Virtual reality is a relative new technology, which intrigues me. This started by getting a VR card box at an Accenture career event. The card box is a cheap version of a virtual reality lens, made out of carton. You first download an application, which is VR compatible on your smartphone, which you then can slide into the card box. By looking through the lens you get a (low quality) VR experience. When I subsequently went to the first VR cinema (https://thevrcinema.com/), located in Amsterdam, I was astonished by the endless possibilities. I chose the category ‘Documentary’ and was shown six fragments of five minutes each. The most impressive one was made by Terres des Hommes, about child sexual abuse. By ‘being there’ in the room (you of course didn’t see it actually happening) it made a much bigger impact than seeing a regular ad on television.
This is one of the endless possibilities of VR: a new way to collect donors for NGO’s by letting people experience what is actually happening (another VR-experience I had was about the aftermath of the Nepal earthquake). A much more fun area of VR is going on holiday while not actually going on holiday. This paradox seems weird but if you enter the world of VR it’s not. To give you an impression of the possibilities please watch the music video of Duke Dumont – I Got U (Official video) ft. Jax Jones (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHCYHldJi_g). For now only the visuals will be possible but multiple startups are busy with actually creating a sense of touch while being in virtual reality (http://magazine.viterbi.usc.edu/spring-2016/startups/startup-creates-sense-of-touch-in-virtual-reality/).
By seeing these two examples, you can imagine that there are a wide variety of possible implementations for virtual reality. To name a few others: visiting a museum, talk with a loved one abroad, go to the cinema, have a doctors intake appointment. Can you think of other interesting fields in which VR can play a big role? Please mention them in the comments!
