Yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg went onstage to announce a new virtual reality headset named Oculus Go. It’s a big deal mainly due to its price of $199 which in unprecedented for a VR gadget that promises high-end experiences without a smartphone and the need to deal with lots of cables.
But more than anything, the event was an indication of how crucial virtual reality is for the social networking firm. Zuckerberg said that he wants to get a billion people into virtual reality soon. So what is VR, and why the hell is it suddenly so important?
The basics
The name virtual reality is very indicative of its properties. It’s a virtual or imaginary environment created in a way that it comes very close to feeling like reality. Experiments with the same have been going around for decades, but Oculus was the pioneer of modern day virtual reality, way before it was purchased by Facebook.
(Image credits: uploadvr )
Their Rift VR headset could connect to a PC to render high-end video games. People who experienced these were overwhelmed by the magic of VR, but the fact remained, it was an incredibly expensive gadget to buy. But then Google stepped in by showing us how to build a VR headset using nothing but a piece of cardboard and two lenses.
This heralded the arrival of smartphone-based VR headsets which are in the process of being perfected thanks to gadgets like Google’s very own Daydream View and Samsung’s Gear VR. So the industry right now is filled with three types of VR headsets. The first kind are extremely cheap basic devices which work with your phones, the second kind also work with your phones but feature good software support from their makers. And the third kind work with PCs and offer the best VR experiences.
Why is VR cool?
Virtual reality, more than anything, gives you the feeling of being somewhere else without moving from your seat. The video games bring you experiences like never before, but there’s way more to VR that just that. You could be in space or underwater, or roaming the dense forests of the Amazon without bearing the expenses of all these trips.
Doesn’t this make education and learning more interesting and interactive? Imagine a school where field trips are taken every once in a while to places like the moon, to ancient Rome and the Great Wall of China. Imagine big businesses giving tours of their latest ventures to investors using VR. The possibilities are endless.
Should we all buy one
No doubt, virtual reality should be experienced once by everyone. It does have some drawbacks which include a slight nausea that occurs when headsets are worn for a long period. However, the surreal feeling that they manage to deliver is second to none.
Prior to the announcement of the Oculus Go, good and capable virtual reality headsets used to be expensive, while smartphone-based devices could not match them in terms of quality. The Oculus Go bridges the gap between the two, and this is why it’s the apt headset for bringing the masses onboard.
Yes, you should definitely jump the virtual reality bandwagon soon. It’s the technology of tomorrow that’s about to go mainstream.
