From headsets to haptic suits, there is going to be a lot of accessories and apparel in XR to chose from, including some that expand senses you didn't even know were XR-compatible. Antony Vitillo – AKA Skarred Ghost – drops in to discuss different devices with Alan, their use cases, and what companies should consider when they go shopping for some.

Alan: Today's guest is Antony

Vitillo, better known as Skarred Ghost. Antony is an XR consultant

and author of an amazing blog called The Ghost Howls. He also runs a

consulting company called New Technology Walkers, where they develop

VR solutions and advise companies about how best to use VR and AR.

Antony recently traveled to the fourth annual VIVE Ecosystem

Conference -- VEC -- in Shenzhen, China. If you're not already

following Tony, you can learn a lot by connecting with him on

LinkedIn and subscribing to his newsletter at skarredghost.com. Tony

welcome to the show.

Antony: Hello, Alan! Thanks for

this opportunity.

Alan: It's so great to have you

on the show. I had a wonderful opportunity to speak with you many

times, and we are both very, very passionate about virtual and

augmented reality. I want to just thank you for taking the time to be

on the show.

Antony: I'm very happy to be

with you. I'm happy to speak to you live, after so many messages

we've done on LinkedIn. Super happy to be here.

Alan: Let's just dive right in,

and we're going to try to bring as much value as we can to the

listeners today. We have a lot to go through; we're going to go

through all of the different hardware aspects involved in

Virtual/Mixed/Augmented Reality -- XR -- and it's not just the

headsets or headphones. You've got things like haptic suits, haptic

gloves. You've got touch-sensitive stimulators. You've got VR

headsets, AR headsets. You've got mobile phone-based AR, eye tracking

set devices, taste experiments, hot and cold devices, thermal

devices, and then tracking systems for motion capture, and of course,

treadmills for omni-directional walking. So there's a lot to unpack

here. Let's start at something crazy; haptic suits. Let's talk about

haptic suits, and why and where these would be used in any

industries.

Antony: I'm very interested to

have these suits, because they offer the promise of letting you use

your full body in VR. So, finally, you can be there with all your

body. You know, my first startup was about full-body in VR, but using

Kinect. So, a different approach, but I'm a big fan of having the

possibility to kick objects, to move your body in every possible way,

and see your full self replicated in VR.

The advantage of using the haptic suits

over other approaches, like the one that they used with Kinect, is

that you don't only have your full body -- your full movement -- in

VR, but you can also feel sensations. You can have haptic feedback.

So you can [feel] hot, cold. You can feel pain and whatever. It's

really full immersion; a bit like we have seen in the Ready Player

One movie. Wade Watts wore that expensive suit, to fully be inside

the Oasis. This is why I think they're very interesting, because they

can really enhance your visual experience; your sense of presence,

like your ancestors like to say.

Alan: So, let's unpack this for

a second, Tony. What would some of the practical use cases of this...

I can see one in military training, where you're in a virtual world,

you're in a hostile environment, and maybe something explodes behind

you -- a piece of shrapnel hits you -- and maybe it vibrates. Maybe

explain some other instances, where this could be used in enterprise.

Antony: I think about different

possibilities. Like, for instance, I was talking some time ago with

some psychologists, and this can be interesting for rehabilitation