That’s the million-dollar question. Or near enough. There is $750,000 in funding on offer for arts institutions – as well as technologists, companies and artists partnering with arts institutions – looking to answer it.

There is $750,000 in funding on offer by the Knight Foundation for ideas that demonstrate the ability of immersive technologies such as VR and AR to strengthen audience engagement
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The grants are being put forward by the Knight Foundation for ideas that demonstrate the ability of immersive technologies, such as virtual and mixed reality, to strengthen audience engagement.

“Arts institutions need more knowledge to move beyond just experimenting with these technologies to becoming proficient in leveraging their full potential.”  Says Knight director Chris Barr.

To help them do this, winners will receive a share of the $750,000 in funding, and optional technical support from Microsoft, including mixed-reality coaching, mentorship and technology access and training, as well as the opportunity to be featured across Microsoft marketing channels.

“We’re incredibly excited to support this open call for ways in which technology can help art institutions engage new audiences,” says Mira Lane, Partner Director Ethics & Society at Microsoft.  “We strongly believe that immersive technology can enhance the ability for richer experiences, deeper storytelling, and broader engagement.”

The new call for ideas is part of Knight Foundation’s arts and technology focus, which aims to help arts institutions better meet changing audience expectations and use digital tools to help people better experience and delight in the arts.

“When done right, life-changing experiences can happen at the intersection of arts and technology,” said Victoria Rogers, Knight Foundation vice president for arts speaking at the initiative’s launch at the Gray Area Festival in San Francisco. “Our goal through this call is to help cultural institutions develop informed and refined practices for using new technologies, equipping them to better navigate and thrive in the digital age.”

The Foundation’s goal is to foster informed and engaged communities, something it believes is essential in a healthy democracy. To achieve this, they invest in journalism, in the arts, and in the success of cities where brothers John S. and James L. Knight once published newspapers.

Winners will receive a share of the $750,000 in funding, and optional technical support from Microsoft, including mixed-reality coaching, mentorship and technology access and training
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Last year, Knight made a $600,000 investment in twelve projects designed to harness the power of technology to engage people with the arts. Most recently, Knight launched the “On View” podcast, which examines how museums and cultural institutions are evolving to keep pace with a changing world.

In the week since the announcement, the call has attracted quite a lot of attention
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“In just one week’s time, the call for ideas has already garnered immense interest in the arts and technology fields. Our initial informational webinar was booked to capacity – 200 attendees – in just a day,” says Barr. This positive response reflects the momentum around exciting opportunities happening at the intersection of culture and tech. We’re thrilled by this interest and hope to see a wide-range of projects equipping arts institutions to better engage audiences with new technologies.”

Successful projects will address one of the following areas or related concepts:

• Engaging new audiences: How might arts institutions use immersive experiences to better welcome and engage new and diverse audiences?
• Building new service models: How can institutions design pleasant and efficient audience experiences that avoid clunky interactions with technology?
• Expanding beyond walls: In what new ways can arts institutions use immersive immersive technology to reach people beyond their physical space?
• Distribution to multiple institutions: How can immersive experiences become more portable and be presented easily at multiple institutions?

Those interested in applying can do so until August 12 and learn more about it here. Recipients will be announced in late fall 2019.

Those interested in applying can do so until August 12
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Tech Trends offers a broad range of Digital Consultancy services to guide companies, individuals and brands in effectively leveraging existing and emerging technologies in their business strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Engaging Audiences With Immersive Technology appeared first on Tech Trends.

VR didn't do as well in 2018 as many hoped - or expected
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Back in 2012, a starry-eyed young entrepreneur called Palmer Luckey announced a new and improved head-mounted display that would be better than pretty much everything on the market at the time, and affordable for gamers to boot.

For the first time since the early 1990s, virtual reality headsets had sparked the interest of gamers
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He built the first prototype of his VR headset in 2011 and announced it on Kickstarter in 2012. His prototype sparked the interest of ID Software game developer John Carmack who announced that his company’s upcoming game Doom 3 BFG Edition would support the emerging product. For the first time since the early 1990s, virtual reality headsets had sparked the interest of gamers.

We've seen Tupac Shakur and Amy Winehouse take the stage as a hologram at live events after their passing
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Putting a digital layer in front of our eyes is possible in many ways – virtual reality is just one of them. We’ve seen games like Pokémon GO send players hunting virtual monsters in the wild, and we’ve seen Tupac Shakur and Amy Winehouse take the stage as a hologram at live events after their passing. We’ve seen new technologies merging real life with the digital realm… but virtual reality hasn’t taken off as many would have expected it – at least not in the entertainment industry.

