When I first heard that our class would be taking trips to the cave, I was very interested. I had heard all sorts of "whispers" about the cave (mostly from CS students), as if it was some kind of technological haven. However, I really didn't know what to expect.
After my brief (I honestly cannot believe I was there for thirty minutes) trip to the cave, a few things stood out in my mind. First of all, I couldn't help but think of a day when everyone has a cave in their house that serves as a sort of media hub for navigating through video games, reading their emails, watching 3-D movies, and getting dizzy from sympathetically flickering glasses. Additionally, I was disappointed that none of the cave pieces we experienced had a vertical element. Of course, they mostly spanned the height of the projection screens, but we could not "move" upward like we could forward and back or side to side. This gave me a feeling of constraint and I could not help but be reminded that I was in a virtual environment. Furthermore, I also found that one of the warning rules outside the cave helped to distance me from the cave experience. The clause stating that participants should not move to much (for fear of hitting walls) had me constantly looking for the walls, rather than ignoring their presence.
Collectively, my experience in the cave was extremely enjoyable, but I was constantly noting its limitations. I was very happy to find out later (again, from a friend of mine in CS) that the technology for the cave is very "outdated" and that it faces several potential upgrades in the future. Hopefully, it can move past its limitations and become a hub of navigable space and media consolidation.
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