Back in the 90’s, we had a promise of Virtual Reality that had everyone talking…
“It’s going to be so great” and the terms “CYBER everything” were born.
Well it was not so great because nobody ever delivered the goods. And what was delivered was cheesy, expensive and cumbersome and in no way delivered “CYBER anything”.
The key word here for VR is “IMMERSION”. You have it or you don’t. Those devices did not have it. Immersion is something you can not really describe other than to say, you no longer have your senses tuned to what is really around you but what is presented instead. Full immersion is something you must experience once to understand the concept. So most you hear about VR in the media is very hard to understand. You simply can not understand why this immersion is so captivating.
Now:
Meet Palmer Luckey who was not part of the virtual reality craze of the 90’s set on a quest to find out what was keeping this from being delivered to the masses. He bought every piece of VR gear he could get his hands on to find out why it did not work and what parts of it worked and why.
Now you have the chance to make something work from the best of everything else. One problem is the cost of building anything “NEW” would be quite expensive. But technology has come a long way since the early days of VR and many parts could now be found mass produced in the correct size for a VR Headset by the cell phone industry.
They contain a nice wide screen display (turned sideways) that can allow for a stereoscopic image (one for each eye) for the 3D effects. They also contain a compass, gps and accelerometer to know how and where the device is and how it is oriented. This gives you a method for positional control for your Virtual World Display. Very important. Turn your head, the image turns in real time to reflect that. So what you are seeing, appears naturally real to your brain.
This is a story of another garage inventor or hacker/maker in the likes of Apple, HP, Tom Edison and you get the picture in your imagination anyway.
The end result is a Virtual Reality System that WORKS and a cost that could be obtained by the masses !
How Big of a deal is this…
Very Very Big ! More on that Later…
The 20 something Mr. Luckey has been on a fast track to success. Palmer takes the duct taped version of his VR Headset to a trade show and quickly got attention.
This lead to a KickStarter.Com campaign in a effort to raise $250,000 to build some prototypes for the supporters. He quickly raises 3 million dollars in a very short period of time. $30 million shortly thereafter. This shows there is a public demand for such a device and it must be huge as still not many float the KickStarter projects (that has changed now).
Meet John Carmac, The inventor of 3D in the gaming world as we now know it, also has had a quest for VR as it is used in the software that creates the effect. He is best known for several games he created like DOOM and QUAKE that revolutionized gaming forever with it’s 3D perspectives.
Mr. Carmac starts to support the works of Palmer Luckey and eventually becomes his Chief Technology Officer (CTO). He knows that young Mr. Luckey has done it, but still needs some refinements for faster display times.
Meet OCULUS VR !
Palmer Luckey has a passion to do it right. This is perfectly understandable. If you look at it from a point in history that VR disappeared once because of claims that could not be for-filled. So inching ever so cautiously, to not release a consumer version until it is right is a priority for him and the team at Oculus VR.
Meanwhile…
For a great VR Goggle, you need to be able to do things with it.
Oculus VR releases DK-1 (development kit 1) for anyone to start to develop “stuff” for it.
Somewhere close to 70,000 DK-1’s were sold to developers.
Did you think I should have used the term “games” instead of stuff ?
This is the “BIG DEAL” about VR this time around.
After 6 months of selling the DK-1, there was a parts shortage. Remember Oculus was using many parts on the cheap from the cell phone industry and their production life is about 18-20 months before moving up to parts for a better model.
Introducing DK-2. At the time of writing, Oculus is taking pre-orders for a second development kit that is much closer to the final consumer release. Without using a bunch of tech terms, a faster display ability is what makes a good VR Goggle seem real without VR Sickness (motion sickness). I expect nearly 100,000 sales of the DK-2 before the consumer version is launched. I have no idea what the Oculus team has predicted. I think they have underestimated the market everyday. Anticipation is building to higher levels than game consoles worldwide.
Meanwhile…
Facebook makes a purchase of Oculus for 2 Billion Dollars in cash and stock. Why did this make sense for Facebook… …That is part of the Big Deal that Facebook “gets-it”.
Why This is a Big Deal Today…
Since the kickstarter campaign, I have been following Palmer Luckey, John Carmac and Oculus. But more important, I have been following what those development kits have been yielding behind the scenes. And I am sure there are many things folks have done with them that we have yet to hear from. If you have a great idea, you might not want to share it till the device is out and you can sell direct to market at that time.
Everyone from the U.S. and Norwegian military, NASA, Film Makers, 3D Architects, Web Developers, Doctors, Car Manufactures to Web Porn have made effective use of this tech.
And you thought is was all about gaming. It is a new platform for almost all existing media and many kinds of new media.
Outside of really terrific 3D Virtual Gaming, these are some of the things you are going to see pop-up within the first year of release of the consumer version of the Oculus Rift.
I invite you to use your Internet Browser to search these terms to find out more…
1) VR Chatrooms (probably Facebooks “first” interest)
2) VR Films – You can be in the film like never before (IMAX looking into this)
3) VR Sports and Live events
4) Live VR 360 degree spherical webcams in nature or at landmarks
5) VR Virtual Tours for travel guides
6) Virtual Doctor/Surgical assistance from anywhere in the world
7) VR visualization of your new house. See if the architect did a proper job
8) Omni-view of products on the web before purchase
9) Porn addicts dream – I don’t need to say more about that. If you know one, they are likely to disappear for a while after getting a taste of this VR
10) Did I mention it make a great gaming device ?
What else… Who Knows… There are many working on things we have not yet herd of. It goes without saying this VR tech is not going away this time or anytime soon.
The hold-up for the consumer version is said to be the production of new OLED displays they intend to use has not went live yet. Oculus continues to improve the consumer version while they wait for it to go into production.
By the time the Consumer version of the Oculus Rift is released in late 2014 to early 2015, the term VR will be in the news as a daily event as folks are developing pretty fast thanks to the release of the development kits ahead of a consumer release.
I don’t blame the skepticism because most of us that were around for the first wave of VR that never come to be. But those skeptics have never tried one of these VR Goggles. Even with the low res slower early DK-1, I have not seen anyone try one and be a skeptic afterwards. Now imagine the Consumer release and subsequent releases that will be higher res and much faster as video display tech manufactures get on board for better results.
The current plans for the consumer version are to have it compatible with smartphones and the PC. Sony and Microsoft will need to develop their own for their game consoles as they are to far behind with the built-in video tech in their systems for the Oculus Rift. Generating the need for a new console almost immediately or to be left behind in the dust.
It will soon to be a competitive market as Sony, Apple, Microsoft, Vuzix and half a dozen others are improving there existing patents and products to be comparable to the RIFT as the Rift creates a new standard in VR for other to follow or try to beat. There is no doubt that the team at Oculus will lead the way and is no surprise that Facebook had a interest.
As I see it, Oculus VR is Facebook’s most valuable asset. They got it on the cheap. Things come and go in social media but VR is here to stay and the team at OCULUS are genuine innovators we have yet to see their full potential.
Looking to invest in the action…
I am not any kind of financial adviser but I make a good tech adviser…
You need to be ahead of the curve.
Invest in good human sensory technology that works with these kinds of systems. The ultimate goal in VR is to have total positional sensory of the user to create the “HOLODECK” experience. You must have arms and legs in your virtual world for that to happen. So sensing where the users arms and legs are is the first step to providing them to the developers who need them.
M.Mays 5/6/2014