Clearly, the ideal manifestations of these technologies have yet to come into existence, but that has not stopped us as humans from working towards them.  With that in mind, I have constantly wondered how far we can reach towards the ideal with the technology available today.  The current trend for such technologies has become almost dependent on the user(s) looking straight ahead at a flat image (whether it’s displayed on a screen or projected onto a wall). 
           For example, 3D technology in movies, TV, and games has very recently become incredibly popular.  However, one of the core shortcomings of this tech is that it relies on a single, flat screen.  Assuming the technology could in fact visually create images that pop out of the screen (which it is struggling with at present), the tech would still be broken.  Imagine an airplane flies toward the screen then breaks the image plane and flies out of the screen and passes above the user(s) head(s).  If the user(s) were to follow the airplane with their heads, the image would immediately be lost as soon as the user(s) began looking up at the airplane “flying over their head(s)” due to the fact that they would no longer be looking at the screen providing this image.  The incredible immersion that was just there is now instantly gone and the illusion/feeling is shattered.
           The same can be said for visually and physically “immersive” video games.  The Nintendo Wii was really the first popularized piece of technology that allowed today’s standard of physical immersion.  Now instead of using a combination of button presses and movements of joysticks, a person could swing his or her arm in the air and the onscreen character would swing a sword in the exact same way; a person could throw punches with the motion-tracking controller in hand, and the onscreen avatar would mimic the movements exactly; a person could physically move their arms and body to take a swing at a virtual golf ball providing an incredibly realistic feel for the game.  Due to the Wii’s unexpected boom in popularity, the two other major video gaming companies (Sony and Microsoft) have just recently released their respective technologies that allow physical movement to replace traditional buttons and joysticks.  While each technology has its own advantages and disadvantages, they all still rely on one thing in common – that the user(s) stare straight ahead at a single flat image while flailing their body around to control the game.  Sure it’s great that we can now physically kick our leg to kick a virtual soccer ball, but as soon as we look away from the screen, move too far to the side, or move behind some other object in the room, the limited immersion is immediately broken as the user can no longer see the image or the tracking device can no longer see the user.  It just seems silly that this technology allows for full body movement but limits that movement to only those facing the screen.