Virtual Reality: Take Two… Or Three

The most hyped and quickly failed technology to date is back: Virtual reality (VR). The once ‘has been’ is quickly becoming the next new thing in wearable technology. You’ve got to give it to them in the 90s, they tried. Oh boy did they try. There were certainly plenty of options available but it never quite worked, we wanted to jump on board this trend but we were left hanging as VR took off, crashed… and burned. Let’s reminisce shall we?

We have the marvellous spectacle you see above: The Virtuality Group’s system. They forgot all about ‘the look’ and went for a full-body immersive experience with a harnessed arena system. Possibly a more interactive experience, however incredibly impractical. Add to this impracticality an unbelievable price tag in the tens of thousands and its reluctance to take-off start to make a touch more sense.

Next we have the i-glasses, brought out by Virtual I/O (You’ll see no chrome around these bad boys and so certainly not affiliate with Apple i technology we know today). These were a lighter virtual reality experience than the full-blown body harness Virtuality started with. The headset was capable of stereoscopic 3D (the illusion of depth) with colour — yes! colour! These bad boys even featured head tracking… but that’s as far as human interactivity was taken. The i-glasses technology was still quite impressive and at the forefront of the virtual reality buzz.

With the price tag sitting just under $1000 the i-glasses may have limited their shot at the original virtual reality market.

Of course, if we are going to discuss virtual reality there is no going past the 1990s iconic pack leader — the Nintendo Virtual Boy. Why was it the pack leader? Honestly. I have no damn idea. The thing was terrible! It had pathetic graphics (even for its time) no head or hand tracking and didn’t even sport the full rainbow! A dull, over developed television was the end result. But hey, it was cheap and Nintendo are gaming legends, you just don’t mess with that. I tip my blogger-esk fedora to the Virtual Boy marketing team — demos for kids to fight over in blockbuster stores while the parents of these screaming kids can get some peace and quiet as they search for their family flick. Brilliant.

Disappointingly the virtual reality buzz didn’t make it out of the 90s. We stopped featuring VR in blockbuster films (a true sign of the beginning of the end) and the headset finally came off. Times were a-changing.

So what’s new? What could possibly have improved thus far in virtual reality that powers this dramatic possibly humiliating come back?

Well, some things will never change — the Virtuix Omni system for instance chose to pay homage to the 90s Virtuality but this time you need ten pin bowling style shoes! For the majority of VR systems however, there are the obvious improvements in: graphics, frame rates and high definition screens sizeable for goofy goggles centimetres from the eyes. These changes will rebuff the many issues of dizziness and headaches of 90s styled headsets. The overall style has remained the same with small modern changes, still clunky in many obvious ways (who actually thinks these headsets look anything but ridiculous?). The general price looks to be significantly cheaper than its inferior original with most headsets starting at an expected $500 RRP (half the price of front-running 90s models). The experience is improved — scientists have learnt how to trick the human brain into accepting a view of our own body as ‘invisible’.

It’s the future of virtual reality that has changed most. When VR first made the scene its only vision was gaming. This time around virtual reality is looking further than providing just the immersive gaming experience. VR is in a training of sorts, engineers are hoping for a 10 year growth time line at the end of which VR will have blossomed into a lifestyle. Doctor’s appointments for rural patients, study worldwide, work up the courage with public speaking practice and face phobias such as: snakes, planes, small spaces, large spaces and everything in-between.

We’ve got plenty of companies vying for the first bite of a fresh VR market share, Sony are bringing out the epically named “Project Morpheus” for the Playstation 4. True Player Gear, a new start-up company, are releasing the “Totem” in early 2016. Microsoft continues to rest on their laurels with the Kinect system integrating VR while the others fight for top spot. But that one you’ve heard of, the one surrounded by serious debate is of course “Oculus Rift” (also fairly epically named). Oculus VR has been so widely disputed for two main reasons:

1) Mark Zuckerberg threw 2 billion dollars around recently and bought the front runner

and

2) As a direct result of this Markus “Notch” Persson (creator of Minecraft) very publicly backed out of the new Minecraft created specifically for the virtual reality world.

Notch was concerned for the future of gaming under the facebook creator and many agree. After the 90s fiasco it’s understandable, no one wants a rehash of second life. Although the full extent of its gaming style has yet to be advertised, I’m hoping for a virtual skyrim adventure — or hell, if I got to race Mario, Bowser and Yoshi around Rainbow Road in the full VR experience I’d be one happy girl.

So the question is: are we ready for this revamp of a 90s flop? If the 4.2 million dollars crowdfunded via kickstarter is anything to go by I’d say we’re on the edge of our seats. So don’t mess it up Zuckerberg.