Project 366 / 209 — Virtual reality and the future

Is virtual reality (VR) really going to be the next big thing? In the last 20 years there have been a few big things — the internet, the smart phone and the app store to name but a few and many are saying that VR is destined to be next.

But what exactly is VR? Well the reason that everyone is getting so excited is that it lends itself and can incorporate itself into so much more than just the gaming fraternity. For example, Microsoft have been developing virtual reality functionality to accommodate pre-touch sensing for mobile interaction. Basically your smart phone will sense what you are intending to do before you’ve actually done it, therefore enabling the phone to be even smarter.

Virtual reality has the potential to change parts of our daily life the same way that smart phones and social media has. There’s a reason that Mark Zuckerberg spent $2billion acquiring Oculus — they’ve just released the Oculus app which allows people to connect through their smartphones on the Samsung Gear VR to chat to other users while watching films together in a 360 degree video atmosphere. Zucks is smart, he knows the way the technological future is going and is certain to be a part of it.

But the technology needs to be able to keep up. Historically technology has lacked the processing power to render a believable virtual reality and so has not captured the mass markets attention. Plus new technology is always cost prohibitive to the general public. But I think that’s all about to change, maybe not by 2020 but certainly not far after.

The world awaits and it doesn’t like waiting.