State of play of Virtual Reality

[January 22, 2016]  LAS VEGAS, NEVADA (Reuters) - Valkyrie, a new action-packed space adventure developed by game company CCP, was designed to harness the latest in virtual reality technology. A VR headset is the best way to appreciate the truly immersive nature of the game. Two dimensional renderings do little justice to the 3D version - or the hardware used to play it.

That sums up the problem with virtual reality - it's hard to sell 3D in a 2D world.

"Today we use devices like smartphones and tablets. Tomorrow we want to change the dynamic around immersive, advanced, virtual reality," said JP Nauseef, the founder of Krush technologies, a company starting to develop virtual reality hardware.

Major advances in virtual reality are starting to take shape. Tech giants like Google, Facebook and Samsung are just some of the players heavily investing in VR. Cheaper, more sophisticated, headsets are coming to market every year.

At the same time, futuristic hardware like Moveo, a concept simulator developed by Krush, are expanding the scope of possibilities for virtual reality.

But according to Halsey Minor, founder of CNET networks and several other tech enterprises, accelerating growth in VR must be content driven.

"I think the biggest opportunities in VR are around the biggest opportunities in television and that requires the ability to do live streaming VR, which today has been a very difficult thing because of the technology involved," said Minor, who is heading up Reality Lab, a start-up focused on bringing VR into the mainstream.

Minor recently unveiled the Quantum Leap VR system, a device that starts paving the way towards a future where people will be able to experience live sporting events and concerts in virtual reality.

"It's 16 HD cameras all running at the same time and out of those 50 gigabytes of information, a huge amount of information, we have to craft to perfect 360 degree spheres for each eye and then transport that over the Internet," Minor added.

He predicts that just like the Internet is supplanting newspapers, VR will have the same effect on television.

"The most interesting thing that we are going to find out in 2016 is how fertile is the market right now. Are we going to sell 10 million of these? Are we going to send a million of these? But I think that is going to tell us what our trajectory is because where you start is going to determine how fast you grow," he said.

No matter the pace, Minor says immersive technology will increasingly turn the virtual world into our everyday reality.

[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.