Virtual reality sometimes seems like magic. President Obama certainly seemed to think so this morning.
Obama is at the Hannover Messe industrial trade fair in Germany today, where he donned a set of VR googles alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel. And my, what fun they had.
You can imagine how the conversation may have played out.
“Angela, have you tried these goggles? They are the shit.”
“Look, look Angela—there’s a virtual hand in front of my face!”
“No, Barack, you are confused. That is your own hand.”
“Oh. Dammit. Well, you should try them anyway.”
“... really?”
“Barack, Barack! There’s a hand in front of my face!”
[Quietly] “Shhh, lady just behind us, don’t tell her it’s my hand...”
“Hahahahahaha. Let’s all buy an Oculus Rift for our teleconferences.”
Perhaps.
DISCUSSION
After having played FP shooters, FP driving sims and FP flying sims for decades, I am for one ready for the next step.
Without snickering, will XXX content be a big player in this? Most likely yes.
Will Oculus be the one that succeeds? No, it is way to expensive. (remember to factor in the PC hardware that will run the show)
With full HD smartphones under 150$, why not use a smartphone based VR headset as a wireless monitor for your pc? 4k screens are also getting cheaper.
Are the motion sensors (gyro, acceleration) on smartphones good enough?