Virtual reality (VR) is a technology that a
lot of people don’t know what to make of. Most people's experiences with VR
have either been from a third-party perspective or seen through their
smartphones with the help of a $20 headset you can get about anywhere. In fact,
in a study done by Statistica, it was pretty evident that first-person
experience with VR is very limited. Of the 3,000 people polled, only 16 percent
of men and six percent of women admitted to trying a “real” VR headset. Today,
we will take you through modern VR technology and see what the future
potentially holds for virtual reality.
Modern VR
In 2019, after some thirty years of
development of the technology, not many organizations have made the investment
in VR. To be fair, however, VR has finally established itself as an
entertainment platform. Some of the most powerful organizations in the world
made that happen. Samsung and Google both created VR experiences using mobile
devices, while Sony developed a VR platform for their Playstation 4 game
console. These have been marginally popular, but when we talk about future
VR-for-business function, these options likely won’t be on anyone’s radar.
Two options that are clearly at the top of the
commercial virtual reality space are the HTC Vive (and Vive Pro) and the Oculus
Rift. Oculus, which is owned by Facebook, currently has the lead in true VR sales,
but as with the HTC Vive (and Vive Pro) the platform needs a high-end computing
rig connected to it to run the software. These two will provide users with the
most immersive experience that isn’t only designed for gaming (even though a
majority of the applications for them are games).
Both VR options present users with the
capacity to immerse themselves in their virtual worlds, providing developers
with unprecedented opportunities for software creation. The applications that
are being built for VR allow users to explore the earth (and space) in a manner
that may be completely immersive, but it is only a simulated reality.
The Immediate Future of VR
The future of VR presents less in the way of
simulations, and more in the way of reality. Obviously, people aren’t likely
going to be able to walk on the moon, or swim to the bottom of the Marianas
Trench, but with VR-supported systems running educational and training
software, people will finally be able to use virtual reality to experience
lifelike experiences that they wouldn’t typically have access to.
Many manufacturers have begun to work on
Microsoft’s Mixed Reality (MR) devices with an eye for business integration by
2020. The platform is much like virtual reality, but it uses elements of
virtual reality and elements of its sister technology, augmented reality, to
produce a construct built specifically for business professionals who work in
technical jobs. Jobs that current IT haven’t been able to find solutions for.
There is an expectation that VR will move past
its entertainment-only profile sometime in the very near future. Since
developers are hard at work creating software that takes advantage of the
seemingly limitless ways in which a virtual sandbox will help business
professionals improve their performance and the way that they look at their
work.
What are your opinions of VR? Do you think it
can ever be a viable business tool, or do you think it’s only ever going to be
a gimmick technology used to play games on? Leave your thoughts in the comments
section below.