Demoing the Rift at a Mini Maker Faire

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to demo the Rift at a Mini Maker Faire held at the Newark Museum. I went with IXR (a maker space group in Wall, NJ) that my family and I belong to. While we had originally planned on just demoing the lego / raspberry pi laptop my son built and 3d printing with the MakerBot Replicator 2, at the last minute I decided to bring the Rift to demo as well. I’m glad I did as it was a great experience seeing so many people try the Rift for the very first time.



The demo I showed was the GiganotosaurusVR demo by Meld media. There were a lot of people who wanted to try the Rift and that demo runs on a continuous loop, gives a good sense of what the Rift can do in less than 10 seconds, has a very low likelihood of causing motions sickness as you don’t move around in it, and kids love dinosaurs. It is also very amusing to see people flinch as it roars (without sound) down at them.

Virtually everyone who tried the Rift was impressed. I can’t count how many times I heard the word “Wow!” My favorite comment was: “I get to try a Rift, Oh my god! Really?! This is the best day of my life!” I was also surprised by how many people handed me their iPhones so they could get a picture of themselves trying it out. The only complaint I heard was “Where’s my body? When I look down I don’t have a body.” Not having a body really does weird people out.

Getting to share something I enjoy with others and seeing them love it too, was incredibly fun.