The tech company, which was purchased by Facebook for $2 billion last year, has reportedly “solved” the problem with early efforts to make virtual reality work.
This isn’t about gaming.
Augmented reality is one of my 10 trends to see, watch, and act on in 2015. That’s because the technology that enables people to enter virtual (gaming) worlds will also bring our world to us.
My brother pointed me recently to this mind-blowing video of the Andromeda Galaxy. Watching it full-screen, in HD, made me feel as if I were walking among the stars. Now imagine if the technology existed to put yourself there–virtually. Or imagine if you could walk among the animals in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro; wander through the Louvre; or explore the Great Barrier Reef.
From an educational perspective, what if you could “show” your students these places?
From a business perspective, what if you could send customers a program so that they could try on your latest design collection, walk through your assembly process, or join a meeting in Tokyo or Dubai?
This isn’t a fantasy.
Twenty years ago, we could barely conceive of digitized collections–whether law libraries or art collections. Yet now we browse the world online, at resolutions that improve annually by leaps and bounds. Ten years ago, our mobile phones were just phones. Five years ago, developing an app took lots of time and even more money.
Oculus Rift might start out as a virtual reality tool for hard-core gamers and Farmville fans (okay, hopefully I jest on the latter), but it will end up augmenting our reality in ways we haven’t even started to understand.
Stay tuned.
PS: Wired wrote a fascinating cover story about Oculus Rift. It’s where the Chris Dixon quote comes from. It should be required reading for marketers and CEOs alike.
