Virtual Reality

Virtual reality is on the rise. Popular gadgets such as oculus rift, which was recently purchased by Facebook for two billion dollars, and Samsung are pouring money into new virtual reality devices which promise to blur the line between reality and virtual reality. This article talks about Samsung's newly announce Beyond camera which can capture 360 degree panoramic video from multiple cameras arranged around a 6" disk. The camera feed can be stored or streamed live to Samsung's VR goggles which will be added to their Samsung Gear line of products. The VR goggles include gyroscopes, accelerometers, and a compass to track the movement of your head while wearing them. This allows you to rotate 360 degrees to view the entire panoramic, the beyond unit even includes a camera on the top to capture video from the sky which you can view by tilting your head up when wearing the goggles.

Like most new products it is not without flaws, the camera records a gigabit of data every second which means it requires a lot of bandwidth to stream the data seamlessly, something that was lacking in its disastrous debut which included pixelated video and loss of connection. The camera unit also requires a high speed broadband connection in order to stream data, something that is often not available on the beaches of the Bahamas or most places people would like to escape too. When the camera is connected to the internet it can stream to multiple people at once, but there is likely to be a limit due to bandwidth. Connectivity issues aside, those susceptible to seasickness should stay away from VR goggles as they require you to tilt and rotate your head while being fully immersed in a video feed.

Virtual reality is not only attracting people looking to escape daily life, hobbyists and drone enthusiasts are purchasing VR goggles and FPV (first person view) cameras for their multi-rotor drones and model airplanes. These FPV systems allow the pilots to fly their model aircraft as if they were sitting in the cockpit, but without the risk of death (assuming they don't crash into themselves which has been known to happen). High quality systems can give the pilot the sense they are flying through air, and makes it easier to capture more cinematic video. These FPV systems rely on radio frequency communication which means they are usually limited in range to about 100 yards and susceptible to interference and poor video quality. Broadband internet provides a much better medium for VR systems and as our data infrastructure adapts more fiber optic lines bandwidth will no longer be a problem.

Soon we can expect to see VR goggles incorporated into online games like World of Warcraft. VR goggles would give MMORPG players who already have a blurred sense of reality a means to immerse themselves even further into virtual worlds. For the everyday American VR technology means they can spend their lunch break in one of many scenic locations, assuming they are coordinated enough to eat their food without the use of their eyes which will be busy taking in the virtual scene.