Virtual Reality (VR) blurs the line between the physical and digital worlds. And as Pokémon Go showed us in 2016, there’s a huge appetite for well-designed augmented reality games. While we can’t predict what game will get kids off the couch this coming summer, it wouldn’t be surprising if it comes in the mould of Pokémon Go.
Virtual Reality (VR) as a technology has its basis in the development of Stereographic Projections. Stereography attempts to produce an image analogous to binocular vision (3-dimensional depth perceptions). These projections are further used to build Immersive VR. Immersion in VR is a perception of being physically present in a non-physical world. It is best described in the words of Ivan Sutherland when in 1969 he described the “Ultimate Display” concept that was meant to simulate reality.
The Ultimate Display would, of course, be a room within which the computer can control the existence of matter. A chair displayed in such a room would be good enough to sit in. Handcuffs displayed in such a room would be confining, and a bullet displayed in such a room would be fatal. With appropriate programming, such a display could literally be the Wonderland into which Alice walked.”
VR as a concept has blurred our concept of reality and it is now interesting to note that we can actually talk of a Reality Virtuality Continuum with devices addressing each band of the Continuum. In Reality-Virtuality Continuum, at one extreme end is the real spatial world, followed by Augmented Reality & Augmented Virtuality and finally at the other extreme end is Virtual Reality. Augmented Reality is sometimes confused with Virtual Reality. Augmented Reality takes the real world of the present and projects digital information imagery and sound to it whereas Virtual Reality is completely in the digital realm. Augmented Virtuality is somewhere between these concepts of Augmented Reality and VR and involves the seamless merging of real objects in the virtual world. What seemed like a fantastical proposition in the movie Matrix is perhaps nearer than we thought!
The ubiquitous Head Mounted Display (HMD) is the most well-known VR device. Oculus Rift, Sony PlayStation VR, Samsung Gear VR, HTC Vive and Google’s Daydream are some of the well-known examples of HMD devices. These are completely immersive devices and the HMD is able to track your eye movements and also gives you the ability to interact with the other world. It blocks everything else out. All industry reports suggest a market of millions of units being sold. These devices are the future of the world of gaming and have been positioned accordingly.
The adoption of VR devices in the gaming industry has been slower than what was expected. One of the primary reasons is the cost of the devices. While the haptic suits and gloves are almost prohibitive in cost currently for large scale adoption, the VR HMDs also need to be moderately priced. A high-end product like the Oculus Rift is being offered at around $600 on Amazon. And that is just for the headset. The whole bundle with Oculus Touch and Earphones included takes the price to $1000 approximately. Add to that the cost of PC required to run the product. Though we now, also have sub $100 headsets like the Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear, the entry level cost needs to come down.
While gaming would be a major player in the VR world for some time to come, we are also witnessing the adoption of VR in other areas.
Architecture
VR allows the user to visualise the virtual building. The user can explore the building before it has been built and understand the design and make changes if required. The adoption can also be used to display future construction to prospective buyers and thus help in sales and marketing as well
Medicine
In medicine and healthcare, VR is used for training and education. The VR simulations provide an ideal medium for pre-operative planning, diagnosis and treatment.
Military
VR simulators are being widely used for training soldiers for war-like situations eliminating the requirement for training which can be too dangerous or complex.
Communication
VR has the ability to change the way people communicate. Virtual meeting rooms are a possibility with all participants experiencing the room from their own positions. There are at least 100 official Meetup.com groups for VR, everywhere from London to Dallas, and Bangalore to Dayton, Ohio.
The Melbourne Virtual Reality Meetup has about 400 members. Its founder Stefan Pernar bought the original Oculus Rift Developer Kit 1 (DK1) in late 2013 and soon went about putting together MVRM. Part of what the VR meetup scene signifies is a major difference between the virtual reality community in the past and present.
Now, anyone with the desire and $350 can order an Oculus Rift DK2 and start tinkering, without battling prohibitive costs that limit access to the tech.
It’s cheap enough that now we have hundreds of thousands working on all of the problems of VR as opposed to a couple hundred well-funded research labs.
And because of websites like Meetup.com or even Reddit, it's easy to find and either physically or digitally gather people focused on VR.
In short, the movement has opened up.