Virtual reality gets more real
Oculus Rift sounds as if it鈥檚 a science fiction robot that morphs into a snazzy car. Instead it鈥檚 the best-known name emerging so far in a new area of technology that lies just this side of science fiction.
Virtual reality (VR) claims to be more than just another advance in entertainment or education or business communication. It plans to be a whole new version of 鈥渞eality.鈥�
By wearing bulky, wrap-around dark glasses (the user looks pretty nerdy), people can intensely experience two powerful human senses, sight and sound.
What will they see and hear? Video game players might undertake incredibly realistic adventures as the action surrounds them 360 degrees. Or students might 鈥渧irtually鈥� visit the Pyramids or an art museum half a world away. Sports fans could view a big game as though they鈥檙e sitting right on the sidelines. Business people in distant cities could meet 鈥渋n person鈥� with a sense of realism and 鈥減resence鈥� that would make today鈥檚 video conferencing seem dull and archaic.
And what if news viewers could be taken by VR to the site of a Syrian refugee camp and allowed to tour it on their own? Might that change how they feel about the refugees鈥� plight?
Oculus Rift, which Facebook bought for $2 billion in 2014, has just announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that its VR product will be available later this spring for $599. That鈥檚 if you already own a very powerful computer that can run it. Otherwise, figure on spending another $1,200 or so.
That price would seem to scare off all but the earliest adopters. But cheaper versions of VR (though not as powerful) already exist, and prices for electronics traditionally fall quickly.
Skeptics still wonder about all the fuss. Less than three years ago Google Glass promised to be a revolutionary new 鈥渨earable鈥� technology, and now Google apparently has quietly hid the glasses away in a dusty closet somewhere hoping they鈥檒l be forgotten.
But filmmaker Chris Milk, who is already producing VR documentaries, says that sooner or later VR is going to produce some profound ethical debates. What will be the responsibilities of those creating these ultra-real VR experiences? And what will be the effects on those who use VR?
鈥淚n terms of an altered state of human consciousness being on the horizon, right now we鈥檙e still in the darkness of night, poking around with flashlights and trying to find our way there,鈥� he told The Guardian. 鈥淲hat you鈥檙e talking about at some point is more than a medium, but is fundamentally an alternative level of human consciousness.鈥�
Today鈥檚 VR is still taking baby steps. Using the equipment can cause unpleasant physical side effects, much as early 3-D glasses did. And it鈥檚 still a sit-down activity (though spinning around on a swivel chair apparently is a great way to take advantage of the 360-degree view). Getting up and physically wandering around in a virtual environment (a la the Holodeck on 鈥淪tar Trek鈥� ) is a far more complicated technological problem.
But already the intensity of the experience is a game changer. 鈥淪cares in VR are borderline immoral,鈥� says Alex Schwartz, who heads VR maker Owlchemy Labs, in a Wall Street Journal story. 鈥淲e have to be very careful.鈥�
Others don鈥檛 see what鈥檚 so new since people already can get deeply immersed in a movie or video game, or in an even earlier technology 鈥� a book. But Stanford University professor Jeremy Bailenson, who has studied VR for 15 years, says we underestimate VR at our peril.
鈥淭he question isn鈥檛: Is VR good or bad? You鈥檇 never ask that about the written word or video,鈥� he told the Journal. 鈥淏ut I鈥檓 hoping that people are careful. We don鈥檛 know what鈥檚 going to happen.鈥�
We need not fear VR any more than any other new technology. But understanding it will make sure people use it to their benefit and not their harm.
