Makigami Komaki wearing a virtual reality headset for a training simulation.
Augmented Reality (拡張現実 Kakuchō Genjitsu?) (AR for short) and Virtual Reality (仮想現実 Kasō Genjitsu?) (VR for short) refer to two similar forms of technology that provide users with a simulated experience, as well as the 'world' and experience provided by that technology. Augmented reality mixes the user's real world experience with virtual elements, while virtual reality involves the full experience of a virtual world.
Principles[]
Augmented Reality[]
Augmented Reality (拡張現実 Kakuchō Genjitsu?) (AR for short) refers to technology and the experience provided by it that combines the real world with virtual elements, often ones that the user can interact with in some way.
There are various means by which an augmented reality can be implemented, such as via an app on a phone or tablet with a camera,[1] and external monitors and surfaces implanted with technology to produce a display.[2]
AR games and apps can be utilized while the user is walking about, with certain services running games and events in or across specific public locations.[1][3] A positive feature of AR noted by Frenda Seivelun is that multiple different services can coexist at the same location, using it but not completely occupying it.[1]
Virtual Reality[]
Virtual Reality (仮想現実 Kasō Genjitsu?) (VR for short) refers to technology and the experience provided by it that involves an immersive simulated experience of a virtual world.
Shirai Kuroko holding a VR headset.
In its typical form, virtual reality involves a computer to run the virtual world,[4] a headset or goggles worn by the user to produce visuals/audio and to track head movements,[5][6][7][8] other interactive devices such as a controller or gloves,[6] wires where needed,[9] and sufficient space to move around without contact injury.[9][7] Children around the age of seven are considered too young to use VR goggles.[10]
In Academy City, besides the conventional approach,[6][10] people can also experience a simpler, cheaper form of virtual reality,[11][8][12] with an app on their smartphone and a rubber band to make their phone into improvised VR goggles,[11][8] though it lacks the full immersion that a proper system might have.[8] The city has been said to be in the age of smartphone VR.[11][10]
Virtual reality can be used for various purposes, entertainment or otherwise,[6][13][14][8][7][15][5][11] including gaming,[6][11] streaming,[13][16][14] remote conferencing,[8] and training exercises.[7] VR streaming and gaming is prevalent in Academy City.[10][13][17]
Other types of virtual reality have been conceptualized, some more advanced forms of which involve interfacing between computers and the human brain, and have been featured in science fiction stories. These virtual realities have some times been put forward by people as possibilities within Academy City, given the general technological advances within it, though their actual existence within the city has yet to be confirmed within the main story.[18][4]
Background[]
At least one year before the main story, VR streaming and gaming was prevalent in Academy City.[10][13][17]
Chronology[]
Toaru Anbu no Item[]
Enemy Item Arc[]
- Main article: Enemy Item Arc
During the events surrounding Item's mission against the Colosseum's management in the July a year before the main story, Frenda Seivelun mentioned that the Colosseum's dark web livestream supported VR headsets, allowing viewers to feel like they were there.[13][16] One of the Enemy Item's members, Inoue Laspezia, was also considering switching over from her body pillow collection to VR, given it could add any image to a blank pillow without data deteoriation or taking up extra space (something her leader Ibotanokikouji Kaede disliked), though the setup sounded like a pain to her.[9]
During the Summer City Flood Prevention Program, Frenda was playing an AR puzzle game, Giant Croc Hell Dungeon, on her tablet while her sister Fremea was playing in the water, with others nearby playing different games, with a couple playing a mountain stream trivia quiz and group of elementary-age boys playing as a party of adventurers exploring underwater cave depths.[1]
Toaru Kagaku no Railgun[]
Toaru Kagaku no Railgun SS2: Ability Demonstration Trip[]
- Main article: Toaru Kagaku no Railgun SS2: Ability Demonstration Trip
A screen using the Semi-Open AR.
An augmented reality system known as Semi-Open AR was utilized extensively at the cooperative institution-affiliated Russian shopping center that Misaka Mikoto visited for a demonstration in early July.[2]
Toaru Kagaku no Railgun: Cold Game[]
- Main article: Toaru Kagaku no Railgun: Cold Game
During her class's trip to School District 7 Central Anti-Skill Station, it was noted that Saten Ruiko would be more excited with a simple VR from a rubber band attached to her smartphone to glimpse a world of swords and magic, and it was also noted how hand-drawn portrait drawings on the board stood out in an age of smartphone VR.[11] Later, during the trial of Loophole for the Cold Sleep Murder Case, Mikoto, Shirai Kuroko and Uiharu Kazari used the phone-band VR approach to talk with Saten, safe in a witness waiting room in the courthouse, from a hospital lobby after checking on the victim's condition.[8]
Toaru Kagaku no Railgun (light novel)[]
- Main article: Toaru Kagaku no Railgun (light novel)
After a VR instruction video for making professional movie-style fake blood went viral, Saten viewed it and used its instructions to make fake blood to prank Uiharu,[14] only for Uiharu to turn the prank back on her with help from Kuroko and the same video instructions.[19] One of the cyber rumors noted during the ExitApp incident was one of a self-teaching VR that could increase a person's Level, with serious side-effects.[20]
Astral Buddy[]
Astral Buddy Arc[]
- Main article: Astral Buddy Arc
During her clash with Houjou Arei, Makigami Komaki thought back to a Judgment VR training session that she had undertaken with Shirai Kuroko, a simulated mission which had ended in failure.[7]
Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index[]
Kamisato Rescue Arc[]
- Main article: Kamisato Rescue Arc
On December 10th, during the 48 Hours to Restore Order, one of the rumors running through the Sphere network was that the heatwave and Elements never actually existed and the events were a large-scale virtual reality project run by Academy City's leadership.[18] This theory and its persistence were noted by Goryou Maya, who wondered if Karasuma Fran was behind the rumor but was disturbed by Useful Spider before she could look into it further.[18] The next day, it was revealed to have been spread by Tsuchimikado Motoharu in order to get into position where he could strike at Aleister Crowley for not doing anything to protect Tsuchimikado Maika as promised, ambushing him as he was about to capture Fran.[21]
Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index[]
Christmas Eve Arc[]
- Main article: Christmas Eve Arc
In December, Aogami Pierce had recently purchased some VR equipment but had been unsatisfied with the lack of sensations, resulting in him being hospitalized from a hand injury involving a boob mousepad and a microwave on December 24th.[15][22]
Christmas Day Arc[]
- Main article: Christmas Day Arc
During events on December 25th, Hamazura Shiage noticed some children gathered around empty areas with their phones, with it being noted that it was likely that an AR walking game was having a Christmas event.[3]
New Year's Arc[]
- Main article: New Year's Arc
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The Bologna Succubus holding a VR game controller.
