The internet is awash with some great things: cats playing the piano, dogs riding on skateboards and even squirrels doing some waterskiing. But we have all had to experience the negative side of the web – and not just those dodgy pop-ups.
It is probably one of the more frustrating aspects of day-to-day life now, but lag – the moment when slow internet causes delays or disruptions – can be a nightmare when you're online.
But what if you wanted to experience a delay such as this in real life? You could choose to go and wait for a bus, but a Swedish company has got a better alternative. Internet providers ume.net performed an experiment with virtual reality technology Oculus Rift to see what experiencing lag IRL would be like. Goodbye buffering videos, hello buffering bus stops.
Using a Oculus Rift headset, a Raspberry Pi and some sound cancelling headphones, the Swede servers gave three volunteers the opportunity to live a lag-filled life. Everyday tasks, from making an omelette to putting milk back in the fridge, became a laborious task, leaving the participants with a lot of mess to clear up after the two-day test.
Although its only an advert campaign to promote their high-speed internet, have ume.net started a trend where the internet begins to merge with real life? Are we about to experience a robot Armageddon a la Terminator? For humankind’s sake, we hope that Arnie also has to put up with lag.
You can watch a first-person POV here:
