The BlueShark helm. Clearly, someone was inspired by the Mozilla Firefox logo. Note the cameras attached to the ceiling for tracking objects.
The Oculus Rift isn't the only VR headgear in the lab. This Wide5 HMD, developed by Fakespace Labs, has an even wider 140-degree field of view.
Glowing red LEDs allow this BlueShark system to track the user's hands, head, and chair. The screen to his left is just an ordinary piece of glass, but it acts just like a giant touchscreen to anyone using the headset.
An interface for helm control of a ship. Note the position of his hands, floating above the controls a la Minority Report rather than touching them directly.
While virtual reality is a hot topic right now, BlueShark is primarily about immersive collaboration: a shared virtual world lets different people with different interfaces interact simultaneously. Here, three men collaborate to fix a robotic arm. After the data guru on the right sifts through 3D schematics with a touchscreen interface, the mechanical engineer at center pulls a 3D model apart, piece by piece, with a stylus. At left, the mechanic can flip down a pair of lenses to get a 3D view of the dissected model on a tablet before attempting fixes.