Virtual Reality

Understanding where it came from and where it’s going

It all started when Facebook purchased Oculus in 2014. Before then, virtual reality was simply unreachable with previous means of technology. Although some people say it started with flight simulators, Ivan Sutherland’s “ultimate display,” or just the redefining of what it means to interact with a machine.

Ivan Sutherland’s experimental 3-d display © Mark Richards

I believe that the smartphone boom has solely contributed to the rise in virtual reality technology with the dramatic decrease in production costs of high-resolution LCD screens, movement gyroscopes and computer processors. Before the dramatic decrease in price, virtual reality still existed, but only as a concept.

Smartphone displays have changed drastically in the past four years. The innovation of 4k displays and the creation of small high-density displays has transformed virtual reality. Currently, most phone displays have more than 500 DPI (dots per square inch).

With the increase of DPI on smart phones, there is the rise of a consumer-grade solution for those wanting to experience Virtual Reality at their fingertips. Google Cardboard has contributed to the Virtual Reality scene by creating its own software that developers can contribute to in order to create their own games and experiences. Google Cardboard allows developers to utilize a cheap solution that Google is providing in order to bring an item to market in order to scale. Google Cardboard has been a significant jump in the consumer market for Virtual Reality and was only the beginning.

I believe that the sheer consumer demand for the original Oculus was also another contributing factor. Oculus was a prototype that could be built to scale and ultimately taken to market. By building to scale, Oculus was able to create an initial innovator’s headset and then ultimately transform into a full consumer oriented operation.

Will it stay a niche market? Although the price of headsets is simply a $15.00 Google Cardboard, it doesn’t give the same immersion as a consumer or professional grade headset. One downside is that Google Cardboard isn’t refined. It instead can utilize any smart phone with any number of third party headsets. Unlike HTC’s Vive and Samsung’s Oculus Gear VR, Google Cardboard doesn’t utilize its own display, instead it can be used with whatever smart phone is available.

HTC’s Vive and Samsung’s Oculus Gear VR were what brought VR to market. Samsung successfully gave out the Gear VR to those who preordered the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the Vive is the first mass-produced VR headset for computers as a peripheral.

I believe that Virtual Reality will change the way the world understands gaming, news and our own reality. Large companies have already begun investing in their own types of VR marketing, storytelling and gaming. The New York Times has created their own VR documentary app and website, IKEA is launching their product showrooms in VR, and Valve’s Steam has partnered with HTC’s Vive to recreate gaming experiences.

Virtual Reality has significantly changed since 1968 and has only changed because of the recent smartphone boom. I look forward to seeing where new technologies will lead us to explore not only our own world, but the worlds created for us.