Scientists build a 'Hallucination Machine' out of VR headset

Google Deepdream

In the future, you may not need to find psychedelic drugs to trip out — you may but need a VR headset.

Researchers from the University of Sussex's Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science take adult what they telephone call a 'Hallucination Machine' that pairs a VR headset with Google'southward open-source DeepDream figurer vision plan.

You lot may have seen DeepDream at piece of work in images like these, which may seem plausible at start, but quickly go scenic works of nonsense the longer you wait at them.

DeepDream uses a special kind of neural network made for analyzing visual imagery. Information technology achieves its trippy effects by finding and enhancing patterns in images — which tin can outcome in, for example, dogs where in that location shouldn't be dogs.

The Sussex scientists used this event on VR videos of natural scenes in order to test whether their car could "induce visual phenomenology" that was similar in quality to classic psychedelic drugs, and also whether it could evoke temporal baloney — a common side-effect of psychedelic trips in which ane'due south sense of time 'warps.'

The upshot of the outset test? Testers found that experiencing the Hallucination Machine was incredibly like to the hallucinations one might see when tripping on mushrooms. The 2nd exam, however, showed that the machine wasn't able to evoke the aforementioned sense of time-warping as psychedelic drugs.

Even without temporal distortion, notwithstanding, the researchers were able to conclude that their automobile provides a valuable new technique for simulating the visual experience of mind-altering drugs without the actual ingestion of those drugs.

Source: Nature Via: The Side by side Web