October 07, 2024
I’ve been excited about VR since the early 1990s when the company “Virtuality” gave me my first experiences of VR technology. Around the same time, an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation introduced the Holodeck in the episode “The Big Goodbye” , and films such as Lawnmower Man opened my eyes to the possibilities of VR technology. All this was well before the power of computers was sufficient to bring it to life in a meaningful way.
Challenges with resolution, latency and rendering capability all held back cost-effective VR until now.
I have been a supporter of Oculus since inception, owning a DK1, DK2 and the commercial variant of the PC-tethered headset. Advances in mobile phone technology (including screens and accelerometers) have allowed these devices to be cost effective. And people such as John Carmack, with their penchant for saving CPU clock cycles, have given rise to the incredible low-latency experiences we enjoy today.
As I’ve been on this journey with Oculus to where we are now, I’ve seen many enhancements over that time. Some notable ones include:
Increasing resolution was an obvious improvement and was made possible with better mobile phone screens and faster GPUs. But other work done ‘behind the scenes’ to reduce the effects of fast movement all added together to make the experience more comfortable and more convincing to the overworked brain.
Head Tracking allowed us to crane our necks to look around corners! This made a huge difference in many environments as it was now possible to lean forwards and see things. Further to this, room tracking removed the constraints of requiring a controller to navigate environments - removing motion sickness in a lot of cases, and making the virtual world more of a Holodeck.
Being able to use your hands revolutionised consumer VR experiences. Now, instead of being a disembodied head in a 3D space, you actually feel like you’re part of the scene. You can see your hands and interact with objects. It’s hard to describe quite what a difference this makes. Until the touch controllers came along, VR had been a novelty. Afterwards, my VR use increased massively.
All VR is not created equal - having a standalone headset is a pale comparison to what’s possible with a full Oculus or Vive rig. And in the future, the gap will only widen. What am I looking forward to most?
Retinal tracking - this improvement will be two-fold. It will allow our overworked GPUs to only render a small portion of the display in full resolution (i.e. the bit that’s being looked at).
This should pave the way for higher-resolution displays without a commensurate increase in processing power. With higher res, all sorts of applications will become possible - but the one I’m looking forward to most is the ability to easily read text on a virtual display.
Why have a desk with many monitors when you can have an infinite display in VR? Retinal tracking will also allow us to see where others are looking when interacting in the VR world - this is an important body-language cue.
Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation - tricking the inner-ear into believing it’s under acceleration, so that our balance and feeling of movement is matched with what’s going on in VR. Imagine being within VR, driving a car around a corner and feeling the G-force!
Light field display - Moving away from a couple of 2D displays (one for each eye) to a technology that allows the eye to focus within the scene will increase the VR illusion to ‘reality’ levels. Whether this will happen in the next 10 years, however, remains to be seen.
Haptic feedback, more controllers and physical feedback - Oculus Touch made such a huge difference to VR immersion; just imagine further feedback and control mechanisms. Imagine being able to sit down on a VR chair (and not falling down in real life). Imagine actually being able to feel objects. Much of this one is just a dream - but there’s so much scope for improvement. VR Smell? VR Taste? Perhaps we’re not ready for that yet.
I’m upbeat about the future of VR, here are the applications that most excite me:
Virtual worlds where people can meet without having to travel. Imagine being able to hangout with friends, or meet with colleagues in other countries. Unlike current video conferencing, we’ll be able to see each other and interact with objects in a shared environment. When VR is ‘almost as good as real interaction’, this will also cut down on environmental damage caused by excessive plane travel.
Virtual work environments, providing the optimal place to ‘get stuff done’.
Games that allow me to experience almost anything the mind can conceive - in a manner so convincing that it’ll be hard to distinguish it from reality itself.
Exploration of real-world dangerous environments using drone bodies, with sight/sound/haptic feedback.
Virtual arts and crafts There are probably many more, but I think it’s fair to say I’m looking forward to the VR future!
