With the current media trends focused on blockchain tech and cryptocurrencies, most people would assume that blockchain tech will have the biggest impact on our lives first!
However, VR could also be part of our home entertainment systems sooner than we thought despite its lack of publicity!
If we look back at the technological advances that have changed the way we live, we can start with the internet and mobile phones. Back in the 90s home dial-up internet routers became the norm and at around the same time, mobile phones became more compact and affordable putting.
By the turn of the millennium, most people owned a mobile phone and dial-up was being swapped out for high-speed broadband. Next, came smartphones and 2G which were quite pricey, to begin with.
Now let’s fast forward to today. Touch screen mobile devices, wireless comms, and 4G/5G are the new norm giving us access to information on the move. That is not all. During that time cassette tapes, VHS and blue-ray CDs have all died a death as has Kodak film thanks to the digital camera.
No more clunky in-car CD changers jamming, map reading with a compass is a thing of the past, holiday snaps are instant and circulated immediately on social media, and cloud storage protects all of our newly digitalised photos, music, books, videos, and contracts!
Could you imagine life without all these things? So what’s next on the horizon?
The Next Big Societal Changes
Now we are on the verge of another phenomenon. Internet speeds and bandwidth are now becoming less of a restriction and we now have the option to sign up to 100 Gb home connections.
The internet is now wide enough and fast enough to handle our entire life’s needs. VOIP for telephone communications, video calls, online gaming, music and movie streams, software downloads, in-car entertainment, and now coming in through the backdoor is ‘virtual reality’ which is arguably the biggest game-changer.
Virtual Tours
Estate agents are already using VR to show people properties they may be interested while infrastructure development firms are using VR to pitch their next project to potential IDF fund managers.
Even hotels are beginning to investigate VR so people can check out the rooms, pool, and restaurant before they book.
VR Theme Parks
All over Asia there are places where entire theme park rides such as rollercoasters or trips into a Jurassic World are packed into a small carriage. Everyone puts on the headset and enjoys the ride as if they were on a real-life roller coaster.
These rides come with motion movement, sound, wind, and vision. The only things that are missing from the 5 senses are smell and taste which neither are relevant for these types of rides.
Online Gaming
VR is already making its way into online gaming but is still quite a long way off virtual tours and VR theme park rides. In the online casino industry, Evolution Gaming is already dabbling in live dealer tables that use VR via their live casino platform. Live casinos are becoming more and more popular. Online casino information portals like Playcasino, offer you a great overview of the best ones.
Live casinos stream real-life tables, dealers/croupiers, via webcam so casino players can place bets as if they were at a land-based brick and mortar casino. Evolution Gaming is now going one better by designing a VR version of these tables called first-person roulette, blackjack, and baccarat.
VR Music Concerts
Virtual reality music concerts could kick-off in the near future. For those fans that can’t get to the concert, or in case of another pandemic, VR music concerts could be the next best thing. The concept has already been put into action and while some people cannot see how VR could replace a raw live music concert, those that did attend were pleasantly surprised.
Yes, it is not quite the same thing, but with VR you have the options to step out of your current surroundings and into something extraordinarily similar to being a live concert is hard to pass on. Carefully blended cutting-edge tech for sounds and vision does work and people would be shocked at just how close VR companies have come to recreating the real thing.
VR For Conferences and Meetings
There are numerous tech meetups, trade fairs, and conferences already using VR to bring people from around the globe to one place over the internet. Much live a webinar, these virtual conferences allow people to walk around, check out different stands, attend seminars, participate in training activities, and sit down in virtual meetings, so any airline company managers reading this – watch out!
Final Thoughts…
When people heard touchscreen tech would reach the mobile phone market, they didn’t quite believe it, but it happened. When the first mention of playing casino games via a webcam was mentioned, again people did not think it would happen. And, when people were told in the future they would be chatting to their friends on the other side of the world via a video call, they did not think it would happen.
The future is hard to predict, and until these things become reality, they are difficult to comprehend. Yet, VR will be part of our futures and one day we will go to music concerts, view houses, and visit the beach using our home entertainment systems. Virtual reality will become a part of our reality and it is only a mater time before it does.