Though the concept of virtual reality has existed since the late 1950s (per the University of Illinois), the crux of interest has centered on modern gaming. From Nintendo’s PowerGlove to the more recent Oculus Rift, which, as The Verge has noted, is increasingly gaining mainstream appeal, VR is the perfect space to pretend to be an ancient knight or an intergalactic pirate. Yet the technology has so many applications outside of gaming, both in various entertainment formats and in other, more diversified fields. Here’s a few avenues where VR is becoming a big part of actual reality:
Sports
While there’s nothing like the crowds and expensive food of a real golf tournament, Fox Sports is attempting the next best thing by demoing a new VR experience, noted The Hollywood Reporter. The broadcaster has joined forces with NextVR to offer live streaming of June’s U.S. Open. Available at VIP tents across the tournament grounds, VR devices will allow between 100 and 300 guests to experience the action from a total of five key vantages. NextVR will also include the footage on their unique portal, which can be accessed through the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR headsets. Those without gear can also get in on the action, as Fox Sports Grill will stream footage to locations in Los Angeles, Vancouver and New York.
“Virtual reality is most certainly delivering a new level of excitement to next-generation production possibilities and it will be great to gauge the reactions of the audiences who get to sample it at the U.S. Open,” said John Entz, Fox Sports’ president of production.
Other audiences who’ve already been able to sample NextVR’s tech include those at recent NBA, MLB and NASCAR events.
Fitness
For years, gyms have had video screens to help those on exercise bikes simulate real-world conditions, like sunny meadows or leisurely hilltops. Now, two fitness companies, New Zealand’s Les Mills and Hong Kong’s Pure Fitness, have teamed up to expand that concept with VR technology. Immersive Fitness, as it’s called, is an indoor gym studio that features a 270-degree screen in front of a row of exercise bikes. Other gyms have previously experimented with VR: As the San Francisco Chronicle has pointed out, the city’s Bay Club has used the tech for sometime. Even the Oculus Rift, noted VentureBeat, has a few fitness-centric apps available. Yet Immersive Fitness, situated in a Hong Kong skyscraper, is meant to appeal to a younger crowd: As one CNN reporter detailed, the experience is like a video game or 3D movie, complete with backdrops like outer space and the stormy Himalayas. With the concept’s $400,000 price tag, it’s a sizable bet in the power and appeal of VR.
Fear/therapy
Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab is using the Oculus Rift to help people address issues with fear and anxiety, reported USA Today. Researchers are using a number of scenarios, from placing subjects atop skyscrapers to confronting them with an ever-changing avatar, to help confront various phobias and identity issues, respectively. The lab’s work also has other applications, all of which are aimed at what lab founder Jeremy Bailenson calls “transfer effects,” or how VR makes us analyze worldly interactions. One demo displays 20-something subjects as senior citizens, hoping to get them thinking about retirement planning. The lab usually works with 25 subjects per day.
Explained Bailenson, “VR is very good for rare moments and impossible moments. What happens in a world where anything — the most intense thing that anyone has ever done physically — can happen to everyone at the push of a button?”
For more information about other innovations in VR tech, click here.
