Virtual reality: The next frontier

From travel to expensive far-away places to practicing surgery & other hard to learn tasks to hanging out with friends without having to drive the car, virtual reality promises to transform our lives.

TECHNOLOGY 

Virtual Reality: The next frontier 

The Guardian in the UK this week ran a story on developments in the fast-moving world of virtual reality (VR) (see here).

Here are some of the highlights of the new technologies covered. 

OCULUS RIFT: FIRST SUCCESS STORY 

In 2010, the first prototype of the Oculus Rift VR headset was created. 

In 2012 a $250,000 Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign was used to finance the development of the technology raising $2.4 million in pledges. 

In 2014 Facebook bought Oculus Rift for $2 billion. 

The HTC Vive and the Sony PlayStation VR have since joined Oculus Rift with headset offerings for use with computers.

Samsung's Gear VR and Google Cardboard were created for use with mobile phones.  

Add a hand-held controller and headphones and you can simulate the experience of being in another world. 

WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH VIRTUAL REALITY? 

The race to create hit VR games and apps has started.

The idea is that virtual worlds will allow us to experience places too expensive, too dangerous or too far away to experience for yourself.

Virtual travel is likely to be one major growth area. 

For example, use a VR app to climb Mount Everest the highest mountain in the world, fly or jetski through the Grand Canyon exploring every little canyon and ravine, take boat ride through the canals of Bangkok 200 years ago when they were still the main mode of transport and getting around or wander around the surface of the planet Mars with the soon-to-be Mars 2030 app. 

AUGMENTED VS VIRTUAL REALITY 

The outside world is not part of a virtual world.

Augmented reality is like virtual reality but the virtual world is added to or overlaid on the real outside world.  

Pokemon Go is the most successful example of augmented reality to-date.  

As you walk around Lumpini Park in downtown Bangkok hunting Pokemon, the digital Pokemon characters will be overlain on the scenes from Lumpini Park in front of you.

The Google Glass high-tech eye glasses launched in 2014 also offered augmented reality but the idea failed to catch on, mainly because people did not want strangers or friends staring at them and becoming part of their secret augmented reality experiences.

The Snapchat lense that mangles faces, the DFS Sofa and Room Planner to see what new furniture looks like in your house or apartment and Mardles with 3D characters jumping out of stickers are other examples of mobile phone augmented reality apps.

Microsoft's HoloLens with offer augmented reality that can be used when playing popular games such as Minecraft. Magic Leap is another augmented reality product that will be available soon. 

360 DEGREE IMAGES VS VIRTUAL REALITY  

360-degree photos and videos are panoramic.  

This means you can turn your head to look around the 360 degrees of the photo or video, but they are not virtual worlds.

In a virtual world, you can move around the world or environment and explore the world, not just look at it or watch it from the one place where the image was captured. 

JOURNALISM & FILMMAKING 

360-degree cameras area already being used by journalists and film-makers.

The New York Times is experimenting with VR films as the Guardian is also doing with its 6x9 project exploring solitary confinement in prisons. 

SOCIAL MEDIA 

Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook has declared that virtual reality will be "the next big thing" in social media after photos and videos.

Watch online video with other people in a virtual world is part of Oculus's Social Beta software. In Toybox two people can play together in a "toy room" with a variety of different "toys".

One can well imagine a virtual reality chat or interaction that goes beyond webcam chats with avatars wandering around virtual worlds together.

This next upgrade to the common phone call is what AltspaceVR is working on. Avatar chat is already available on vTime using Gear VR, Oculus Rift and Google Cardboard.

SPORTS & MUSIC 

Watching sports events and music concerts in a virtual world will soon be possible in a virtual world. 

One could easily imagine a bird's eye view of the Tour de France bicycle race that stretches over much of France. 

The company NextVR focuses on sport and entertainment. Voke is working with stars in the entertainment industry. LiveLike is working on friends watching sports events together in a special custom-made virtual world.

MEDICINE 

Virtual reality will be used to train medical students dissecting virtual cadavers (dead bodies) or performing virtual surgery to practice and perfect their technique. 

Osso VR already offers surgery  with Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

For an extensive list of VR games, apps and links read the whole Guardian article here.  

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/10/virtual-reality-guide-headsets-apps-games-vr

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