-Large advertisement that the Morlock worker group was left on earth to starve when the upper class was sent to live on a luxury liner.
I mean, it’s not going to happen anyways.
No park would get these, because people would just zoom around the park and wait in huge lines.
They want people walking slow and getting tired so you buy a $10 fountain drink and $15 soft pretzel. The want parents tired and stopping at games/shops for a break and their kid begging for money