In the late 1980s, a little show called Star Trek: The Next Generation opened our collective minds to the possibility of holodecks. The room where Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew could explore any fantasy, adventure, or historical location, captivated our minds with possibilities and filled our hearts with longing. Well, it is now 2016 and real life Holodecks are beginning to take shape. One possible precursor to the final space-age experience is The Void and another famous space captain just took it for a test drive: Han Solo.
Now before you all start screaming at your screen that Solo was never a space captain but rather a smuggler turned reluctant rebellion general, or that he is a fictional character and the above picture is actually portraying actor Harrison Ford, or that I used Star Trek and not Star Wars to start this post, let me just say this: do not ruin this for me.
Ford (or Solo to the true believers out there) had the chance to go through the The Void’s specially made demo at TED 2016. If you can’t get on board with the Han Solo comparison than maybe this will whet your geek whistle: the experience Ford braved was apparently a Indiana Jones-style adventure.
In addition to the treasure-hunting experience, The Void’s TED demo is also the first reveal of the company’s new Rapture headset and vest system. The Rapture is said to offer a wider field of view, higher definition screens, advanced haptics, and an RF-Based tracking system. This tech might put it a step above any of the other headsets currently on their way to market such as the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive.
There is no official word on what Ford thought of the experience, but if that broad smile is any indication, his time in The Void was positive and 100 percent free of snakes.
Update: Since the time of writing, The Void confirmed via Twitter that Ford did indeed have a great time in the experience.
@UploadVR We didn't guarantee 0 snakes, but he still loved it!
— The VOID (@voidvr) February 17, 2016