Back in 2012, a starry-eyed young entrepreneur called Palmer Luckey announced a new and improved head-mounted display that would be better than pretty much everything on the market
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VR didn’t do as well in 2018 as many hoped – or expected. The two most successful VR headsets – from a sales point of view – were Sony’s PlayStation VR and Oculus Go – these two, together, sold around 1.2 million units last year, with significant growth shown in the fourth quarter of the year. The sales of the other players on the VR market were pretty much flat across the year – the Oculus Rift (the PC tethered version), the Samsung Gear VR, the HTC Vive, and the Vive Focus showed limited sales growth. Gaming continues to be the main driver in VR software sales with sales of around $1.2 billion, while enterprise VR hardware and software have generated sales of around $800 million. According to Nielsen’s SuperData report, VR’s total revenues have grown by 30% compared to 2017, reaching $3.6 billion.

2019 is expected to be an important year for virtual reality due to the introduction of the Oculus Quest
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According to VR/AR boss Stephanie Llamas, 2019 is expected to be an important year for virtual reality due to the introduction of the Oculus Quest. The Android-powered device is one of the first fully standalone VR gaming devices, sporting a Snapdragon 835 SoC, 4GB of RAM, and 64 or 128 GB of internal storage. Its price point is pretty attractive – it costs $399 (the 64GB version) and $499 (the 128GB version). Without the wires physically tethering the gamer to a computer, virtual reality may finally offer the freedom to explore the digital world. And the standalone device without the cost of a high-end gaming PC or a gaming console will make it accessible to a much larger pool of users. This may turn VR from a fad into a growing market segment for the future.

Without the wires physically tethering the gamer to a computer, virtual reality may finally offer the freedom to explore the digital world
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The post VR: Fad or Fiction? appeared first on Tech Trends.

Mindshare UK and Zappar explore how consumers use and interact with AR and what the future holds.

The Mindshare Layered Report reveals that a third (33%) of consumers believe AR would help them to narrow down choices when shopping
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• We are increasingly expecting products and other physical objects to contain additional layers of digital content or information.  In fact, 55% want to be able to point their phone at any object and receive information about it, rising to 74% amongst those who have already experienced AR
• Working with Neuro-Insight, the study also reveals that AR experiences generate almost double (1.9 times) the levels of engagement amongst consumers compared to their non-AR equivalent
• Already consumers are anticipating the potential of AR smart glasses. Over a quarter (26%) of consumers would prefer to experience AR hands-free through smart glasses than through their mobile phone

“Our research shows that AR will evolve from one-off ‘surprise and delight’ moments to provide everyday utility and practical value, right across the consumer journey.  This could include helping people visualise how products look in their home, locating products in-store through wayfinding applications, or getting more out of a product post-purchase through usage guidance,” explains Jeremy Pounder, Futures Director at Mindshare UK

The report identifies four trends that will shape how consumers embrace augmented reality
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“As the AR landscape evolves and matures there’s one certainty, that’s the need for software to build experiences for this new canvas. These are of fundamental importance for brands and content developers to have the opportunity to tell stories, create genuinely worthwhile experiences and provide practical and engaging solutions within the consumer user-journey, says Max Dawes, Marketing & Partnerships Director at Zappar. “We’re in a time where whole sectors, such as product packaging, are being reimagined as always-on media channels.”

From ‘surprise and delight’, to everyday utility

Until now, AR applications have largely been used to give people a bite-sized dose of fun through face filters, games or playful print ad activations
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To understand more fully the brain’s response to AR experiences, in partnership with Neuro-Insight we conducted the first neuroscience research experiment of its kind with over 150 respondents. The study revealed that AR experiences generate almost double (1.9 times) the levels of engagement compared to their non-AR equivalent.  This capacity of AR to ‘surprise and delight’ will endure, as the boundaries of AR are continually pushed.

But there is untapped potential for AR to fulfil wider needs. Our respondents identified a range of currently unfulfilled areas where AR could provide everyday utility, including going to the gym, house buying, on-pack information and DIY tasks.

Brands need to continue to use AR to create immersive brand experiences that truly surprise and delight customers.  But they also need to think about how they can help solve everyday problems in the consumer journey using AR.

