The Future of Virtual Reality
The following is a research paper I wrote for school. The tone is a little bit more professional for that reason, but I think the content of the paper is good enough to share- so, enjoy!
“I was more or less raised by the OASIS’s interactive educational programs, which any kid could access for free. I spent a big chunk of my childhood hanging out in a virtual-reality simulation of Sesame Street, singing songs with friendly Muppets and playing interactive games that taught me how to walk, talk, add, subtract, read, write, and share” (Cline 15). This passage, taken from the introduction of Earnest Cline’s science fiction book Ready Player One describes the OASIS, an infinitely massive virtual universe. The book takes place in 2044; as the real world crumbles and becomes much less beautiful, people live and work inside the virtual world of the OASIS. Virtual reality, VR for short, is a digitally created world that tricks your brain into perceiving it as reality. In a 2015 blog post, billionaire entrepreneur Chris Dixon writes that the “holy grail of virtual reality” has been nothing more than a mere dream for many years, and talks about how the technology in the 90s were all failures. “What’s happening now — because of Moore’s Law, and also the rapid improvement of processors, screens, and accelerometers, driven by the smartphone boom — is that VR is finally ready to go mainstream” (Dixon 4). In 2018, IDC Research predicted the VR industry to multiply 21-fold by 2022 (reaching 18.3 billion dollars). At the end of 2020 it was valued at 15.8 billion and is predicted to hit 21.8 billion by the end of the year (Iberdrola 8). It’s clear that VR is growing at an astronomically fast rate, but what are some things that we are going to see as the industry continues to expand? What is the future of VR?
To begin answering the question “what is the future of VR?” let’s first take a look at where it has been the last few years. Chris Dixon said in 2015 that the technology seemed to be advancing enough for VR to go viral, so why has it not? Sony was the first major gaming brand to break into the VR industry with their 2016 venture, the PSVR. Although the PSVR was the first major VR headset and proved to the world that affordable VR was achievable, it ultimately fell very short of its potential. At the time of release, the PSVR was predicted to be a huge success, with some analysts predicting 6 million PSVR units being sold by the end of 2016. These predictions did not come true. As of last January (4 years after release), Sony had sold roughly 5 million total PSVR units (Lindbergh 3). There are a few factors to take into account as to why the PSVR didn’t do as well as it should have. In short, it was overhyped. With a $399 price tag, you would expect more than just a headset, but that's all you got. The PSVR didn’t come with a webcam, a piece of hardware necessary for play, nor did it come with the clunky Move controllers (O’Kane 3). This was a good first step in VR’s journey to the public eye, but it wasn’t a good gaming system. The PSVR proved that mainstream VR was possible and within reach, but for the next four years VR remained relatively small. The two leading brands in the VR industry, Oculus and VIVE, continued to sell their headsets that only ran when plugged into powerful PCs. The biggest change in VR came in 2020 when Facebook’s Oculus released an all new headset, the Oculus Quest 2. The Quest 2 came at a time when people all across the world were isolated inside their own houses, quarantining from the COVID-19 virus. With an unprecedented amount of free time and more reasons than ever to escape reality, the Quest 2 was a perfect investment. Facebook finally cracked the code to mainstream VR with the Quest 2, an affordable headset (starting at only $399) that is its own standalone console. That’s right, the Quest 2 doesn’t need any wires, any PC, any console to plug into; it runs on its own operating system. After its release on October 13, 2020, the Quest 2 remained sold out for months, every batch being consistently shipped out to the long waitlist of people wanting their very own virtual universe. A recent Steam survey indicates that Oculus now controls 51% of the VR industry (Lindbergh 21). Facebook’s Oculus Quest 2 made virtual reality viral, and it’s only going to gain traction as time goes on.
The brain is clearly pretty easy to trick, as it can be hacked into believing in a virtual world through the stimulation of only two senses--vision and hearing--but what if it could be even more immersed into VR? Haptic technology, meaning technology dealing with the sense of touch, is still very primitive, but has a very promising future. Haptic technology is in its very early stages, but then again, so is VR as a whole. There are currently a few companies that sell haptic gaming suits, such as bHaptics and KOR-FX. These vests have sensors around them that are activated in specific areas to simulate feelings that are being caused by actions inside the VR world. These sensors could simulate something crazy like a gunshot in the game Onward, or something heartfelt like a hug from a friend on the other side of the world. Some haptic suits can also be plugged into an audio jack and translate sound waves into a physical sensation across the wearers chest, back, and arms. Some companies have already begun working on full body suits that can be used in industrial training. One company with this specific mission is Valkyrie. “Valkyrie Industries is currently developing a haptic VR suit, which the company is referring to as Iron Man V.1. The suit uses electrical impulses to stimulate muscles, effecting approximate resistance and touch to the user. The product is in its early stages; however, the company has already demonstrated the product in the market” (FutureBridge 13). While haptic suits help increase immersion and will certainly be very widespread once the technology advances and becomes lighter, the more immediately promising technology is haptic gloves. Haptic gloves are wearable and can be as extensive as a full glove covering the entire hand or as simplistic as ring straps worn around each finger with an elastic band stretching from each finger strap. The purpose of these gloves is to simulate touching or grabbing objects in the virtual world. If someone were to catch a ball in VR, the glove would relay sensations across the wearer’s hand as they caught the ball and then proceed to transmit pressure, disallowing the wearer to move their fingers inside the virtual ball. These sensations mimic the physics of the real world, tricking the brain into believing it is really holding a ball. One of these, the SenseGlove, was developed for post-stroke rehabilitation and placed patients in virtual environments that allowed them to practice everyday tasks (Verri 4).
