The Astonishing World of Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality for many is an escape from the perils of life and into a new world filled with a digital experience. VR to many seems like a new form of technology only appearing recently with tech companies such as Oculus working to provide an affordable gaming experience. However, VR can be traced back to 1950 when Morton Heilig introduced the idea of an Experienced Theater combining all senses in one experience to provide an immersive story-telling experience. The Sensorama was born, containing smells, sound, vibration, 3-D visuals, and wind. People realized this was a real possibility and thus the world of Virtual Reality began to bloom.

Today most Virtual Realities are accessed via headset such as Oculus, Google Cardboard, HTC Vive, just to name a few. All thanks to human biology and are depth perception VR headsets give each eye a different view of the world, along with gyroscopes and accelerometers to track head movements.

Virtual Reality and its applications:

So what can Virtual Reality provide to the general populace other than gaming or simple simulations? Well, the applications are endless from healthcare to training astronauts and providing a way to de-stress, the technology is truly remarkable. One of the biggest adopters of virtual-reality tech is the Healthcare industry, providing students with diagnostic images of ultrasounds or CAT scans to construct 3D models of a patient’s anatomy to determine the most efficient way to locate tumors or place surgical incisions.

Ford Motor Company has used VR technology such as the Oculus Rift to inspect the interior and exterior of a car, as well as have a seat inside of an automobile before it is manufactured. This virtual prototype allows for engineers from various departments to inspect elements of the car and find potential issues before they arise after manufacturing. Even the American Journal of Psychiatry researchers published information on how VR can provide a meditation experience to reduce stress and anxiety from daily life.

In game-like simulations, the United States military often uses VR to train soldiers before they deploy. The simulations allow teams to practice working together and replicate real-life scenarios and use tactical equipment that would be generically used during a mission.

Being able to go to these extremes is something we have never been able to do before. VR has been able to open up an entirely new lane of technology where the limitations of reality are not a problem. Imagine being able to use VR in High School or Elementary School to walk into the Universe to explore the Pyramids of Giza, providing a hands-on unforgettable experience.

From reality to the virtual world:

It is certainly possible to make the VR world feel just as real as the current world we live and breathe in. In our dreams, we can meet past presidents, conquer the world, and do whatever seems impossible all in minutes feeling just as real as any real experience in our lives. It’s not hard to trick the brain into thinking something is real, an experiment was done where a participant would put their hand underneath a box with another visible fake hand on top. At the same time, the experimenter will brush both hands tricking the participant that the fake hand is their real hand. This occurs because the part of the brain that controls inputs of visual and sensual information overrides the part of your brain that knows that hand isn’t real. The same could easily occur in VR and is the main goal of the technology.

This technology where users won’t know the difference between reality and virtual reality is far off from our current abilities but the thought of its uses is astonishing and endless. It could create a world where we are not limited by our own physical abilities. Maybe one day we will have so many different realities where it’s unusual to stay in the real world, whether that is a scary thought or not is up to you. Neuralink has made significant advances to read neurons from your brain and also send and create signals, allowing for mind-control except over your own reality. With enough of these electrodes, you could imagine yourself flying or swimming and literally create that reality.

The video game industry:

There is a multitude of VR games currently available. These games directly plunge the players into a real-life environment. However, the games currently available are very limiting due to the early stages of VR.

A major breakthrough in the VR gaming community was Half-Life Alyx. This VR gaming experience sets players to control Alyx Vance on a mission to seize a superweapon belonging to the alien combine. Players can use VR to interact with the environment using gravity gloves to manipulate objects. The significance of this VR game is that is considered by most to be a triple AAA game, made by Valve, who is historically one of the most successful game creators; creating one of the most popular marketplaces in gaming called Steam.

The videogame industry is an ever so growing industry with some believing it will reach over $300 billion by 2025. Last year alone VR was able to generate $6.3 billion by video content alone on sites like YouTube, Twitch, and Mixer.

Can it go mainstream?:

Big tech companies such as Samsung and Facebook have partnered with Gear VR. With big companies now investing and getting into VR some hope for the headsets and gear will become more affordable. One of the greatest holdbacks from VR becoming mainstream is the fact that it is far too expensive for what your getting. The average VR headset is placed around $400, however, the VR games that are currently available in the market are short compared to other storytelling games, and are extremely limited to what you can achieve.

With the VR market set to reach around USD 42.50 billion by 2025, we can expect that it will soon spark more companies. In a worldwide survey of technology company executives, startup founders, investors, and consultants, 59% believe that in the near future gaming investments with be primarily directed towards the development of VR technology. With this in mind, the future looks bright for the VR community.

Mobile VR experiences which provide a low-cost virtual reality experience can often be a first stepping point for many into virtual reality. There is also an expansive market for mobile gaming, with over 2.2 billion mobile gamers around the globe. VR headsets for mobile phones such as Samsung Gear and Google Daydream have also reached up to 82 million units sold.

5G has also made VR gaming more accessible. In May 2020, Archiact announced that it would be partnering with Migu to make Archiacts games that would be the first VR games to be playable via Migu’s 5G cloud gaming platform. They also stated that by working together they would be able to create the future of 5G VR cloud gaming making VR more accessible than ever.

Larger tech companies such as Apple have also been making a play in the VR tech industry. In May of 2020, Apple acquired NextVR to help Apples development of VR headsets. Facebook has also acquired Bay Area VR studio Sanzuru Games. Facebooks acquisition will advance their exploration in VR games, with Sanzuru Games creating a total of four titles for the popular Oculus Rift.

Final thoughts:

VR can be a fun immersive experience for people of all ages. It can be used in almost any industry to help train or inspect products. The VR experience is one that in the future will most likely become so realistic that it will be apart of our daily lives, with Neuralink making fast advances in neural and brain technology; soon our dreams will become reality. VR has also been rising in the gaming community with Half-Life Alyx and companies such as Archiact partnering with Migu to provide a more expansive and accessible VR experience to all.

“Virtual reality is the first step in a grand adventure into the landscape of the imagination.”-Frank Biocca