So this is a big question, which i’m not going to attempt to answer in one post, but i’ve been wanting to at least start for the past few weeks so here goes…
I think there were about 3 distinct experiences that i had which formed the foundation of my love and excitement for VR:
- The first time i tried Google Cardboard and thought, “This is actually kind of cool”
- The first time i tried Gear VR and thought, “Wow, this could really change things”
- The Christmas holiday, a few weeks after i got my Gear VR, which will forever be called ’How VR Stole Christmas!’… where my family became obsessed with VR with the help of a few Google Cardboards and my Gear VR, especially for my 60 year old dad!
Having worked in technology for over 10 years i’ve aways had a hard time explaining and sharing my passion for what i do, however watching my whole extended family and friends (ranging from 12 to 65 years old) put on a headset for the first time and be blown away is something i’ll never forget. This isn’t to say that my love for VR comes from the opportunity i see from a technical and business perspective, which i do, it’s more to highlight the excitement i see around a cutting edge technology that’s so accessible (from an experiential level) to such a broad array of people.
It was during this Christmas holiday that my brother (a tv and film director) and i started to play around with concepts for immersive 360 video as a gateway into building VR experiences. We had so much fun experimenting with different ideas and were shocked to see how “easy” it was to create something that was quite compelling… i’m sure we’ll look back at it pretty soon and laugh at the fidelity, but in that moment we felt like pioneers because we couldn’t find anyone else doing anything like it online.
When i got back to New York, the excitement of experimenting in immersive video was still fueling my curiosity in VR however like with any new interest the real world of work and life started to eat away at it. But that’s when i came across the podcast ‘The Voices of VR’. This incredible gem of a resource has really helped fuel my excitement by bringing me top quality curated content from the forefront of the modern day VR industry and community, whilst also introducing me to the decades of academic research that’s been done since Ivan Sutherland’s “Ultimate display” (i had no idea what that was either when i first heard of it on one of Kent’s podcasts). This is an important point that i want to stress because i feel this is something that’s really solidified my commitment and passion for VR. It seems as if every year the tech world introduces a new fad that people jump on (myself included) and it becomes this roller coast of emotion and opinion of concepts and buzz words… Agile, Lean, UX concepts and processes, designers that code, etc, etc. The sad thing is that a lot of these fads are based on really interesting and valuable ideas however they get torn apart and diluted in an effort to implement it into organizations as quickly as possible without really understanding why they’re doing it, or if it’s even a good idea to do so, in the first place. I feel that part of the reason this tends to happen so frequently is because these concepts are just concepts that require research and testing within real organizations and teams, which in reality is extremely hard to do unless you’re the owner of the company or a team leader that has complete authority and ownership of their team’s schedule and work. Even then, you still need to work within the context of your organization and/or clients… it’s just really hard to do! So from my experience, what eventually happens is that people take these concepts and merge them into a hybrid of the theory and practical application.
Now, i understand i’ve gone on a bit of rant but i’m coming back to the point… what i’ve loved about learning and exploring the VR industry is that there are already buzz words which are popping up in the modern day consumer ready VR industry e.g. presence, the uncanny valley, the Swayze effect (one of my personal favorite terms), body ownership. Now, if the consumer ready VR industry was just another tech fad i can totally see people jumping on these buzzwords without really understanding or exploring what they really mean, why they’re important and how it applies to their specific situation. What would eventually end up happening is a slew of “OK’ apps and experiences would start to pop up that just take advantage of the novelty of the new technology and then within a few months people will be looking for the next fad because everything that’s been created would have, for the most part, been just ‘OK’. Having personally seen the impact of this new technology, that i genuinely believe can really change everything, the thought of it becoming just another fad makes me feel sick… but learning that these ‘buzz words’ are actually based on decades of research drive academic and military work gives me a sense of optimism, excitement and relief i haven’t felt before. So thanks Kent and to everyone on your show who are doing incredible work that i believe will realize the full potential of VR. I hope that i can also contribute soon in one way or another.
