What
most of the Oculus Rift users were requesting was the ability to look for apps
on Oculus Home which was a very basic tool but was missing in Oculus virtual
reality environment. However, now users have the chance to use it now with help
of a search feature called Oculus Voice. Even though it is only available to a
limited number of users as it is a new update, it will help users work better
and enjoy better results. At this time, most of the users are forced to scroll
through dozens of apps, page by page, which is a time consuming process and
often become cumbersome and does not encourage users to explore the Oculus
store completely when they put on the Rift headset and open Oculus Home. In a
new video that was uploaded by a user who first used the new Oculus Voice
feature shows the ability to handle a number of Oculus Home functions beyond
search.
The
short video shows an Oculus Voice overlay on Oculus Home that offers the
ability to speak the commands like Find for searching for games and apps,
Launch for opening games and apps that the users have already purchased and
Recenter that helps to readjust the VR headset view and Cancel that to exit the
last voice command. This new option is represented by a microphone icon on
Oculus Home, which is situated next to the existing home, library and story
icons. Even though this does not appear on the existing Oculus Home
set-ups, a new support page on the Oculus website titled "How do I use
Oculus Voice to do things in VR?" explains in detail how the feature
works. According to the information given on the website, the feature currently
only works with English users and does not function when users use Bluetooth
headphones.
This
is no doubt a great accomplishment by Oculus that it has added a Voice Search
feature to Oculus Home on both desktop and Gear VR as it will make going
through the VR content library much easier than the old method of digging
through menus and thumbnails and wasting time when users are looking for
something in a hurry. Even though this feature has not been available to all
users, it is still something to look forward to and soon all the oculus users
will be able to see its wider distribution.
Control
VR is led by a team of industry veterans who are passionate about changing the
way people experience the world forever. By tackling projects of similar scope
they have designed and manufactured consumer hardware; built well-adopted
software development kits for multiple industries and are excited to build a
product that can so radically change the way people play their favorite video
games and communicate with each other. It is all about changing the way
people experience the world forever and providing developers the tools to
create the game-changing apps of tomorrow. With incredibly accurate inertial
sensors, ultra-low latency, and an ergonomic and intuitive design Control VR
offers a truly immersive experience that allows users to control and explore
world like never before.
The
VR industry is still trying to come up with ways to use user-interfaces in VR
most effectively. Oculus Home on Rift and Gear VR is a beginning but there are
still usability trouble that comes with the need to support a user base that
could be controlling the interface with some combination of their head and a
static input device like a touchpad, gamepad, or Oculus Remote or with motion
controllers like Touch, none of which have a method for quick keyboard input. We
use keyboards to search for everything on the computer and finding specific
items in the library or store means that users must look in the right
direction. with help of new Voice Search
feature that is still in beta and now available in Oculus Home on Rift and Gear
VR, it has become easier to get to exactly the app or group of apps the users
want, whether in the store or in their own library.
On
both headsets, the users can click the Voice Search button to search for apps
by category like racing, action or social to find the library page for specific
apps or to launch specific apps outright. In addition to this, both the
headsets can be used to perform a ‘Recenter’ action to get the headset
re-aligned in case you move. The Rift version can be conveniently activated
with the command “Hey Oculus”, in addition to clicking the button. At this
point though, it seems the voice activated command is only responsive when the
user is at Oculus Home, though hopefully it will be expanded into the Oculus
menu that can be called up while apps are running too, and into apps themselves.
It is being hoped that users will be able to use expanded capabilities to send
invites and do other friends list functions.
When
it was tested, the voice search on both the headsets worked really nicely and
accurately and while it can understand a reasonable breadth of variable inputs
for the same search such as finding social apps or showing social games, it is
not going to work like as AI assistant like Siri or
Alexa. However, users are hoping that there will be something like this as this
is really convenient and makes using Oculus really easy and simple. Audio is
also one of the strengths of Oculus Rift Control Center and it is making its
way to the top of all the technology that has been launched till now with help
of voice interface in VR. When using this technology, the users just have to
use the headphones and connect to the main home page and they will be able to
enjoy a totally new experience without moving from their place or using the
keyboard as voice interface will take care of everything for them and give them
a great way to enjoy.
Author
Bio:
Ashley
Sewell is writer of this article. She works for a Cheap
Dissertation Writing Service
company and often writes articles on social issues as well as on education and
tech.