How good is virtual reality?
Virtual reality has become the rage these days. By virtual reality I mean the concept of total immersion in a computer-simulated world. There have been many advances in this new technology recently, but almost all of them involve using multimodel devices that present 3D vision and sound as well as body position and movement transponders that allow a computer to put us into a virtual world. The idea here is to trick our senses into thinking that we’re actually in this computer generated world. As you might imagine, this takes a lot of sophisticated technological gadgets to implement, and not surprisingly, the military has employed this idea to train combat pilots and even soldiers. Much of this more advanced VR technology is classified.
But, what is the status of virtual reality for the rest of us? First of all, most commercial VR devices are designed to play computer games and they consist of a headset. It seems as if everyone is making these things. Amazon, Oculus, Samsung, Sony and Google to name a few. The Oculus Rift is a prime example of VR headset technology, so much so that Facebook purchased Oculus for 2 billion. Yes, that’s a B! Sony’s Morpheus is designed specifically for its PlayStation consoles. Samsung Gear VR was developed with Oculus and is designed for the Note 4. Google’s Cardboard and Amazon’s unit are inexpensive. None of them are all that expensive, but they have limited capability.
Virtual Realities is a company dedicated to VR. It makes headsets, 3D controllers, head and hand tracking devices and VR software, but all of their equipment is expensive because it’s meant to be used for professional reasons such as pilot training.
Where is VR going? That a good question because it appears to be the technology of the future, which promises movies that one can be immersed in and high quality computer games that one can actually participate in with others.
Although there have been science fiction stories depicting virtual reality all the way back to the 1930’s, the term ‘Virtual Reality’ was coined by French playwright Antonin Artaud in his 1938 book ‘The Theater and its Double’. There have been many other novels and movies involving the concept, but when one thinks of ‘Total Immersion’, one recalls the Star Trek Holodeck where one could be in a scenario as if it were real. This idea suggests the use of holographic projection, an idea that has been tossed around in science fiction for some time. Obviously, holographic image projection would be the desired virtual reality methodology because one doesn’t need headsets or any other gear on ones person to participate in it. The scenes would surround one as one moves around in the virtual world. This technology is definitely in the future.
But wait! Could Microsoft be already using this idea in their ‘HoloLens’. This idea supposedly uses holograms in a headset to allow one to manipulate a virtual reality computer driven environment. I have no idea if it really works as described, but the video about it is impressive.
What’s even wilder about VR is the fact that people are already discussing its effect on society. They’re asking the question: is VR going to make us better people? Some studies have indicated that VR could promote pro-social behavior. That would depend on the application. I can’t believe that this would be the case if VR were used for First Person Shooter games. Maybe the military would like it for training soldiers, but it wouldn’t promote good social behavior.
I believe that this technology is destined for the future and it will become an important tool for product developers and architects. Just imagine what it would be like to walk through a building that only exists as a layout in a computer.
But, if VR is used in media, it will certainly drive children and teens into being totally immersed in their own little worlds oblivious to the real world. And, I can only imagine how VR will be incorporated into pornography. Good grief!
Thanks for reading.