Layering

People will start to expect the physical surfaces around them to be embedded with additional layers of interactive content
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Over half (55%) of respondents agreed that ‘it would be a good thing if you could point your phone at any object and get additional information’.

Brands should be thinking about adding extra layers of content to their owned assets:

• They can change a passive touchpoint with huge reach – such as product packaging –  into a fully immersive experience
• If they already have an app with a substantial user base they can amplify the in-app experience through AR
• For bricks and mortar retailers, the in-store environment provides a varied canvas for delivering engagement experiences or customer service through AR

Surfacing

AR will increasingly enable the proactive ‘surfacing’ of personalised, contextual content without the user initiating it
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Over two-thirds (68%) of AR users believe AR would be most useful if it ‘can figure out the right information to show me at the right time all by itself’.

As part of our neuroscience experiment, we found that the part of the brain responsible for memory encoding sees almost three times (2.9 times) the level of activity when using AR versus carrying out the same task without AR.  This indicates that AR may be a particularly powerful way to deliver information that is subsequently retained.

One of the key drivers for content surfacing will be computer vision (machine learning-based image recognition) such as Google Lens. As this technology advances, cameras will be capable of ‘reading’ the environment and making decisions about what content to share with the user.  AR glasses will allow the concept of content surfacing to fully develop.

Brands will need to optimise their content for computer vision, ensuring that when Google Lens identifies their product, content surfaced is the most relevant for the consumer.

Flowing

As Artificial Intelligence ushers in an ‘age of assistance’ and helps life flow more smoothly, AR (and AR smart glasses) will become key tools
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In the next five to ten years we expect a new form of AR glasses to emerge which will enable an always-on scanning of the environment, identifying objects and overlaying related content. Already over 25% of people prefer AR glasses over the mobile phone screen for wayfinding, ‘how-to’ and ‘try before you buy’ experiences. This preference is even stronger amongst people who have already experienced AR.

Irrespective of how quickly AR glasses develop, we expect AR to play a wider role in the consumer journey with 33% of respondents believing AR can help narrow down retail purchase decisions. While AR is currently mostly used for ‘evaluation’ or ‘post-purchase’ stages, there is great opportunity for it to facilitate direct purchase.

The in-depth report on the effects of AR and its future role in society has been created from qualitative self-ethnography/testing of various AR activations; co-creation workshops with consumers; neuroscience testing of the brain’s response to AR, expert interviews (including yours truly) in both the UK and the US as well as a quantitative survey of consumers. You can read the full report here.

Tech Trends’  Virtual Reality Consultancy services offers support for companies looking to enhance brand strategy with immersive technologies such as Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Report: How Brands Must Adapt to the Rise of Augmented Reality appeared first on Tech Trends.

As we get busy opening presents, it’s time to reflect on the past year, and it’s been an amazing one!

2017 was definitely an interesting year for tech, so before we turn our minds towards what 2018 might have in store for us, it’s worth taking a little time to look back at the highlights of the past twelve months.

Tech Trends continued to gain more views and recognition as we build up our audience with what we hope is some decent content that manages to inform without taking itself too seriously.

2017 was definitely an interesting year for tech
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Earlier this year we were named one of the Top 50 virtual reality blogs and have just been nominated for the UK Blog Awards for the second year in a row, which is nice!

Twitter still faces the strange paradox of having its financial future constantly in question while being the medium through which Trump wipes out billions of dollars from corporate valuations
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January brought with it the inevitable start of the Trump presidency, and the crushing realisation of the power of social media. Later we would find out more about how Russian tampered with the democratic process in both the US and UK, by using platforms like Facebook, but nowhere was this impact more evident than on Donald Trump’s preferred soapbox – Twitter, which faced the strange paradox of having its financial future constantly in question while being the medium through which he would wipe out billions of dollars from corporate valuations. Following a piece I wrote about how Twitter should be regarded as a public service, I was interviewed on Canadian Radio about its future which – at the time of writing – looks no clearer than it did back then.

On a happier note, the Tech Trends team had a chance to review a lot of awesome gadgets, software and other products and to travel all over the world this year, starting with our amazing tour of the Orlando Tech Scene where we visited the awesome lab and studio facilities at Full Sail University.

Tech Trends did a whole lot of globe-trotting this year
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Universities like Full Sail are increasingly getting behind the immersive tech revolution, and that’s not only happening in America, as was evident during our recent visit to Birmingham University or in the way that institutions like the University of St Andrews’ used VR to allow people to travel back in time – although maybe not quite in a Doctor Who sort of way. In fact, the power of VR to preserve and bring memories back to life for future generations was the focus of a project we covered with Royal British Legion for Remembrance Day.