On January 7th, the recovering Bologna Succubus was entertaining herself with one of Academy City's VR games at the Bridge Builders Cabal's newly acquired consulate. She was playing a VR FPS when Touma and several others brought her dinner share up to her room, and she had to quickly take action to stop Alice Anotherbible when she showed an interest in the game.[6]
Parody Stories[]
Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index: Will the Spiky-Haired Idiot See a Piping Hot Dream of His Wife?[]
- Main article: Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index: Will the Spiky-Haired Idiot See a Piping Hot Dream of His Wife?
While at a household appliance retail store, Kamijou Touma came across a set of VR goggles that could supposedly show an accurate prediction of the wearer's future wife and tried them out, with Misaka Mikoto and Shokuhou Misaki overhearing and reacting to his mumblings about what he was seeing or hoping for, while plotting to implant their own images somehow, only for the mention of a "dorm manager" requirement to discourage them.[5]
Ace Misaka Mikoto vs Queen Shokuhou Misaki!![]
- Main article: Ace Misaka Mikoto vs Queen Shokuhou Misaki!!
During a highly destructive clash with Shokuhou Misaki, after noticing certain discrepancies in the battle scenario, Misaka Mikoto began to suspect that the Academy City they were in was not real and considered an advanced virtual reality as a possibility. To test this, she attempted to send out an error-inducing electrical signal - noise which would recreate the 1s and 0s forming a computer virus, which would cause whatever computer running the virtual world to run a self-defense subroutine to prevent the noise appearing. The fact that she was able to emit the signal indicated to Mikoto that it was not a virtual reality.[4]
Trivia[]
Virtual Boy on Misaka 10032's head.
- In a parody scene in Toaru Majutsu no Index-tan, Misaka 10032 was depicted with a Virtual Boy in place of her goggles.[23] Released in 1995 by Nintendo, this portable video game console was portrayed as a type of virtual reality, though it lacked many immersive features associated with virtual reality (in part due to technological limitations at the time) and was ultimately a commercial failure, discontinued a year after release.
- While AR and VR have become more prominent in the real world since the beginning of the series, at present, all of the cases of AR and VR featured within the series (with the exception of the Virtual Boy joke),[23] have involved Academy City's technology, within the city or its cooperative institutions.[2]
External Links[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Toaru Anbu no Item Light Novel Volume 01 Chapter 3 Part 1
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Toaru Kagaku no Railgun SS2: Ability Demonstration Trip Chapter 1 Part 2
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 02 Chapter 2 Part 1
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Ace Misaka Mikoto vs Queen Shokuhou Misaki!! Chapter 1 Part 12
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index: Will the Spiky-Haired Idiot See a Piping Hot Dream of His Wife?
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 07 Chapter 3 Part 1
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Astral Buddy Manga Chapter 006
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 Toaru Kagaku no Railgun: Cold Game Part 7
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Toaru Anbu no Item Light Novel Volume 01 Chapter 3 Part 5
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Toaru Anbu no Item Light Novel Volume 02 Prologue
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 Toaru Kagaku no Railgun: Cold Game Part 1
- ↑ Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 08 Chapter 2 Part 5
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 Toaru Anbu no Item Light Novel Volume 01 Chapter 1 Part 4
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Toaru Kagaku no Railgun (light novel) Chapter 2 Part 1
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 01 Chapter 1 Part 4
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Toaru Anbu no Item Light Novel Volume 01 Chapter 2 Part 6
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Toaru Anbu no Item Light Novel Volume 03
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 17 Chapter 3 Part 1
- ↑ Toaru Kagaku no Railgun (light novel) Chapter 2 Part 4
- ↑ Toaru Kagaku no Railgun (light novel) Chapter 3 Part 2
- ↑ Shinyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 17 Epilogue
- ↑ Souyaku Toaru Majutsu no Index Light Novel Volume 02 Chapter 1 Part 1
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 Toaru Majutsu no Index-tan Episode 04