How will the VR technology develop in the future, one might ask? The developers are working on resolving the issues which is discussed on this webpage. Better video quality, including better pose tracking, better visual effects and in general a more real-like experience, is something the developers are struggling with. Many believe that the future of VR has to merge with augmented reality, which is something that is currently yet to be implemented. For this to happen, the VR headsets should be wireless in order to be portable, which today only the cheap versions are.
Oculus is currently working on a prototype named ’Santa Cruz’, that one might consider the future of VR. This prototype is wireless, where you don’t need a PC, smartphone or gaming device in order to use the headset. It also comes with an inside-out tracking that tracks your position and head angle better than any current product on the market. However, the prototype is yet to be improved as it is lagging more than wired VR headsets and is only applicable with sparse environments. This raises the question of the processing power of the product, which is still unknown [21].
Light weighted, wireless, affordable headsets with good quality and high processing power is what we people are hoping to see in the future. If the producers can fulfill these criteria, there is a big chance that VR headsets can become a mainstream product. The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, claims that the future of VR and AR gadgets will look like ordinary glasses, as in the figure below.
The future of the technology
Mark Zuckerberg presenting the future of VR/AR [22]
The external hardware for the Oculus Rift, namely Oculus Touch, is a pair of wireless, tracked controllers that gives you the opportunity to see your hands and touch things in the virtual environment. At the F8 conference in San Francisco in April this year, Zuckerberg presented the future of VR, both near and far. Here he introduced Oculus’ ToyBox demo, which shows how you can get into the same room as someone else and play ping pong together and interact with each other. The video of the ToyBox Demo can be seen in the video below. For now, all we can do is wait patiently for what is to come in the future.
ToyBox Demo for Oculus Touch
[21] goo.gl/90w0lO, accessed 27.11.2016 [22] goo.gl/75eokd, accessed 27.11.2016