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A 'Mixed Reality' Ski Race Put Skiers in Three Countries on the Same Slope

Two virtual reality skiers raced a real skier down an Austrian piste.
​You don't get that problem in virtual reality. Image: ​Trysil/Flickr

Virtual reality is not a spectator sport.

This morning, I watched a livestream of a downhill ski race. Skiing is usually fun to watch—beautiful mountainous landscapes, impressive twists and turns, that "swoosh" of ski on snow.

But in the foreground of my viewing experience was a guy wearing Oculus Rift and holding ski poles in some kind of conference centre. Behind him was a split screen, in the bottom right a tantalising glimpse of an actual alpine view.

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I was watching what the​ organisers called the "world's first real-time 'mixed reality' ski race." 'Mixed reality,' because two people skiing in virtual reality were racing against a real skier on a real slope.

The technology behind this was developed by a European consortium called 3D​Live.

For the race, one VR skier at the Wea​rable Technologies Conference in Munich and one in Thessaloniki, Greece, took on a pro on the slopes of Schladming, Austria (researcher Vegard Engen from Southampton University, referred to only as "Dr V").

The two VR competitors could see each other, Dr V, and the slope through Oculus Rift headsets. They "skied" in front of a Kinect sensor on a PlayStation wakeboard that allowed them to ski side to side as you would to make a turn on snow. Meanwhile, Dr V had his own specialist eyewear—smart ski goggles with a display connected to an app that allowed him to see his rivals imposed on his real-life surroundings.

Michael Boniface, the project's technical lead from the University of Southampton, hosted the race in Munich. He explained in the livestream that the idea was to have people indoors and outdoors both participating in "real" activity.

Throughout the race, a few potential advantages and disadvantages became apparent. In the downhill speed race, real-life skier Dr V complained that there were quite a lot of people on the slope. "I'm ready to go fast but stay safe as well," he said. Being physically only a few inches off a conference room floor as opposed to halfway down a perilously busy mountain piste might allow for less safety fears and more speed. You're going 100 miles per hour but standing still, after all.​

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In an earlier race, however, one of the VR racers found himself a long way behind the other two. "I don't know whether it's the network latency or your performance," said Boniface.

The final downhill race saw a VR victor with the real world skier just a few seconds behind.

3DLive has developed similar immersive indoor-outdoor experiences for jogging and golf. It's meant as a way to participate in a multiplayer sport if you can't actually make it there, and the technology does provide some additional perks: the project site explains that you could have skiers of mixed ability (and speed) but the shared environment could keep them within the same area, so the slower skier doesn't feel left behind but the faster skier doesn't have to slow down.

While it might save you booking a ski trip, however, there's something to be said for real life.

Even Boniface expressed a vaguely wistful desire to be skiing with Dr V in Austria: "It looks much better than being in this business centre."​