I came across two articles on Wired.com recently regarding virtual and augmented reality. I’ve heard of Oculus, I’ve seen participants willing to sacrifice their humility to become a spectacle at a Microsoft Store demonstration in the middle of a shopping mall, and I’ve seen Samsung commercials where teenagers get a good laugh from watching an older man experience virtual reality for the first time. However, these encounters have been in passing or mindlessly scrolling through social media headlines. I have never heard any concrete information about the progression of VR and I have never experienced it first-hand. Interestingly, though, developers seem to be tirelessly working toward the advancement of creating a virtual world, even though they aren’t quite sure of its application yet.
Google has become increasingly ambitious in the field and created a team called DayDream Labs which "has one job: make stuff. They take a straightforward question or hypothesis—How do you leave a comment in VR? What should people’s legs look like? Is virtual horticulture fun? —and build the simplest prototype they can to test it out” (Wired, 2017.). Mark Rolston, founder of Argo Design, is interested in producing products that augment reality. He claims that there's a "giant design opportunity [in] bringing more humanity to computing...that's what the promise of augmented reality is. Bringing computing into the situations we already find ourselves in naturally" (Wired, 2017.). His hopes are that computing will be able to project a digital reality on top of our existing world. It seems like a cross between the forgotten Google Glass and Star Wars. Google is also diligent in creating a more realistic virtual world. By removing controllers, Google is focusing on using the body to interact with computers in a digital environment, and they recently acquired the company Eyefluence to further develop eye-tracking capabilities.
But what are the practical applications for technology such as this? What are educational applications, or professional video, or even social media? Education could adopt virtual reality to enhance the experience of students engaged in situated learning, where they could perhaps interact with a virtual version of the environment. This could particularly interesting for medical students, who could have the ability to observe procedures that aren't as frequently performed or if there aren't any available patients. It could also immerse students in another culture or location, such as walking the streets of Beijing during the Chinese New Year or visiting the White House. I'm not quite sure how professional filmmakers would incorporate VR. Could movies be immersive? Is it a possibility that I could be standing next to Scarlet Johansen in her next film and be able to look around the scene? Could VR films replace 3D films? Being able to move throughout a film is probably not ideal, as you'd want to experience the narrative, not walk around their world. Or would you? Either way, I see video professionals becoming integral to the development of virtual reality, as their expertise in content creation will help to develop the alternative world.
Immersive social media seems like a real possibility, but is a little terrifying to me. Being able to live and interact in world that doesn't really exist is an outlandish thought. Could it allow users to virtually visit friends who have moved across country or family across the globe? Sure, but a video chat is effective at doing that now. I don't immediately see the benefits to social interactions in a virtual world, but I'm sure a need will be created. It's definitely strange to think that a whole new world could be created and exist in a set of circuit boards. It reminds me a of an episode of the X Files where a virtual shooter game was the gateway to another dimension dominated by a virtual character who was out for blood. I just hope it works out better for us than it did for Mulder and Scully.
References
https://www.wired.com/2017/01/google-daydream-vr-feels-human/
https://www.wired.com/2015/05/google-cardboard-virtual-reality/
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