The media publicity encompassing Virtual Reality is gradually subsiding, yet the innovation remains. How might it change our regular day-to-day existences, and how potential treat glasses hold for organizations?
Virtual Reality (VR) has become a ubiquitous topic, embraced enthusiastically across industries. And promising nothing less than a revolution in digital content consumption. The technology is not only celebrated by early adopters and technology enthusiasts. More and more large companies such as IKEA. Or Audi is also making its products accessible to potential customers using VR. Furthermore, past the areas of correspondence and amusement, there is additionally extraordinary potential in instruction, exploration, medication, and treatment.
But what is VR anyway and how will it change our media usage behavior in the future?
VR initially describes an artificial reality created by special hardware and software. This can be a realistic archaeological visit to past cultures or a simulated flight in a spaceship. But also a true-to-scale tour of a building project. All this is difficult to compare with existing 3D technologies. and even more difficult to describe without experiencing VR yourself.
The core of modern VR hardware is the VR glasses (or headset, head-mounted display). With two high-resolution displays to display artificially generated images. A sensor system is coupled to them to record the location and position of the head. If less than 11 milliseconds elapse between the sensors and the display of an image. The so-called sensor-to-photon latency . The impression of being “present” in virtual reality is created (“Presence”).
There are currently two classes of VR devices available on the market:
- High-end headsets such as the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive, co-designed by the game developer. Valve, which is connected to a conventional PC
- Mobile headsets like Google Daydream, Samsung GearVR, or the cardboard Google Cardboard. Which are significantly cheaper and work with smartphones
In addition, Sony is working on its Playstation VR system. Which is to be released for the Playstation 4 at the end of 2016. Microsoft is currently developing the holographic augmented reality solution Hololens. Major chip manufacturers such as AMD and NVIDIA are also researching their own VR modules.
Pioneers in the technology industry assume that VR will shape our everyday lives. Change our media consumption in the years to come. In addition to games and VR experiences such as climbing Mount Everest or a documentary trip to Pripyat. In the ” Chernobyl VR Project “. VR could then also have a strong influence on media, industry, design, architecture, science, education, medicine, communication. Well on society as a whole. According to a recent forecast by Goldman-Sachs, VR revenues will overtake the TV market by 2025. Like televisions, PCs, or game consoles today, VR headsets could then be standard equipment in many households. Today we are at the very beginning of a very exciting time as programmers, media professionals and artists try to penetrate this new technology and create innovative experiences.
VR is a technology driver
VR is a technology driver in many respects because the demands on-chip speeds, display quality, and efficient software are extremely high. At the moment, most applications are just logical further developments of what has already been experienced. However, VR makes these applications easier to implement, more immersive, and adds an extra layer of interaction, as these examples show:
- IKEA customers can walk through their new kitchen from the comfort of their own home. true to scale and with realistic graphics.
- The car manufacturer Audi is installing VR stations in its showrooms, where customers can examine any car configuration almost exactly as it should be.
- The entertainment world is progressively putting resources into VR films, including the “Story Studio” established by Oculus itself.
- Sporting events could also be broadcast in VR shortly, from the perspective of a top seat right inside the stadium.
- Gamers can experience space battles with maximum immersion directly from the cockpit.
- Consumers of digital adult entertainment can interact with realistically rendered digital replicas of their favorite performers.
- The technology is also already being used in the fields of science, therapy, and medicine:
- Treatment of phantom limb pain in amputation patients
- VR-assisted medical diagnostics, surgical technique training, telemedicine, and expanded surgical field of vision
- Therapy for soldiers with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). As per different examinations, VR can likewise be utilized to treat other uneasiness issues.
- Simulations in the training of pilots, astronauts, train drivers, etc.
If you believe the prediction of the game designer Jesse Schell at the Game Developers Conference 2016, we will be able to experience beloved memories again and in unprecedented immersion with the help of self-made VR home videos as early as 2025.
Experienced in VR
But it gets really interesting when content is created that can only be experienced in VR or when combined with other technologies to create something completely new. In the words of John Lasseter, Producer and Chief Creative Officer at Pixar Animation Studios, “It’s not the technology that entertains people, it’s what you do with the technology.”
For example, an almost infinitely large, freely configurable virtual space would be conceivable, in which millions of networked people from all over the world communicate and interact together and free of language and physical barriers. This space could be an egalitarian utopia in which origin, age, skin color, physical disabilities, and language no longer play a role. Or a loud, colorful nightmare permeated by advertising and manipulation, into which the masses flee from reality. Social detachment from the real world, escaping into a probably more delightful world and the related danger of enslavement is not kidding issues, tantamount to conversations about multiplayer internet games like “Universe of Warcraft”.
But no matter which direction VR takes, the technology is already here and it’s not going away. Following the general development trend of technology, the next generation of headsets will be cheaper, smaller, lighter, and more comfortable and thus will probably find their way into the mass market. Above all, the ideas of the creative people are in demand to create unique content. Given the speed at which VR innovation is created, these thoughts can in a general sense change numerous parts of our lives.