How Virtual Reality Is Changing The World

All things virtual are changing the world. While the word virtual can be used to describe anything that exists in effect, today it is often used to describe items created in a computer or online world, for example, did you know you could get a virtual business address for startup? Or a virtual friend who you can play games online with, but you won’t be meeting them for coffee.

Virtual reality is the big one though, and this is not just for gaming – VR is going to change all industries and the way we are entertained. Big companies such as HTC, Facebook, and Sony have created their own hardware and, more importantly, it will be affordable for ordinary people to get. There are the HTC Vive, Facebook’s Oculus Rift and Sony’s PlayStation VR doing the rounds so far with more on the way, and here’s how this technology can change the world.

Gaming

The most obvious and so far the most popular use for virtual reality is gaming and while it is unlikely to be supported by all games in the next couple of years, if you do get the opportunity to try it out, take it. VR offers an intense, immersive and impressive experience that elevates gaming to a whole new level.

Watching Films

This is something that has been talked about for some time, but we’ve not seen anything promising just yet. A fully immersive VR movie would be cool, but will it work? Think 3D films, but then think of actual, real 3D, so a movie world that you can explore at your own pace. You would be able to look at the action from different angles and focus on whatever bit you choose to. Currently, it’s theoretical at best at the moment, but the possibility and the technology are there, and it could change film-watching forever. It could change the whole film industry.

Tourism

Okay, it would be lazy tourism, but nonetheless, you could visit somewhere virtually before deciding if you actually want to go. Think how easy it is to get distracted and immersed at looking around the world on Google Maps, then imagine how much more immersive it would be to do the same through your own eyes. Virtual Reality would allow remote tours of museums for people unable to get to the building,

Real Estate

Similarly, Virtual Reality would allow potential buyers to have a look around a new house without having to leave the comfort of their own, current home, making the job of real estate agents completely different.

Surgery

It is safer and better for surgeons who are training to perfect their techniques on other things rather than real humans, but it would also be better for trainee surgeons to practice on something else different than plastic models or people who have left their bodies to medical science. Fully-interactive, accurately modeled specimens, virtually suffering from a selection of conditions for which they need surgery which can be carried out through a Virtual Reality interface. This would make for better-trained and therefore better-performing surgeons, which is something better for all of us. There was a game called Surgeon Simulator in 2013 which was a tongue-in-cheek game based on this premise, but it could become a reality.

Space Exploration

How amazing would it be to fly round in space using a Google Maps-style interface? It’s not far off, if a space agency put cameras all over their equipment and sent them out to the great black unknown, then using Virtual Reality, scientists here on Earth could view and navigate through a VR headset, allowing people to explore space in a way we’ve never been able to before.

Teaching People To Fly

Pilots currently learn to fly using flight simulators, but just like surgeons, they could really do a more immersive and realistic solution to hone their skills properly. VR could be that technology.

Improving Quality Of Life

There are many people out there who aren’t capable of living a normal life for a variety of reasons. They deserve to live, to explore, and to experience the wonder of the world (and beyond) just like everyone else and Virtual Reality could be an outlet for disabled and otherwise housebound people, providing them a way to experience what the non-disabled often take for granted. Wouldn’t that be a brilliant thing?