The things we do for love, am I right? Recently, my wife had an MRI on her back, due to an increased amount of pain. Moreso than normal, and we found out that it’s due to a case of severe spinal stenosis. Pair that with Ankylosing spondylitis and you’ve got a recipe for discomfort. But, with her being the person she is, the first thing that she thought about was how she needed to make a pie for a coworker before the holiday season. That’s where the power of Passthrough and Meta Quest 3 came in to save the day.
Passthrough Came in Clutch During the Holiday Season
So, while I look like I would know a lot about pie, my knowledge of baking is surprisingly minimal. On the other hand, Katie is a master craftsperson when it comes to making delicious pastry. Combining our powers, we were able to work on this particular project in what turned out to be a bonding project for the ages.
I remembered seeing someone wearing a Meta Quest 3 while they were doing chores, so I was going to try doing the same thing. I figured that I could watch a tutorial or something while I tried to help her make these French Silk pies or something so she could stay seated and a little more comfortable. However, the next idea that randomly passed through my head was something brilliant, if I do say so myself. Since she was seated in the living room, why not Cast my display to the TV so she could see what I was doing?
So, I tried that. And the result was surprisingly intuitive. She could keep an eye on everything that I was doing while offering constructive criticism. The only problem was, I could hardly hear her over all of the machinery. While most hate the idea of Facebook infesting their headsets, I was genuinely thankful for it yesterday. I set up a call on Messenger, muted my audio, and kept her phone by her. She could keep playing her little fruit-matching game while talking to me when I needed help. I talk loud enough already that she didn’t need me on speakerphone.
So, we set off on our joint baking adventure to, technically, save her joints. I did all of the hard work while she got to watch everything unfold in real-time. And honestly? It worked out so much better than we could have ever expected that we may ned to try this again.
Is This the True Killer App for Virtual Reality Headsets?
There were a few downsides to all of this in the end. Sometimes, trying to read a recipe via Passthrough was a little cumbersome. It’s meant to just be read by the human eye, not through the lens of a virtual reality headset. But, even then, I could make out about 98% of the stuff that was on the page in front of me.
I also had to keep an eye on my battery throughout this little experiment. Casting is a quick way to decimate your battery life. By the time I was done preparing this French Silk pie, I was down to about 21% battery life. Granted, I was screwing around with YouTube for a little while before I started this new project, but that’s beyond the point.
It also did get extremely warm inside of the Meta Quest 3. Not only was the oven running, but I was running around the kitchen like a chicken with their virtual head cut off. If you randomly decide to try this out? Make sure that you have the right Cover attached to avoid any breakouts or rashes.
All in all? This was a surprisingly fun little gimmick to try out that benefited us both extremely well in the end. Katie got to stay seated and avoided any sort of additional strain on her back and body while we wait for the next steps in her health journey. And I got to learn how to make a delicious pie. Yes, I stole a little bit of the filling and I’m going to give myself a pat on the back for this one – it turned out delicious.
We Started Singin’ ‘Bye Bye Virtual Reality Pie’
For those wondering how it looked when it was done? Much better than I initially thought it would have. To be fair, Katie was in charge of the decoration. I was just in charge of… the rest of it. And honestly? I think this was such a fun little adventure that we’re going to try it again soon.
Sure, it’s extremely gimmicky, but it was surprisingly a fun way to learn a new craft. It also made something like this rather accessible to someone with a limited range of movement at the moment. I never would have thought that I was going to bake a pie in Virtual Reality in anything other than Cooking Simulator VR, but I guess there’s always time for something new.
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