Later in 2017 we visited the beautiful Basque Country, got to check out the famous Silicon Slopes of Utah at the Pluralsight Live conference in Salt Lake City and went to Holland to learn how the Dutch are (quite literally) driving innovation in smart mobility tech.

We also met some of the brightest and most entrepreneurial young minds in the world at the Imagine Cup in Seattle, and spent an incredibly hot few days at the Teradata Partners conference in Los Angeles where we saw how Big Data can also be Beautiful with an exhibition dedicated to data visualization.

From seeing the latest Mixed Reality Tech unveiled at Microsoft Build and checking out the latest EdTech at the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai, to hosting a discussion on how Mixed Reality has the potential to transform the way we learn at the START Summit in Switzerland, we certainly had our share of awesome conferences in 2017.

We were guests of HP at the Cannes Film Festival and found time to check out the Raindance VR Arcade for the second year in a row, and saw how it is now possible to 3D Print Designer furniture at a pop-up shop in Manhattan. Later in the year we also went back to take another bite of the Big Apple during NYVR Expo

Not all our travels took us that far, but that doesn’t mean they were any less interesting. It was amazing to go to Bestival and Reading festivals to have our infinity 360 degree selfies taken at the Samsung Hypercube, or find out how crowdfunding is helping to power the economy in Cornwall, and even see how home-grown cosmetics company Lush was embracing the digital revolution.

That last one still counts as one of the craziest events I’ve been to anywhere; It’s not every day, after all, that you can see Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn making a bath bomb and Brian May from Queen hurtling down a slide on the same day…

It was more inspiring than ever to see all the ways that technology makes a real difference in people’s lives, from helping refugees get an education to celebrating diversity, even though episodes such as the Google Memo debacle served as a sharp and foul-tasting reminder that there’s still a long way to go if we are to make the tech industry itself more inclusive.

Data was a big theme throughout 2017, and it was fascinating to wrap up the year with a visit to Mozilla’s bold installation in London, aimed at educating people about what is actually being done with their data, and encourage us all to be more proactive about safeguarding our rights and privacy.

2017 was also a momentum-gathering year for Social VR, as many platforms like Linden Lab’s Sansar were finally unveiled to the public, and instantly started to foster some incredible creative content from the community, as I’ve seen first-hand when judging their Halloween experiences competition in October.

We also saw how Mixed Reality is being used to train surgeons, and even Astronauts, witnessed the power of VR experiences to generate empathy and change people’s minds, saw how tech is enabling new forms of artistic expression, engaging young people with politics, or climb mountains in virtual reality.

And having the chance to interview HoloLens creator Alex Kipman about his vision for  the future of computing and how Microsoft developed its groundbreaking immersive sound technology was definitely one of the high points of the year for me. 2018 is definitely looking like the year of Mixed Reality, and we can’t wait to see the shape that takes.

Interviewing HoloLens creator Alex Kipman was definitely one of the highlights of the year for me
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So thank you to all our readers for giving us the excuse to see and talk about these things, and we hope to continue to be your guide through the weird and wonderful world of tech in the new year and for many years to come. As we continue to grow and welcome a stellar host of new contributors on board, there are exciting times ahead, and we hope you will join us on that journey.

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Tech Trends Team & mascots!

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post #MerryChristmas From Tech Trends! appeared first on Tech Trends.

Tech Trends report from Deloitte shows how technologies such as Mixed Reality are being adopted by industry. 

The Technology in the mid-market: Closing the gap report details the results of a survey of technology impact among private mid-size companies in the U.S. According to Deloitte, this mid-market is under-reported, but its size and relevance to the economy is significant– roughly 34% of the U.S. workforce and revenue totals $3.2 trillion, which equals it to the world’s 4^th largest economy.

Over half of respondents have ongoing or planned AR/ VR projects
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The survey results showed how companies are deploying emerging technologies and what benefits they can have for them in terms of growth, productivity, governance, recruiting and many other areas. It spans various emerging verticals and themes, including how robotics and MI are preventing mechanical failures and providing cost-savings in the construction industry, and how cloud is helping US biopharma reach clients across the globe.

