VR will reach mass markets through the living room.

Video games took over the living room, and then our pockets via mobile phones. VR will do the same.

Michael Eichenseer
Aug 8, 2017 · 3 min read
Sony’ PS4’s PSVR places VR into the living rooms of millions.

Sony has begun this with PSVR. Microsoft will follow. Every house with a PS4 or an Xbox will have VR in it as well. VR will be yet another viewer for the existing living room entertainment platforms. This is how users will begin to use VR on a daily basis.

Mobile VR will take longer to become fashionable.

While mobile may be the ultimate conclusion, there are billions to be made in living room VR. The hardware for mass appeal living room VR exists today and is beginning to reach approachable prices for the average consumer. Mobile VR must not only drop in price, it must become fashionable. An issue our private home living rooms do not share.

VR literacy starts in the living room. Through entertaining applications, usually in the form of gaming.

Within the VR games and experiences there wil be other potential uses of VR explored. Imagine in a VR RPG, i.e. Skyrim or Fallout, there are VR enabled features such as floating GUI and other visual three dimensional notifications that appeal to users. These same features can be easily adapted into AR/MR glasses.

What starts as a feature in a VR video game becomes a feature in a real world Augmented reality application.

Considering the hardware for fashionable augmented reality is further out than affordable living room VR, it makes sense for any company with a long term vision to invest in living room VR. Companies can explore uses for future augmented reality solutions within VR gamers and entertainment.

Gamers will be the first users of VR/AR in their daily lives outside of gaming. Them being the most comfortable with the idea of augmenting their realities with digital overlays.

It is through gaming that many real world applications of VR and AR shall be discovered.

Steven Johnson covers this concept deeply in his book Wonderland. He explains how most ever technology we use on a daily basis came from play. Humans go out of their way to play, and through play they discover useful applications of technology. Virtual reality is but the latest in play creating a tool.

For anyone batting their eye at VR because "it's only good for games", I implore you to dig deeper. By the time gaming is not the main use for VR, you will have already missed the boat. Useful application for VR, AR, MR, etc. will all be found, created, and tested within the confines of VR. Much of which will be gaming.

VR users’ interactions can be recorded and quantified. This data can then be used to discover the best possible solutions for VR/AR applications.

Place a VR Gamer in a virtual city, give them a task/quest, and allow them to use various VR GUI's to find their way.

These sames GUI's could come in handy for helping a real world tourist visiting a real world city find their way to a hotel, restaurant, or business conference. The original application was designed as a means for players to complete quests within a digital world. The real world application is designed to help real people find real destinations.

Gamers have had mini-maps with automatically updating directions long before smartphones had GPS.

To discredit virtual reality because it's "only use is gaming" is to discredit the foundation of human innovation.

This is post 48 of my 90 VR experiment. Join me here for a daily dose of virtual reality design, gameplay, speculation, and adventure.

VRdōjō

Immersive Arts Development. In the traditional sense of a dōjō, VRdōjō is a collaborative space in downtown Kansas City built for VR arts, design, development, and fitness.

Michael Eichenseer

Written by

Writing, VR design, and virtual sports.

VRdōjō

VRdōjō

Immersive Arts Development. In the traditional sense of a dōjō, VRdōjō is a collaborative space in downtown Kansas City built for VR arts, design, development, and fitness.

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