Time for a recap
It’s been an exciting month with meetups, expos and handshakes all over the VR world. We showed VR to 20.000 people at our Hyperspace expo at the Dutch Design Week. I talked to the leaders in the VR industry (got the VR selfies to proof it ;-)) and pitched VRmaster at Web Summit 2015. So it’s time for a recap and to share my insights about VR.
“We are at the dawn of virtual reality.”
And I agree with James Riney. It’s like at the beginning of the car industry, when Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau-Fabriks-Gesellschaft A.G. was motorizing carriages like the Präsident automobile.
It is similar to what Youtube is doing with VR right now. They are turning 360º videos into VR. And that’s great, if you want to experience a VR video. But it’s just one VR video.
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
Of course there were racing cars in those days, like the 1903 Stanley Steamer (photo).
And of course one can use Jaunt’s Neo, PurplePill’s camera and Nokia’s Ozo these days to create amazing stereoscopic experiences, so you can step into movie scenes or take a virtual ride in an exclusive racing car. But there’s more to VR, I think.
To me, VR is a new way of sharing. As the internet democratizes information, VR democratizes experiences.
Inside a ‘bubble’
Using the Internet, anyone can access information, whenever they want, just by Googling, surfing to Wikipedia or checking social media. With virtual reality, anyone can go anywhere, whenever they want to, just by using their smartphone, a piece of cardboard and two lenses.
So If you want to relive the rollercoaster rides from Park Hilaria? Easy. Or you want to experience the way Pieter Brueghel’s paintings interact, just go there. You can re-visit the Dutch Design Week or check some talks at the Web Summit, as easy as visiting a website.
I’ve noticed that when you are completely into VR, you think everybody is in that same bubble and has already experienced VR. We’ve spend the last weeks talking to hundreds of people and showing VR to thousands of DDW and Web Summit visitors. One thing became clear to me. Lots and lots of people have heard about VR, but they never actually experienced it. But when they do, this is how they react:
“Oh my god!”
Their reaction is one of the best things I experienced in my life. But unfortunately, it’s not the racing cars or motorized carriages who can bring VR to the public. We need a T-ford.
Checklist for accessible VR
What we need, so anyone can experience VR are:
- A Smartphone
Check! Around 2 billion are out there (Statista.com) - Internet connection
Check! More than 3 billion people have acces to the internet (Internetlivestats.com) - VR goggles like the VRmaster Cardboard
Check! VRmaster sold 20.000 cardboards in the Netherlands. The NY Times is shipping lots of Google Cardboards - An affordable 360º camera
Check! We love the Ricoh Theta S, which makes amazing pictures and awesome 360 videos. - Great content
Check, but we need more. We are opening our VRapp.co platform soon. Photographers, Videographers, Architects, Artists and other creatives can upload their 360º content here. We will turn their content into amazing VR-tours.
VR wil change the way we tell stories, travel, train, learn, shop and relax and is here to stay.
“It’s a new dawn. It’s a new day. It’s a new life.”
We’re not developing cars. We’re developing the opportunity for you to capture your experiences and share them with the world.