Emerging technologies create new ways of engaging employees and interacting with customers
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Immersive Technologies on the Rise

More than half of the respondents report their companies have AR/ VR pilot projects in the works or already begun, while a third say they have already graduated to deployment stage. Two-thirds of respondents said their companies were experimenting, building, or had developed mature applications of mixed reality technology. Among specific sectors, energy firms are amongst the ones investing most heavily in such projects.

While virtual reality adoption is still maturing, the business gains are real
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Respondents say mixed-reality technologies are proving particularly useful in employee learning and operations-related tasks, with consumer products and financial services firms most likely to use virtual and augmented reality for training programs. Technology and consumer products firms, meanwhile, were most likely to apply virtual and augmented reality to tasks involving technicians, warehouse workers, or advanced machinery.

Two thirds of mid-sized companies are building Mixed Reality applications
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Firms that are using these technologies say growing numbers of customers see the value in such investments. David Anderson, SVP and CIO at the global engineering firm CH2M, says clients who are developing “smart cities” recognize how machine intelligence can revolutionize traffic and transportation management.

“The P3 (private, public partnership) environment understands it,” Anderson says. “Economic development officials are envisioning the art of the possible during the project definition phase and understand the potential use of sensor technologies to forecast traffic patterns, gauge business activity, and plan for consumer flows. It’s a matter of recognizing what technology.”

We asked Deloitte’s Anthony Stephan what growth – both in terms of interest and investment – they had observed in the past year regarding the adoption of immersive technologies such as AR/VR/MR in business. He told us that the survey data proves that companies in this market segment see the return on investment with emerging technologies and the excitement is building for mixed reality in the workplace.

“While virtual reality adoption is still maturing, the business gains are, in fact, real. The overall investment in tech for mid-market and private companies is up, and continuing to rise year over year, with 69 percent of companies report a higher tech spend this year from 2016.”

Stephan, who is principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP and U.S. technology strategy, adds that there are many use cases to explore with mixed reality in business, and a big win is helping employees with continuous learning and growth in their job.

“Our data shows that 53 percent of mid-market and private companies surveyed place employee training, education and learning at the top of the list for using mixed reality. Looking ahead, we can see this type of emerging technology creating a new way of engaging employees and interacting with customers.”

Stephan concludes that there is no evidence of investments in emerging technology slowing down. In fact, their findings suggest that mid-market companies are spending at a higher rate on average, on technology (mid-market companies spend on average 3.9 percent versus companies over a billion dollars are spending 3.1 percent)

“For mixed reality, 53 percent of mid-market and private companies surveyed already have AR/VR pilot projects, and 67 percent are building, experimenting or have already developed mature applications. We expect even broader adoption over the next several years.”

Mixed Reality is proving particularly useful in employee learning and operations-related tasks
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Key findings of the report show that:

• Businesses are increasingly focused on using breakthrough technologies to attract customers and understand their behavior.
• More than 50% of mid-sized companies have AR/VR pilot projects in the works
• While Analytics and cloud solutions remain top priorities in the IT agenda, most companies have started putting other breakthrough technologies such as blockchain and mixed reality on their radar.
• 2/3 of mid-sized companies are building mature applications of mixed reality
• Organizations are increasingly seeing value in aligning their business and technology requirements more closely.
• C-suite dynamics are shifting, bringing much closer collaboration between IT and business leaders
• Respondents recognize that a wide spectrum of technology-related trends are yielding productivity gains, and are increasing their IT budgets to implement them
• 54% of mid-sized companies are using cognitive interpretation to turn images and text into data they can use
• Companies have become much more comfortable maintaining security around cloud integration and mobility
• Fifty-two percent of respondents replied that they’re using mixed reality for employee training, education and learning
• 41% of respondents are using cloud-based applications to enable global expansion – up from 34% last year, and 51% are leveraging cloud to address growth needs.

Growing numbers of customers see the value in such emerging technology investments
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Tech Trends’  Virtual Reality Consultancy services offers support for companies looking to get a foothold in the growing Mixed Reality spectrum and enhance their brand strategy with immersive technologies. 

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Report: Impact of Emerging Technologies on Business appeared first on Tech Trends.

Humans have always used technology to tell stories, so does VR actually change anything?

Few things have the power to catapult you back in time quite as quickly as the stuff you played with as a child, so when I accidentally wandered into San Francisco’s Musée Mécanique with my husband, it instantly felt like home. Just a really weird version of it.

The place was crammed with hundreds of vintage arcade and fun fair machines of every description, all fully functional and many of which — as the signs helpfully point out — “older than you’ll ever be”.

