Something I never knew I needed in my life
Holodeck like Tech
So one evening you get asked a question, “would you like a couple of gadgets”.
Hell YEAH!
After enduring the financial stretch and numerous lockdowns I have few new toys in my arsenal but even then I was truly blown away when they arrived.
Firstly the Oculus Quest 2 is a virtual reality headset with two controllers and hand tracking. It’s a totally immersive experience from mixing potions and zeros gravity Frisbee to swimming with sharks and rays.
I never thought I would find it as captivating as I have even for watching research videos ‘hands free’ while sat on the sofa.
My Biggest Gasp
For those of you who watched the tv show MythBusters, Adam Savage is a very recognisable face and he has a VR workshop experience where you can browse and watch builds in his studio. One one build I paused the footage, I had spotted a camera on a beefy tripod and was curious what gear was used to record with. I can’t help it, it’s the camera nerd inside me. As look around my gaze moved up to the high wall to the right of the camera and I physically gasped out aloud. On the wall was a full life-sized Han Solo frozen in carbonite!
For any film buff that’s an iconic sight immediately connecting Star Wars with Adam’s history with being a special effects designer. A testament to what you can do when you put time and effort into a project when I realise he’s made that.
I am totally convinced that seeing the scene on my computer screen would not have had that same impact. Rather than looking at a flat screen I had “looked up” and spotting it hanging there unobtrusively. That to me was a clear indication as to how drawn in the user becomes in the whole VR experience.
I would like to change my online gamer tag now to
‘Oculus Prime’
Well ok maybe not..
My co-ordination is currently nothing for any serious gamers to be concerned with.
It’s a great gadget to whip on and power up at the end of the day once my son is in bed.
So far nothing in the house has been broken by my flailing arms….yet.
The Oculus Quest 2 is something I definitely never knew I needed in my life.
Onto Gadget Number Two
You would be forgiven for thinking it’s an ordinary photo frame, I mean I am a photographer so prints and frames are obviously my domain. However this is something a bit more smarter than that!
As a photographer I am hopeless at printing my own photos, it’s because I can never decide on which ones to hang on the wall because I take literally thousands.
Introduce the Nixplay smart photo frame!
This cool gadget boasts a 9.7 inch 2K screen. Dam it’s sharp and does my work justice!! It also comes with a it’s own magnetic remote control that snaps behind if you want to take control and connects wirelessly to your mobile devices allowing you to create playlists.
A slight drawback is it needs to stay plugged into the mains with a cable to work. But with it’s motion sensor for energy saving settings this is now a perfect way for me to load up a play list and show off 1000’s of my latest images without me needing to spend an eternity trying to decide what to send to the print labs.
Definitely going to be a gadget that I can’t live without.