Let's face it, I am a terrible driver and my human is even worse. But neither of us resisted to try DriveOn, a driving simulator made by Smor-Team. It all happened during the Sinergija '07 conference last week in Novi Sad, Serbia.
Student interacts with the simulator using real car controls looking at 60-360 degrees surrounding view, while the instructor controls the simulation over the Instructor Station.
While tech specs and hardware stuff were in the spotlight, I wanted to try the immersivenes of the thing.
The place where all happened was a perfect for such tryout. Surrounding is everything but an interior of the car on a street. Lots of people mingling around, spectators behind the back, loud music and other noise, all the distractions…. But the 180* view-field on big beams is occupying the eyes. The wheel, pedals and the transmission gives the feel under the fingers and feet. For this occasion the system lacked the actual body of the automobile but that part is easy to be done, and though it will improve the feeling it isn't quite necessary.
But, was it the real feeling? I don't know what to say. It was for a while. The first time I saw the edge of the sim it pumped a bit of adrenaline. You know you have the firm ground under the seat but still. Reflexes works nice to avoid crashing into other cars and buildings. Those are tiny degrees of perception, but it was not just like playing a driving game. After a while I started being crazy, bumping other cars and adding gas to jump over the border of the sim and see the city from the above.
One thing that really grabbed my attention was a feeling of nuisance after "getting out of the car". As a friend stated: "My eyes tell me I am moving, but my body tells me I am not."I asked the guys from the Smor-team about it, and yes, many people have that problem. It is the result of the good simulation. It is also a potential problem for further exploitation.
Anyway, system seems to be a great tool for learning. One can get practice in safe environment (both for the traffic and for a machine) and the possibility of simulated situations is a great add-on to existing driving curriculum. But, it is not a definitive test of one's driving skills.
One more question remains: does the "game" effect, the feeling that it is safe to run through the approaching car leaves the train in user's brain? The trail that could come up as an involuntar and instinctive reaction in the fragment of the second in which lives are in risk? I am not buying the story that every game we play can come out and to make us behave iRL like we do in games. I don't buy the theory that cartoons will make kids shooting each other with giant shotguns. But, I am considering that if we do some things long enough those things can come out faster than our possibility to recognize that the actual situation is not the simulation.
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