Virtual reality - so many barely tapped uses

computer2268 · 19 Feb 2018 at 12:12

Many years ago (before VR was a consumer reality) I imagined that when it came it would be used for education, the virtual office (with finger-tracking over a virtual keyboard), virtual shopping (the IKEA is using it - but not yet Amazon or Walmart or Tesco).

My question is this: why? Or rather WHY NOT? Why is it all Games! Games! Games! OK I know that there are some pidgin steps into the realm of all these things. And yes I know that we haven't yet got finger tracking (although I've read about some interesting technologies on the horizon.

But why is it not being used more in education. We all know the classic screnario about "blowing up the lab without anyone getting hurt." Why isn't VR all over the place now. We've got the hardware. Why isn't it being used in every school in the west?

And every major retail chain! ???

melmac · 19 Feb 2018 at 12:38

Because it's massively expensive still and the resolution isn't there yet for day to day stuff. And for the resolution to get good enough for day to day stuff, there will be the added expense of getting hardware powerful enough to run the headset.

The tech is a long way from been ready for everyday class room and work situations.

Brun · 19 Feb 2018 at 13:00

It's not just the hardware which is expensive. Generating applications and content isn't cheap either.

Born2BSlow · 20 Feb 2018 at 06:31

Patience young paduan...VR is in its infancy still.

computer2268 · 20 Feb 2018 at 11:58

Born2BSlow said:
Patience young paduan...VR is in its infancy still.

You're right. We'll get there eventually.

But I'm not so young. I'm old enough to remember UNCLE agents talking into their pens - now we've all got mobile phones!

Born2BSlow · 20 Feb 2018 at 13:15

Classic TV...I'm quite young I only watched the repeats...

lokiss · 20 Feb 2018 at 17:48

I think your a little off base with your assumptions, VR is already prevalent in training and commercial design use. There are many design and education applications on the steam store alone, not to mention it's usage in the medical field.

Amazon and the like are only interested in giving you easiest means to spend money. In no way is that currently VR. Personally I think media consumption will be the next major thing. That shared experience that people seem to crave with television shows ect.., is no more connective anywhere else but for the VR space in the digital world. Bigscreen proves this, and on a larger scale with the film events they've had with collaborating film studio's.

chaparral · 20 Feb 2018 at 19:51

I would not want to sit in an office wearing a VR head set for 8+ hours a day

Devrij · 21 Feb 2018 at 08:19

I would expect AR to be the most prevalent tech. We will replace smart phones with smart headsets. VR is always going to be something you specifically do. AR will be something you just have on you all the time.

FlukeRogi · 21 Feb 2018 at 12:31

Devrij said:
I would expect AR to be the most prevalent tech. We will replace smart phones with smart headsets. VR is always going to be something you specifically do. AR will be something you just have on you all the time.

Yep, agreed, though I think Intel have hit on the intermediate step as far as AR is concerned, with a pair of glasses linking to your smartphone for processing, with the glasses acting purely as a display.

Even if Magic Leap does half of what it's supposed to (and I'm in the camp that isn't buying into their claims), you're basically tethered to a computer on your belt, and the images show a second cable, so I'm fully expecting a battery pack as well. Nobody I know is going to use that as an everyday device, and design wise it looks too bizarre for anyone to wear it in public. AR is still effectively in the DK1 days, and then some.

Dicehunter · 23 Feb 2018 at 12:18

computer2268 said:
Many years ago (before VR was a consumer reality) I imagined that when it came it would be used for education, the virtual office (with finger-tracking over a virtual keyboard), virtual shopping (the IKEA is using it - but not yet Amazon or Walmart or Tesco).

My question is this: why? Or rather WHY NOT? Why is it all Games! Games! Games! OK I know that there are some pidgin steps into the realm of all these things. And yes I know that we haven't yet got finger tracking (although I've read about some interesting technologies on the horizon.

But why is it not being used more in education. We all know the classic screnario about "blowing up the lab without anyone getting hurt." Why isn't VR all over the place now. We've got the hardware. Why isn't it being used in every school in the west?

And every major retail chain! ???

From my own experience of the western world having travelled a lot of it, The west is slowly going backwards due to giving into the cancer that is political correctness including perverse things such as history books being revised to remove "offensive language", Statues being taken down, Bowing down to invading incompatible cultures, The cult of multiculturalism etc... the west severely needs to sort itself out first and stop committing cultural suicide before we see things like this that will help education.

Ravenger · 23 Feb 2018 at 14:13

Dicehunter said:
From my own experience of the western world having travelled a lot of it, The west is slowly going backwards due to giving into the cancer that is political correctness including perverse things such as history books being revised to remove "offensive language", Statues being taken down, Bowing down to invading incompatible cultures, The cult of multiculturalism etc... the west severely needs to sort itself out first and stop committing cultural suicide before we see things like this that will help education.

Agree 100%!

computer2268 · 28 Feb 2018 at 12:13

Dicehunter said:
From my own experience of the western world having travelled a lot of it, The west is slowly going backwards due to giving into the cancer that is political correctness including perverse things such as history books being revised to remove "offensive language", Statues being taken down, Bowing down to invading incompatible cultures, The cult of multiculturalism etc... the west severely needs to sort itself out first and stop committing cultural suicide before we see things like this that will help education.

Without wishing to get bogged down in this argument, I don't see what it has to do with the topic: expanding the uses of VR.

Having said that, I agree with you that it is silly and wrong to take down statues. Instead they should PUT MORE STATUES: e.g. Put up a statue of Abe Lincoln next to a statue of Jefferson Davis. Or put up a statue of Ulysses S. Grant opposite a statue of Robert E Lee. Or maybe a statue of William Tecumseh Sherman standing eyeball to eyeball with (Thomas Jonathan) Stonewall Jackson! That way you get to REALLY capture the history of and test the sincerity of those defending the statues.

And in England? Churchill with Mohandas K Gandhi... ;-)