As of
2016, people that have succeeded with Virtual Reality marketing are company's that
identify narratives and secondly put 100% of their resources into
creating stories that interact with their audience. Virtual Reality solves the
problem of grabbing their audiences attention and keeping them fully
engaged. Some reasons are being immersive, that is when the user is
provided with a headset and engaged with the content and has fewer
distractions and more attention towards the message. Impacting the
customer, the intensity of the Virtual Reality experience is powerful generating
emotions in the individual. Memorable, the Virtual Reality experience is something
truly remarkable and will be imprinted in peoples brains. Some of the
major company's like Coca Cola and McDonald's have invested their
commercial time with Virtual Reality technology because its a new fresh start for
their customers to see where technology has brought us. It was a
perfect opportunity for the company's as they are always striving to
become better. This new technology will enable many more company's
like McDonald's and Coca Cola to expand into the Virtual Reality scene to showcase
how impressive the marketing strategies are and that there are no
limits when it comes to using this technology. Creativity is key in
marketing, it enables the company's to think outside the box and
bring something something unique to the table. The possibilities are
endless.
The
“new” form of gaming, If you have been apart of the gaming
community then
you're definitely looking forward for the new wave of
virtual reality. It has been 20 years of process and failure but the
technology is finally coming along. Virtual Reality was supposed to immerse us in inspired digital worlds,
enabling us to interact with technology in new ways and experience
gaming at its most intense and absorbing. Instead, what it gave us
was eyestrain, neck ache and motion sickness.
After all of these false promises, in 2016 you will see the launch of
three new Virtual Reality systems. Facebook’s
Oculus Rift , Valve’s Steam Virtual Reality, HTC’s Vive, and Sony’s
PlayStation Virtual Reality are able to take advantage of all the progress made in
graphics technology. As well, they’ve learned from the error's made
by previous attempts to deliver something that lives up to
anticipation and that, crucially, won’t leave us feeling nauseous.
It’s exhilarating and innovative titles like these that the Virtual Reality systems need to set it apart from more traditional gaming platform.
With original and immersive content to showcase the unique promise of
the technology, it seems that Virtual Reality really is ready to hit the
mainstream and start pulling people into its unreal worlds.
Over the past two years we have seen some amazing
developments taking place in the field of virtual reality. New games,
applications, and products are just a few of the topics ruling conversations about
VR. Amongst all of the excitement surrounding the future of VR, the way that this
new technology will affect its users often gets overlooked. Researchers around
the world are working to assess how the use of VR will affect a user’s mind and
body over time.
The known effects and health and safety risks that have been
attributed to this relatively new technology will be discussed briefly in this
post.
Physical Effects
Some common side effects often experienced by users include:
Nausea
Eye strain (sometimes severe)
Motion sickness
Anxiety
Headaches
Blurred visions
Disorientation
As of right now most major headset creators advise that
children should not use their product. Even adults are urged to take lengthy
breaks every half-hour or so to avoid these effects.
Physical Injury
Headsets that cover the eyes pose the obvious threat of
visual impairment. Users can see what is in front of them in the virtual world
but not in the world that they are physically in. Tripping over or walking into
an object sounds funny until it actually happens. It may seem simple to avoid
these injuries, however they are very common and VR headset makers must warn
consumers about them in their Health and Safety guidelines.
A type of physical injury that users are warned about in the
Oculus Rift headset’s Health and Safety
Guidelines is repetitive stress Injury. The document states, “Using the
device can make your muscles, joints or skin hurt. If any part of your body
becomes tired or sore while using the headset or its components, or if you feel
symptoms such as tingling, numbness, burning or stiffness, stop and rest for
several hours before using it again.” (Oculus 2016).
Neurological and Psychological
Effects
Data pertaining to how the use of VR headsets affects the
brain over time is hard to come by due to the fact that this technology is
still very new. Although developers have been working on virtual reality programs
and simulations for decades, commercial headsets have just become available to
the masses in the year 2016.
The video above, from www.wsj.com, briefly discusses VR's health risks and its psychological effect on users
Although some short term effects have been listed above, we
are still unsure of how virtual reality will affect one’s mind and body over a
long period of time. Many researchers agree that it is far too early to tell if
VR’s effects extend beyond the short term at all.
Nikola Davis a writer at theguardian.com published an
article with a quote from a professor of optometry at the
University of Cal, Berkeley named Marty Banks. When discussing the aspects of virtual reality and
vision, Banks said, “Everything I have seen suggests it is all short-term and
you readjust after you take that headset off. But I think it would be unwise
for us to say there is no problem.” (Davis, Banks 2016)
As advancements in the field of VR continue to be made, we
can expect new research about the technology’s effects to become readily
available to users.
Resources:
Nicas, J. (2016, 3 January). What Does Virtual Reality Do to
Your Body and Mind? Retrieved October 16,2016
from
When Facebook bought the company Oculus in March of 2014 it
sent shockwaves throughout the tech industry. The $2 billion US deal changed
virtual reality forever. Oculus, a leader in the field of VR, currently has one
of the best-selling VR headset on the market with their Oculus Rift product. Now,
about two years after the industry shaking deal, Facebook and Oculus have
unveiled what they’ve been working on. Developers at both companies have been
working on developing VR’s own World Wide Web.
Web VR
Facebook and Oculus are designing the framework for Web VR
to be a standard for all VR devices. As of now, devices from different
companies and developers run apps that are built specifically for their device.
These apps are downloaded from app stores that are unique to each device. Web
VR aims to bridge the gap between devices and offer content available to
everyone, regardless of the headset you own.
Web VR’s current capabilities include instantly playable
experiences on Web VR; for example 360 video. Web VR is designed to make VR
experiences available to a wider audience.
Carmel Browser
A type of internet browser codenamed Carmel is also in the
works. This browser’s full capabilities are not yet known and it is unclear why
a separate web browser is needed to access Web VR.
What We Know
Will allow users to browse the web on their
headsets
Set to work on any Oculus device
VR will not be confined to standalone apps and
games
According to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg early previews
will be made available to VR developers in the near future.
Social VR
The next step in Facebook’s
plan for WebVR and their Carmel browser is to create social VR software.
At the Oculus Connect 3 event co-founder
and CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg said, "Virtual reality is the perfect
platform to put people first, because of presence. You feel like you're really
there, in another place, with people." (2016)
In the video above we can see Mark Zuckerberg showcasing some of Facebook and Oculus' early social VR capabilities.
Michael Booth, Head of Facebook’s
Social VR team who was also featured in the demo above had this to say about social VR, “In the videogame industry, we focused all of our energy on
‘we’re gonna create an experience for you.’ This is turning that completely
around. It’s all about putting people first—connecting with your friends. I
think we’re getting pretty close to that." (2016)
At Oculus Connect 3, Oculus also announced its plans for social
VR. New avatars and social hang out rooms will be available on the platform in
the coming months.
Resources:
Sathe,
G. (2016, 7 October). Facebook Carmel Is a Web Browser for VR. Retrieved
October 13, 2016 from
