Skinning Reality

Most people are familiar with the idea of virtual reality -- any technology which allows people to perceive and interact with a computer-simulated environment. Real world examples range from flight simulators to virtual roller coasters; while fictional examples include The Matrix and Star Trek's Holodeck.

A related concept (and to me more interesting) is augmented reality, which combines elements of the real world with computer-generated overlays. Again there are real-world examples -- my favorite is the Cadillac Night Vision system, which uses thermal imaging to supplement what the driver sees on the road ahead. And there's no shortage of fictional uses of AR -- remember the scene in Minority report where Tom Cruise is subjected to interactive ads at the Gap ("Good afternoon, Mr. Yakamoto; How did you like that three-pack of tank tops you bought last time you were in?")

Working at Cycorp many years ago, I remember hearing Doug Lenat speculate about the day when we would each select what version of reality we'd like to see. If you really like the Flintstones, why not see the other cars on the road as if they were Flintstones cars? As long as you can see where the other cars are and how fast they're going, why does it matter what they look like to you? Kind of like a skinned software MP3 player -- as long as you see controls for 'play,' 'stop,' 'next song,' 'previous,' etc., who cares what they look like? (Actually, you care, which is the whole point of skinning!)

Vernor Vinge does a great job of fleshing out the idea, calling it consensual imaging. It plays an important role in his most recent novel Rainbow's End, and he referred to it in a recent address at the Austin Game Conference. Lord of the Rings fan? Why not superimpose LOTR images over the buildings, people, and animals that you see? Add faces and legs to the trees; houses can look like the Shire; people of short stature can be further squished into hobbits, while pointy ears turn lithe folks into elves. With a flip of a virtual switch, the annoying guy at work becomes Gollum -- you can even skin his voice! And best of all, you can share the fantasy with other LOTR fans.

Too geeky for you? It doesn't have to be LOTR -- that's the beauty of skins. You get to choose. Put a beach outside your city window, with swaying palm trees instead of icy cell-phone towers. Turn the sterile cubicles in your office into the huts in an Irish hamlet. A flower box here... a mossy rock there... the break room becomes O'Finnegan's pub. Make your coworkers more attractive (or less attractive!) Come home to a Frank Lloyd Wright home perched over a mountain stream, rather than a rusty old van down by the river. The possibilities are endless!

And you don't have to limit it to visual input. Take something like the Bose noise-canceling headphones, and selectively cancel just those noises you don't want. Replace them with something else. A hundred taxis with honking horns become cows gently mooing. Silence everyone else's cell phones and crying children, while still hearing your own.

And smells? Make cow manure smell like lilacs if you choose. It is a bit harder, but there are people working on it.

How about proprioception? Make your morning commute feel like a roller coaster ride. That's hard too -- maybe nano-devices to manipulate the cilia and kinocilia directly?

Ahh, the possibilities seem endless. I'll have to come back to this theme.