Category Archives: Virtual Reality

Taking VR seriously 

I work in VR. I work for a huge company that’s invested in VR. But based on the stats, paired with people’s perception, virtual reality has yet to truly be taken seriously.

According to an article in UK’s The Times, over 16 million virtual reality headsets will be used in the UK by 2021, and the sector would be the ‘fastes growing in entertainment and media, and would be worth 801 million in four years.’ The article talks about its mark in games, but what about its impact on healthcare, education and everyday consumer lives? Is a 75 year old interested in a headset for gaming purposes? What about a newly pregnant single mother or under represented people. Quite frankly, the dollar (or pound) amount mentioned doesn’t really justify the costs to create the actual content, which is very expensive, unless it becomes an industry where quantity is more important. 

On the other hand, I came across what looks like a blog post, by someone named Kostas Pantremenos about the ‘role of virtual reality in improving motor performance as revealed by EEG’. In this case, virtual reality is being used for research and development. The lingo throughout the article made it hard to understand, unless science is your thing. Again, another reason that it’s hard to take VR ‘serious’: you’re speaking in terms people don’t understand.

And that’s where this wonderful industry seems to sit. It’s not understood by the people not into games and gaming, nor is it understood by people who aren’t scienctists or engineers. Until there’s a bridge that connects both worlds to everyday people, it’s going to continue to be a limited, niche market.