The Future of VR- A Potential to Redefine Reality

Saurav Bhaik

“VR is a way to escape the real world into something more fantastic. It has the potential to be the most social technology of all time” - Palmer Luckey, Founder of Oculus Rift. 

Virtual Reality(VR) is the most distinctive but also the most hyped technology at present. When VR penetrated in, people were amazed to find something so exceptionally arousing. Initially, the technology of VR being surprisingly different gained success in varied and sumptuous areas of work. People were enthused to experiment and experience its very idiosyncratic features and advantages, only to sooner realize its slope of merits and demerits. 

A Huge Scope for VR Enlightenment in the Market

When big brands like the iPhone entered the market, their main competition was with Nokia and Samsung. And it is understood. But in case of something like VR technology, its competition is with reality, it’s with the things we can sense, touch and feel, things that are uncommon to technology. 

"Soon there will be virtual reality, and augmented reality. If you assume any rate of improvement at all, then games will become indistinguishable from reality,”  said Elon Musk a couple of years back. 

Though, a technical gap persistently prevails and misses the final touch. VR experiences are required to be so good that people can’t differentiate them from reality. Luckily, people’s expectations with the VR is no less than becoming a part of a virtual world which is indistinguishable from the real world. Two years ago VR growth was at its peak. People believed VR has the potential to interact in this digital environment. Some studies also stressed on its potential of growth  and unexpected downfall. 

According to the Gartner’s VR Hype Cycle of 2017 and 2018 a declining scope of virtual reality in the market is concluded. The chart clearly states that the emerging technology of VR took a remarkable upscale in 2017 to eventually drop down in 2018. The existence of VR technology is comprehended to have unexpectedly vanished.

We understand that the users face delusion as they dealt with something more dynamic. But there’s always room for improvement. Especially for VR technology because people think it can help communicate better in the professional environment.  

The ‘Technology Adoption Curve’ tells us that with the arrival of any new and popular product in the market, the early market which involves early innovators and early adopters comes first to adopt it. Then this practice is followed by the mainstream market of majority adopters and those who adopt technology seeing its mass acceptance and in the end comes the laggards, who don’t pay much attention to this market.  

According to the VR technology adoption curve, the mass adoption and true immersion of people with VR remains a far-off dream. It is likely to be attainable, but not as per the timescale anticipated on its climb up hype-cycle. 

It is the key to understand here that the very basic concept of VR acceptance ratio only goes positive when its early market of acceptance will make an optimistic impact on the users. The curve says that the recognition of VR in the market is just a start and it has to go far enough to meet up to its potential expectations. It is predicted that VR is the very beginning of the change from the computer age to the experiential age. Maybe the ‘technology adoption curve’ is based on a hypothetical whim but the concept of teleporting people to another world still has to be conquered.

VR Limitations in the Market

The ‘not-so-advanced-technology’ proficiently plays an important role in degrading the quality of content in a product. In simple words, the lack of hyper-realistic content is the significant factor behind the suspected defeat of VR technology in the long run. 

Unfortunately, the experience of VR today is making people wait and feel wasted. The VR headset is made up of the poor-quality VR screens, low-performing processors and not-so-updated hardware devices. The downsides of which caused after-symptoms like headache, blurred vision, bulkiness and uneasiness.

Final Solution is Awaiting

Not denying the pieces of evidence, it is right to presume that VR can be the future, only if VR go spotless engaging the reliable user expectations and fixing the unavailability of the latest technology.

The VR is supposed to offer people a stereoscopic vision, which looks realistic. The technology incorporated in the VR headsets has to modify its interface so that it can serve people with a pleasant viewing experience. For instance, electronic reading devices, like kindle is crafted in a manner that gives its viewers a real feel of reading from the book. The display screen of the kindle is engineered in a way that is friendly to normal eyes and doesn’t feel bulky. 

Similarly, in order to incorporate a hyper-realistic content, the display of the VR headsets has to be ultra-HD and more improved. The screen used in present-day VR equipment is below standard. These screens are not sufficient enough to run an Ultra-HD display and require more power with larger-sized GPU processors. 

The power of processors increases when the size of its transistors reduces. But it is only possible when according to Moore’s law “the number of transistors in dense integrated circuit doubles about every two years”. The VR technology then can standalone with an updated powerful GPU processor, optimized and convenient to be used as a spectacle. Fortunately, the day when technology will ultimately outgrow itself, VR is likely to have a glorified future.

The author is Founder & CEO, Tagbin: Experience Innovators