The signs point out that these machines are older than you’ll ever be
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Some, like the Indiana Jones Pinball machine, Alien Bug Hunt and Star Warsflight simulator were exactly the same as what we used to play. Others, likeAsteroids, Pong and Pac-Man peaked slightly before our time but were so iconic as to instantly resonate, especially when the music and sound effects kick in.

Humans have always used technology to tell stories
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A few, however, were just plain creepy. I shared a moment of fascination with a little girl as she watched a marionette of a crying baby being held up by another doll — nothing actually happened apart from the watching girl getting increasingly freaked out — and with another quarter I bought a drink for the aptly named “Drinking Man”– the machine featuring a large doll of a drunkard that was specially commissioned to “reflect a favourite English pastime — an evening at the Pub”.

The machine was commissioned to reflect the favourite English pastime — an evening at the Pub
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Walk a bit further and you are confronted with “The Flasher” which gives you lewd, raised-eyebrow looks before starting to lift his shirt… I moved on swiftly at that point, to have my fortune told by a gypsy in a machine straight from the movie Big and to giggle at the dubiously named “Bimbo Box”.

#WTF??

What really caught my eye though, was the number of relatively unassuming machines featuring stereoscopic photographs. These have been around since the 19th Century and were early attempts at taking and displaying images in 3D. (Fun fact: Queen guitarist Brian May is one of the world’s greatest collectors of this type of material, so much so that he bought and now runs the London Stereoscopic Company. )

Brian May from Queen is one of the worlds greatest collectors of stereoscopic photographs
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I had been thinking about Virtual Reality a lot, since I was in San Francisco interviewing companies about the exciting present and future of the technology. So looking at all those Victorian VR machines — where you can view photos of the great fire which followed the 1906 earthquake, or even indulge in some naughty voyeurism watching models undress — it struck me that we’re forever trying to stretch the limits of what technology can do to bring human imagination to life.

Humans are always stretching the limits of technology when it comes to bringing our creative visions to life
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As Jeremy Bailenson, a Stanford Professor who has researched Virtual Reality for over a decade points out:

“Virtual reality is nothing new. It’s just a new label… throughout human history people have put media to work to enhance mind-wandering. All along, we’ve combined arts and science to produce these mind-wandering tools.”

As with most things, we can probably do a lot better going forward if we learn the lessons from the past, and technology is no different. The problem is that we tend to treat old technology as disposable; something that becomes instantly worthless the moment something better, faster and shinier comes along. There is often very little study of what made those earlier versions succeed or fail, and I believe that those looking to finally make Virtual Reality a pervasive technology would do well to consider this. In the past decades we’ve seen exciting developments in VR technology fizzle out because they turned out to be no more than gimmicks, and gimmicks wear out fast.

We tend to treat old technology as disposable; something that becomes instantly worthless the moment something better, faster and shinier comes along

Funnily enough, some of those fun fair machines were better at telling stories than much of the fancy stuff that followed, and the sheer amount of quarters we left behind at the museum is a testament to how effective those experiences still are. If the stories and the context are interesting enough, your brain makes up the difference, otherwise nobody would ever read a book. And as any Star Wars fan will tell you, the secret sauce is not a ton of special effects, it’s the story. That’s why most people (with any sense) vastly prefer the earlier films to the later ones *

Those funfair machines were better at telling stories than much of the fancy stuff that followed, and the sheer amount of quarters we left behind is a testament to how effective those experiences still are
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The secret sauce lies not in special effects, but in the story
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Looking at Virtual Reality technology, I have no doubt we’re in a position to do many amazing things. Whether your average person chooses to engage with those experiences, however, will entirely depend on the stories we tell with the medium, which is why it’s too early to make that call until we see what content actually gets made. The early signs are good though, with developers thinking beyond gaming to applications of VR in education, healthcare, and yes, even pornography. As we’ve seen with the growth curve of the Internet and Mobile, it is only when the entire spectrum of human experience is catered for and titillated by a technology that it really takes off. If it cracks this, VR could well be next.

Only when a technology caters for the entire spectrum of human experience does it really take off
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*Arguably the latest installment in the Star Wars saga manages the coup of bringing together both elements, but I’ll leave that question open to discussion.

For companies looking to get into VR/AR/MR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance on how these technologies can enhance and support your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Back to the Future: How Virtual Reality is Nothing New appeared first on Tech Trends.