Virtual Reality is a form of technology that lets you “explore new worlds and attempt feats that seem unimaginable”. Virtual reality is a distinct piece of technology that is unlike any other technology out there. Unlike a regular computer where you have limited worlds to explore, virtual reality allows you to enter into the 3rd-dimensional world in 1st person view. In fact, virtual reality is so innovative that they developed new jobs. Because virtual reality developed new jobs, they allow people to simulate being in a workplace environment, dealing with “realistic workplace conditions”.
The most prominent example of that is surgery and medication where they place students in a high-aggravating situation where every move they make, means the “difference between life and death”. However, there are many more reasons as to how virtual reality changed the world.
Challenges of VR development
While VR development created lots of educational and entertainment impacts of technology, there are some challenges/setbacks that developers have to be aware of. That is “cost, public attraction, and cyber-security”. VR headsets come at a huge price point from about $300-$2000, the prices are so high that some consumers don’t feel the need to purchase one. This is mainly due to the high technology that is installed inside those high-quality headsets. However, developers are coming up with inexpensive ways to develop VR headsets such that the headsets don’t cost so much.
Another challenge they need to overcome is “public acceptance”. The thing about VR to the community is that some people may not be aware of what Virtual Reality is or Augmented Reality. Just because a company creates a high-technology product that is meant to improve the community doesn’t mean that people are going to understand it quickly, the company needs to clearly explain why they are selling VR headsets. According to saturninfotech.com, they say that “about 23% of consumers and businesses aren’t eager to accept the new tech”. This means that the company is aware that VR is not a popular product due to its high cost and complex design.
While there are marketing challenges that need to be addressed, making technology addresses one major and that is “Cyber-security and Data Privacy”. In VR technology, there are so many advanced technology parts and complex designs that they can become extremely vulnerable to hackers and incoming dangers. As if hackers aren’t already bad enough for regular computers, they are even more devastating for the VR industry since they invest lots of money into them and as a result, it can lead to trust loss and less audience acceptance.
With that being said, the VR industry is still trying its best to overcome these challenges though they “lack competition in the market”, they still do a great job of understanding the techniques and selling.
How many ways can VR be used?
Virtual Reality can be used in infinite ways. Virtual reality is more than just gaming and leisure, it’s used to teach education, job training, etc. Some examples include VR in Medical Training, Military, Sports, Mental Health, Fashion, etc. It just goes to show how many possibilities that virtual reality can open up. They help you practice in workplace environments, look at scientific diagrams, take virtual tours around cities, colleges, or a foreign country.
VR in medical training is one of the most prominent examples since medical training is one of the most stressful jobs since they involve perfect inputs and movements and one mistake can end up killing the patient. But with VR, they can help present a “great opportunity to optimize costs” since the medical industry tends to be high budget.
Cost is the most important consideration of VR development The most important thing to consider when marketing a VR headset is cost. Right now, VR headsets are extremely expensive. It is understandable that huge investors put billions and billions of money into the VR market so that the VR headsets are more powerful, but there’s also really complex technology inside, which is what makes the VR headset work differently unlike any other technology. However, there are cheaper headsets that make you put your own mobile device inside and connect it to the headset using Bluetooth. You also have to connect a VR controller using Bluetooth. Then you need to download a VR app that matches the company and design, once everything is connected, then it works. The most expensive kind of VR headsets are the ones that already have a device inside, those usually cost over $200.
On the other hand, there are some benefits due to great VR marketing and design. Cost doesn't always have to determine the quality of any product in general. Although, cost does matter because it can either attract consumers or repel consumers.
How does VR attract people?
VR actually creates a decent attraction for people, despite the company investors knowing that they tend to have low public awareness. Even though they may cost hundreds of dollars, they are still worth it. VR headsets use the 360-degree camera inside a double circle lens on the outside of the headset. This makes the user feel like they are in another world, except inside, the world is made up of polygons which are made up of vector graphics. But they only incorporate polygonal backgrounds for VR gaming. As for virtual tours, they use raster graphics which are made of pixels that create realistic backgrounds. There are many different methods of taking 360-degree tours through many different apps such as Youtube VR, Google Earth VR, National Geographic Explore VR, Blueplanet VR Explore, and Ecosphere. They take users on a variety of different tours around the world including the world’s oceans, deserts, mountains, and different environments. For example, VR platform for hotel, resort owners, and tour agents VResorts to showcase locations in 360° virtual tours or a virtual ocean tour is guided by “Hydrous CEO and Marine biologist Dr. Erika Woolsey” and international tours guided by “award-winning VR Filmmaker Tarik Mohamad”. These kinds of tours are more immersive than real professors without Virtual Reality because they help make the tour a lot more meaningful, immersive, and factual.
Conclusion
The VR industry is continuing to develop more advanced VR headsets and make them more appealing and useful. There were some major challenges that the industry needed to be aware of, especially cost. While VR headsets can be super expensive, the industry makes a lot of money from investing in products like these. The more money they invest the more VR headset units will be sold. Virtual reality did change the world by a lot, ever since the early 1900s, Virtual Reality continues to grow. They can do so much more than just a gaming device or a tour device, they can actually do academics and job training. This was a huge part of the community, especially since gaining experience as a student will transfer into a real-world work environment when they get a job. Academically, Virtual Reality takes every single career field and combines them into one giant world, giving infinite possibilities to everyone. Hopefully, more companies will get involved in the VR industry and attempt to create more variations of Virtual Reality while also lowering the cost in order to attract more consumers. I think virtual reality does immerse people into a whole new world for learning purposes or even get people to work for VR industries.
Top comments (0)