Forum Post #2: The Future of Virtual Reality (Azer Holly-Greco)

[azerswrx421]

“The strange future of AR and VR: Tentacles and time travel to digital doctors” Website: https://www.zdnet.com/article/a-look-into-the-future-of-ar-and-vr-for-business-and-pleasure-from-tentacles-and-time-travellers-to-smart-soldiers-and-digital-doctors/
This article talks about all the potential used for virtual reality and how it will be a part of a lot of what we do in our daily lives.  This idea and the idea that this requires more development in hardware and software to happen jumped out at me.  This inspires me to read and write about how close we are in the development of hardware and software to making VR a bigger part of our lives.  The question I have is how long will this take?  Are we a few years off or is this something that is still a part of our imagination about life in the far off future.  One this is clear, there are a lot of applications for VR (other than gaming) that will make our lives better, make the world seem smaller and bring people closer together when they may be far away from each other.

”Want to Know the Real Future of AR/VR? Ask Their Devs” Website: https://www.wired.com/story/future-ar-vr-survey/
This article talks about the future of VR based on what was learned from a survey of 900 active developers.  What was interesting is that while most of the developers still focus on applications for games, there is a fast growing number focused on non-gaming applications, particularly education and training.  This makes me want to read and write about a particularly cool application that maybe nobody has thought about.  For instance, how about attending the Super Bowl without traveling to the game using VR that puts you in a seat on the 50 yardline.  If you could figure out a way that more than one person could use that seat, each turning their head to look where they wanted to, that would be a huge breakthrough.  Tickets wouldn’t be limited to the number of seats anymore. You could sell millions of tickets to the Super Bowl.  I bet NFL owners would be happy about that.  A question raised by the article has to do with the competing hardware platforms and if everything would move faster if we had one platform and standard technical specifications.  I think that makes sense.  I think this article makes it pretty clear that many people are looking at how VR can be used in ways that make people’s lives better.  Like the internet, I think businesses are looking at it and asking themselves “What can we do with this to be more valuable to our customers?”

“What is the Future of Augmented and Virtual Reality?” Website: https://www.jabil.com/blog/future-of-augmented-and-virtual-reality-technology.html?utm_source=iot-for-all&utm_medium=contributed-article&utm_campaign=ar-vr-comms-jgp
This article talks about where we are now with virtual reality and where we may be headed.  The most interesting fact in the article is that virtual reality has been around for almost 30 years.  The reason it didn’t become a bigger part of our lives in the past were related to technology challenges that have been overcome since then.  I think this is interesting.  I’d like to read and write about how it was used in the past and what were the limits of those technologies.  I bet it would be like seeing the awful things my Mom and Dad called video games when they were kids.  One of the questions raised by the article is that if companies worked together, the development of the product would move faster than it is.  This makes sense to me.  What is clear from this article is that the development is still not moving as fast as one would think as some companies seem to be waiting for a more clear picture of where the technology is headed before they invest.

“Why is Virtual Reality the Future?” Website: https://medium.com/predict/why-virtual-reality-is-the-future-bdc470ecee28
This article talks about the reasons why we think virtual reality will be a big part of and change the future.  The point made in this article that stuck with me was that for games, virtual reality is a far better way to deliver an emotional experience to the user.  This is exactly what I believe.  The experience playing a VR game is way more intense than playing a regular game.  I would want to read and write about the emotional experiences of people playing VR for the first time and explore what they thought and felt while doing it.  My Mom is afraid of heights and I remember the first time she played (or tried to play) a VR game that made her walk a plank in between two skyscrapers, 100 stories above the ground.  She couldn’t do it.  I mean she wouldn’t even try because it was too scary for her even though she knew it was just a game.  I think the real reason VR will be so popular, other than to make our lives easier, is because it may be able to deliver emotions in a way that only the real experience does better, but without the danger.  


“VR Futures: Where will virtual reality take you?” Website: https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2016/03/vr-futures-where-will-virtual-reality-take-you/
This article identifies some of the areas that will be changed by virtual reality.  Some of these areas I’d not thought of like biology, where VR is revolutionizing is helping doctors by providing highly realistic simulations.  This makes me want to read and write about other areas that may not be so obvious where virtual reality may be used one day.  The question or point I think the article tries to make is that there really aren’t too many areas that wouldn’t benefit in some way from virtual reality.  What is clear from this article (and the others I read) is that virtual reality may have a bigger impact on what we’re able to experience (even if only virtually) than anything else I can identify in life.