Virtual reality technology is good, with room to grow

Virtual reality has been with us since 1987 when American computer philosophy writer Jaron Lanier first coined the term. VR research continued into the 1990s, but the technology never got much traction until recently.

We now have had the first generation of consumer virtual reality devices for almost a month starting with Samsung’s Oculus Gear VR, then Oculus’s Rift system followed by the HTC Vive. With VR being talked about everywhere, the inevitable reaction to a completely new type of technology experience can be expected any day now.

But what is it really, and what can it do for you?

Even at this very early stage, we will quickly see the use of VR in business and technical training. Being able to immerse people in nuclear reactors, automated production facilities or other distant or dangerous environments has tremendous possibilities. At this stage you are an observer floating in the environment but not part of it. That will soon change. The addition of collaborative VR with sensor-embedded gloves that make your hands part of the VR and allow you to work with other people in those environments can replace expensive field trips and allow millions of people to receive training in completely realistic settings. The opportunity for showing potential customers production facilities, products or real estate remotely will transform the sales process.

These are just the most obvious and easily achieved changes to the way we work now that virtual reality is real. We haven’t touched the effect the technology will have in education.

The best way to find out is to try it.

Google has had its Google Cardboard VR headset out for several months. I’ve been lucky enough to use a Samsung Gear VR by Oculus with a Samsung Galaxy S7 from Verizon since it was released. That is probably the most inexpensive and best introduction to virtual reality available right now. If you already have a Samsung Galaxy S5, S6 or new S7, the Gear VR headset is $99.

That’s all you need to start.

I wouldn’t recommend spending the money immediately unless you are an early adopter, geek or gamer, but I would definitely recommend finding one to know what everyone is talking about. What will happen is that you will put it on, try to figure out how to use it, then find yourself on a Paris street feeling as if you have forgotten your glasses. Then you will accidentally look down and find yourself floating in air or 7 feet tall.

The next discovery is that you really are fully there, and you start looking around and behind you. Yes, you are fully immersed. This is where many people stop, take off the headset and decide whether they want to go back in. In my experience, most do, but there is a significant percentage who find it too disorienting to handle. This disorientation has been a problem from the beginning of experiments in virtual reality. For most people it is something they get over quickly or learn to like. User experience is expected to improve as the equipment and computer-processing power get better.

The interesting thing is that you can begin to see wanting to spend a great deal of time exploring places virtually. If you want to travel to many places that might not be practical, including the International Space Station, this is a very good alternative. If you are a gamer, your preferred game world becomes real. This is the power of virtual reality.

Another technology, “augmented reality,” is available now to developers with Microsoft’s HoloLens. This related but very different version of virtual reality adds holographic objects and virtual people to the reality around you.

Where is VR going from there? All I can say is hold on — things are going to get very interesting.

Mike Meyer, formerly Internet general manager at Oceanic Time Warner Cable, is now chief information officer at Honolulu Community College. Reach him at mmeyer@hawaii.edu.