Virtual reality has mostly been used for video games, but has slowly seen integration into medical, military, athletic, and industrial training. Stanford Medicine has integrated virtual reality software to help physicians and patients plan and understand upcoming surgeries. “Stanford Medicine is using a new software system that combines imaging from MRIs, CT scans and angiograms to create a three-dimensional model that physicians and patients can see and manipulate — just like a virtual reality game” (Erickson 2). This software helps physicians navigate the anatomies of patients in three dimensions, making the planning for surgeries easier, and helping ease fear in patients as doctors can show them exactly what is wrong and how it will be fixed. Gary Steinberg, MD, PhD, speaking about an aneurysm surgery he performed alongside this software, said “I had the 3-D rendering of her anatomy and could match that up with the surgical microscopic view, something I can’t do with any other technology” (Erickson 13). Militaries have also integrated VR into their training, allowing pilots in the Air Force to simulate air combat whilst sitting safely inside a military base. The Air Force Agency for Modeling Simulation is “playing an increasingly vital role in the Air Force’s ability to train warfighters, develop new systems and assess the complexities of a changing battlespace” (Lange 2). The third and probably most influential non-gaming market that VR has integrated into is the industrial market. Employers can now train and interview employees in VR. “{In 2019,} Walmart trained more than 1 million employees inside VR. And moving companies, airlines, food processing and financial firms are all using VR in different ways” (Noguchi 2). Instead of paying someone to train employees to do basic things, companies can simply have their employees put on a headset and run through a training lesson. Within a virtual space, employees can be trained in a realistic enough environment for the training to carry over to the real world. Some companies, such as Verizon, use VR to train employees on how to act when being robbed at gunpoint. Lou Tedrick, Verizon’s head of learning and development, says, "The emotions that they felt during the robbery experience they feel during the VR experience" (Noguchi 8). With realistic scenarios being played out over and over in a virtual world, employees can learn how to react to these situations without being put in any real danger. In 2014, Stanford head coach David Shaw began to integrate VR training to the football team (Noguchi 15). Two years later, Stanford won the Rose Bowl.
Virtual reality has been a pipe dream for years, only seen in science fiction, like the Holodeck in StarTrek. However, in recent years, VR technology has seen major advancements in its practical uses as well as its uses in gaming. With the immense success of the Oculus Quest 2, the first affordable, wireless, and mainstream headset, competitors are sure to step up their game. VR technology is advancing and can be expected to continue to advance at an exponential rate in the coming years. Expect to see advancements in haptic technology, VR use in the medical and industrial fields, and gaming. Ready Player One may be science-fiction, but one day, sooner than one may think, the OASIS may just be possible.
Works Cited
Cline, Ernest. Ready Player One. Crown Publishing Group, 2011.
Corporativa, Iberdrola. “Virtual Reality: Another World within Sight.” Iberdrola, www.iberdrola.com/innovation/virtual-reality.
Dixon, Chris. “Virtual Reality: a New Creative Medium Where the Default State Is Belief.” Cdixonorg RSS, 24 Jan. 2015, cdixon.org/2015/01/24/virtual-reality-a-new-creative-medium-where-the-default-state-is-belief.
Erickson, Mandy. “Virtual Reality System Helps Surgeons, Reassures Patients.” Stanford Medicine News Center, Stanford Medicine, 11 July 2017, med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2017/07/virtual-reality-system-helps-surgeons-reassures-patients.html.
“Haptic – Adding a New Dimension to Virtual Reality.” FutureBridge, 20 May 2020, www.futurebridge.com/industry/perspectives-mobility/haptic-adding-a-new-dimension-to-virtual-reality/#:~:text=The%20future%20generation%20of%20haptic,be%20felt%20by%20the%20user.
Lange, Katie. “Virtual, Augmented Reality Are Moving Warfighting Forward.” U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, 10 Feb. 2020, www.defense.gov/Explore/Inside-DOD/Blog/Article/2079205/virtual-augmented-reality-are-moving-warfighting-forward/.
Lindbergh, Ben. “Waiting for the Future of Virtual Reality.” The Ringer, The Ringer, 12 Jan. 2021, www.theringer.com/2021/1/12/22226387/virtual-reality-playstation-xbox-oculus.
Noguchi, Yuki. “Virtual Reality Goes To Work, Helping Train Employees.” NPR, NPR, 8 Oct. 2019, www.npr.org/2019/10/08/767116408/virtual-reality-goes-to-work-helping-train-employees.
O'Kane, Sean. “Sony's PlayStation VR Costs $399 and Is Coming in October.” The Verge, The Verge, 15 Mar. 2016, www.theverge.com/2016/3/15/11224988/sony-playstation-vr-release-date-price-gdc-2016.
Verri, Selene. “Touching the Air May Be Possible with New Research on Haptics.” Image, YourIs.com European Research Media Center, 2 Mar. 2021, www.youris.com/society/future-tech/touching-the-air-may-be-possible-with-new-research-on-haptics.kl.