The reality behind virtual reality

Let’s go back ten years. The need to know about the world and to connect with everyone was strong, and hence came the cell phones. But human being is selfish and also never satisfied. Our minds kept wandering, trying to find a way to live in an alternate reality and hence came the virtual reality devices. For the first time ever, a person could choose to randomly walk on a high bridge, or be a part of the zombie attack. The entire experience was in itself awing and people couldn’t stop themselves from getting excited about this device with basic graphics, but lifelike experience.

Sure, the virtual reality devices let you experience things you never thought you could witness, but are these extremely overpriced gadgets worth spending half your salary? Sure, these gadgets are selling like hot pancakes, but is the world ready for VR? I’d say not.

These devices are bulky and have intricate wiring, but also, they’re really, really expensive. And the expense just doesn’t include the VR devices, but also the devices used to power them. Usually a computer of high specifications is required to drive this giant machine, which again is worth a lot of money. You might’ve used the simple carboard box unit embedded with cheap lenses, which transforms you into another world upon pressing your face to it, or if your Dad has a lot of money you might own a high powered Virtual Reality headset fun of amazing features. But the common thing in both these devices is that they are bulky and difficult to carry around.

Even if we ignore the amount spent on these devices, many people who have tried these devices have also complained that the VR devices cause severe headache, facial redness and extreme nausea. About 70% of the people have experienced up to several degrees of nausea.  This common discomfort is a result of “vergence-accommodation conflict”.

Now, companies like Oculus VR, which was acquired by Facebook for $2 billion, Valve and Sony are researching on ways to solve these issues in their upcoming devices. With the amount of cashflow and research going on towards this side, there is no doubt that these minor issues will be tended to very shortly. But we do have a long way to go till our virtual reality devices are like our mobile phones- light, realistic, convenient for all day use and super smart. But till we reach that point, you should probably invest that money into something else. Don’t fret about getting a VR anytime soon.

The VRs should modify and give us access to the alternate life. It should make us reach the horizon of the mixture of reality and virtual world. If you can dream it, a VR can make it happen.